Star Tribune
Dispute between Blaine councilmember, Muslim affairs group hurtles forward with new defamation suit
The Council on American-Islamic Relations and Blaine’s first Muslim city councilmember are locked in an ongoing, bitter legal dispute that has seen accusations lobbed ranging from defamation to cyberstalking and Islamophobic extremism.
Lori Saroya, a former senior leader with the national Muslim advocacy group and now the first Muslim to serve on Blaine’s city council, sued CAIR in federal court in Minnesota earlier this week — nearly two years after CAIR dismissed its own federal defamation suit against her.
Saroya’s new lawsuit is in response to a January 2022 press release from CAIR’s national board in which the group accused Saroya of using anonymous email and social media accounts to harass CAIR employees and spread “Islamophobic tropes and conspiracy theories” about the organization.
In a civil complaint filed this week, Saroya called CAIR’s accusations of cyberstalking “outrageously false.”
“CAIR did so as part of a concerted effort to blacken her reputation, destroy her credibility, and silence her and others who have raised serious concerns about CAIR’s abuse of women, dishonest practices, and violations of civil rights, among others,” wrote Steven Kerbaugh, an attorney for Saroya.
Saroya was sworn in last year as the first Muslim and woman of color to serve on the city council in Blaine, a northern suburb of the Twin Cities. She previously led CAIR’s Minnesota chapter from 2007 to 2016 and later worked in its national office as a national chapter development director and board member before resigning in 2018.
Her CAIR exit, she said, came after she urged the organization to investigate sex assault and harassment allegations against several leaders, including one who Saroya said “engaged in a pattern of unwelcome and highlight inappropriate conduct” towards her. Saroya has also publicly accused CAIR of discrimination, retaliating against staffers who tried to unionize, using non-disclosure agreements to stifle misconduct allegations, and financial mismanagement.
According to her lawsuit, Saroya was owed back wages after resigning and CAIR offered on multiple occasions to pay her on the condition that she not make negative statements about her former employer.
The civil rights group sued Saroya in 2021, accusing her of waging “a systemic and continuous internet smear campaign designed to damage [CAIR’s] reputation and to cause it severe economic harm.” The lawsuit also said that Saroya “voluntarily resigned” from CAIR after a female staffer accused Saroya of “harassing her to such a degree that the female staffer was contemplating seeking a restraining order.”
Messages were left seeking comment from Saroya.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for CAIR’s national headquarters referred to its original January 2022 press release.
While defending against CAIR’s defamation suit, Saroya sought discovery information regarding CAIR’s donor lists and documents she said would outline an “extensive history of engaging in religious and gender discrimination, sexual misconduct and harassment, and retaliation within the national organization and its local chapters.”
CAIR moved to dismiss its lawsuit in December 2021 after U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson ordered it to file a new complaint specifying defamation allegations that were legally actionable and not outside a statute of limitations.
In its 2022 press release, CAIR’s national board described its decision to drop the suit as a measure taken to “get out of the mud with Lori and her anti-Muslim allies.” CAIR said it was unwilling to let Saroya use the litigation’s discovery process to overwhelm CAIR chapters, drain resources and demand the names of CAIR donors – all information CAIR said “anti-Muslim groups” long wanted to acquire. The group characterized the dispute as Islamophobic extremists dividing and conquering the community from within “by using us, Muslim Americans, against each other.”
Saroya, in this week’s new complaint, said that the press release prompted online harassment and bullying that caused her to fear for her physical safety and stop attending her mosque. She said she was asked about the press release at several job interviews and not offered a job with any employer who mentioned the press release.
She said her opponent in the Blaine city council race that year also used the press release “to attack her and question her suitability for public office.”
Saroya’s lawsuit alleges defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She is seeking at least $75,000 in compensation and an injunction forcing CAIR to retract its press release and remove it from any public spaces.
Star Tribune
Sentencing set for Monday morning for a Minnesota man who was drunk and speeding when he hit a woman’s SUV and killed her.
A man with a history of driving drunk received a four-year term Monday for being intoxicated and speeding when he hit a woman’s SUV on a southern Minnesota highway and killed her.
John R. Deleo, 54, of Lake Crystal, Minn., was sentenced in Brown County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash on Aug. 17, 2023, in New Ulm at Hwy. 68 and S. 15th Street that killed 82-year-old Sharon A. Portner, of New Ulm.
With credit for the two days he was in jail after his arrest, Deleo is expected to serve the first 2⅔ years years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
A week ahead of sentencing, defense attorney James Kuettner asked the court to spare his client prison and put him on probation for up to five years.
Kuettner pointed out in his filing that Deleo stayed at the crash scene and attempted “to aid Portner, and he left [her] side only when directed to by law enforcement.”
The attorney also noted that Deleo has been sober since the crash, and therefore, at a particularly low risk for reoffending.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police arrived to find the two damaged vehicles near 15th and S. Broadway streets. Emergency responders took Portner to New Ulm Medical Center, where she died that day.
ROCHESTER – The defense for Shane Roper, the former state trooper charged for his role in a crash that killed Owatonna teenager Olivia Flores, has asked the court to dismiss eight of the nine charges against him.
In a motion filed Oct. 24, Roper’s attorneys said the state has “failed to meet its burden of offering direct evidence tending to demonstrate that [Roper’s] actions, or negligence, were the proximate cause of death or bodily harm.”
Roper, 32, faces nine criminal charges related to the May 18 crash, including felony charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide. Both charges carry maximum sentences of 10 years in jail.
The only charge the defense did not ask to have dismissed is a misdemeanor for careless driving, which carries a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail.
Among the other requests made to the court, Roper’s defense asked for a change of venue outside of Olmsted County, citing the extensive media coverage of the case. The defense said “jury pools have surely been tainted and a fair trial cannot be had” in the county.
Roper’s attorney, Eric Nelson of Halberg Criminal Defense, also argued that any evidence related to Roper’s prior speeding or traffic incidents should be precluded as evidence in the case.
In the five years leading up to the crash, Roper had been disciplined by the State Patrol on four separate occasions for careless or reckless driving, including a February 2019 crash that injured another officer.
District Judge Christa Daily has not responded to the motions. Roper is scheduled to be back in court Nov. 21 for a pretrial settlement conference.
Star Tribune
Who is comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who insulted Puerto Rico at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally?
NEW YORK — Of the nearly 30 speakers who recently warmed up the crowd for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe got the most attention for racist remarks.
”I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” he said, later including lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jewish and Black people.
The comments have led to condemnation from Democrats and Puerto Rican celebrities, with Ricky Martin sharing a clip of Hinchcliffe’s set, captioned: “This is what they think of us.”
The Trump campaign took the rare step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe. ”This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement.
Here’s what to know about Hinchcliffe, his comedic styling and the response to his Madision Square Garden comments.
Hinchcliffe, raised in Youngstown, Ohio, is a stand-up comedian who specializes in the roast style, in which comedians take the podium to needle a celebrity victim with personal and often tasteless jokes. He has written and appeared on eight Comedy Central Roasts, including ones for Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady.
Even fellow comedians aren’t immune. At the Snoop Dogg roast, Hichcliffe made a joke referencing comedian Luenell, who is Black, being on the Underground Railroad. Of the honoree, he said: ”Snoop, you look like the California Raisin that got hooked on heroin.”
