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Ex-mayor sues mayor and Greenfield, claiming libel, defamation
The skirmish began over concealed guns. Now Larry Plack accuses Jill Krout and others of harassment and other misdeeds.
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First came the guns. Now, the lawsuits.
In the latest salvo in the ongoing political skirmishes in the small town of Greenfield, former Mayor Larry Plack this week filed a defamation suit against the city, Mayor Jill Krout and other political opponents.
Plack pulls no punches in his suit, accusing Krout and others of libel, slander, harassment, malfeasance, data privacy violations, civil rights violations and other misdeeds.
The filing comes weeks after Krout, according to the lawsuit, apparently tried to have Plack removed from the city's Charter Commission, which he chairs.
And it comes a month after questions and allegations were raised around the western Hennepin County city about current and former city officials carrying concealed guns into City Council meetings.
In his suit, Plack -- who was defeated in his bid for re-election in 2006 -- names as defendants the city of Greenfield, Krout, Charter Commission Member Bruce Rawlings and the Farmers State Bank of Hamel.
Plack alleges that Krout, Rawlings and other city officials have slandered and libeled him during public meetings and hearings since he left office in 2007.
The most recent attacks, the suit claims, came this month at a Feb. 3 City Council meeting where Krout and others accused him of open meeting violations and called him "one of the least fit persons to be on the Charter Commission."
"During a 'public comment' time ... defendant Krout orchestrated a 40-minute slanderous discussion about plaintiff even though plaintiff was not in attendance," the suit alleges.
City will defend itself
Greenfield City Administrator Brad Johnson said the city has received the lawsuit. He said that he could not comment on the particulars, but that "the city plans to defend itself vigorously."
That was echoed by Krout, who figures prominently in the suit filed in Hennepin County District Court. "I am not focused on this latest distraction," Krout said Thursday. "My focus is on serving the city of Greenfield."
In the suit Plack also alleges that Krout and others disclosed private financial and personal data during the past two years that have embarrassed him.
Plack is seeking at least $50,000 in damages from each defendant, including the Farmers State Bank of Hamel, which he claims last year released private financial data about him.
In the suit, Plack said he went to the bank last fall to seek a loan to pay taxes and other debts. After talking at length with a loan officer, he decided not to pursue a loan. The suit says that private financial information he disclosed to the bank then showed up in a letter Plack said Krout sent to the Hennepin County chief judge this month asking that Plack be removed from the Charter Commission.
Bank denies wrongdoing
Shorty Dorweiler, chief executive officer at Farmers, on Thursday denied that the bank did anything wrong and said that he expected the bank to be dismissed from the lawsuit. "At no time did Farmers State Bank of Hamel release any financial information of the plaintiff," he said. He refused to answer other questions.
Plack says he stayed away from city politics in 2007. But, he says in the suit, he was drawn back in January 2008 when he started listening to meetings of the Charter Commission, of which Krout and Rawlings are members.
"Defendants would slander plaintiff during the charter meetings with numerous inferences of wrongdoing, lying, improper spending, illegal purchases, name calling, false criminal allegations and false accusations of intimidation," Plack says in the suit.
Heron Marquez Estrada • 612-673-4280
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