Lawyer vows he’ll appeal
Morgan Hill – A Superior Court judge granted Wednesday, the motion of the city of Morgan Hill to dismiss the First Amendment lawsuit of local attorney Bruce Tichinin.
The suit claims denial of Tichinin’s constitutional rights in July 2004, when the city publicly condemned him for surveillance of City Manager Ed Tewes, saying Tichinin could be disciplined as an attorney.
“I am disappointed, but undaunted,” said Tichinin, who has often sued the city for clients over the last 30 years. “I have won the majority of those cases, but usually on appeal.”
The question before the court was whether the city was exercising its constitutional right of free speech or instead was preventing Tichinin from exercising his constitutional right to petition for redress of grievances in a court of law.
Tichinin said he conducted the surveillance as research for a client’s case.
Judge William Elfying upheld the city’s First Amendment rights while finding there was no legitimate connection between Tichinin’s surveillance activities and his rights under the Constitution.
City Councilman and Mayor-elect Steve Tate called Elfying’s decision “good news” and said it was time for both parties to “move on” after a local soap opera of alleged affairs, espionage and public rebukes.
As part of the fallout from the tangled case, former City Attorney Helene Leichter – who had been accused of having an intimate affair with Tewes – gave her resignation in 2005 after the city agreed to pay her $230,000 in a settlement.
Tichinin’s lawsuit stems from a land-use dispute three years ago. Tichinin was representing a landowner who wanted to build more homes, but the city denied his application.
A legal challenge to the city’s decision followed, unsuccessfully. At the same time, rumors swirled of an intimate affair between Tewes and Leichter that Tichinin said may have compromised his business with the city. He hired a private investigator to follow Tewes.
Jarred by news of a private investigator trailing Tewes to Southern California, the city council launched an investigation into the matter and subsequently expressed its disappointment over Tichinin’s actions.
Tewes and Leichter are both married. They’ve each claimed to have suffered personally from the matter.
Tichinin raised the point that in court-ordered depositions, Mayor Dennis Kennedy, and city councilmembers Steve Tate, Larry Carr and Greg Sellers all admitted they had no information that Tichinin had committed any “legal wrongs” when they refused his demand to so admit publicly.
But an attorney representing the city said it was never the city council’s intention to prove crimes.
“It really was not important to the city council whether or not a crime had actually been committed,” said attorney Tim Schmal. “What the city’s investigation determined was that Tichinin was out of bounds and over the line in his behavior.”
