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CalCoastNews attorneys file anti-SLAPP motion in libel suit over hazardous waste story

September 16, 2013
Charles Tenborg

Charles Tenborg

Attorneys for CalCoastNews filed a motion Friday to dismiss a libel suit brought by the head of a hazardous waste management service in Arroyo Grande. Charles Tenborg sued CalCoastNews chief Karen Velie and reporter Daniel Blackburn for publishing an article about irregularities in the transportation of hazardous wastes in San Luis Obispo County.

The story, “Hazardous waste chief skirts law,” reported, among other things, that Eco Solutions, the company that Tenborg heads, was not licensed to carry hazardous wastes. The story included information gathered from government documents and interviews with about a dozen persons involved in the disposal of hazardous waste in the county.

Tenborg sued, saying that the article included information that was not correct and deliberate misstatements damaging to his reputation.

CalCoastNews’ attorneys Thomas R. Burke, Jeanne M. Sheahan and Bruce E.H. Johnson of the Davis Wright Tremaine law firm filed their anti-SLAPP motion under a California law designed to prevent people from using lawsuits to stifle discussion and coverage of public issues.

“CalCoastNews’ reporting is absolutely privileged as a matter of law under the Civil Code because it accurately reported on the unlawful transportation of hazardous waste by Eco Solutions, Plaintiff’s company,” the motion says.

Tenborg’s suit was an attempt to both silence and punish CalCoastNews, the motion says.

The story, published on the CalCoastNews website in Nov. 2011, laid out problems with hazardous waste transportation following more than a year of investigation that included a review of state law on hazardous waste, searches through public records from both the state of California as well as San Luis Obispo city and county. Their investigation included interviews with Tenborg, William Worrell, the head of the Integrated Waste Management Authority, ECO Solutions employees and city and county employees.

The chief allegation in Tenborg’s libel claim was that CalCoastNews reported that his company was not properly licensed to haul the waste. That statement is protected as it was discovered to be information made public in the course of an agency meeting, the motion says. Velie received a copy of the notes from that meeting of the city of San Luis Obispo’s Stormwater Management team.

A hearing on the motion is set for Oct. 16.

This is the second defamation case that CalCoastNews or an affiliate has had to face in the past year. Dee Torres, director of homeless services for Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo (CAPSLO), lost her slander suit against Mike Brennler, a private investigator who had been working with CalCoastNews on news articles about abuses of the homeless.

Brennler’s attorney Stew Jenkins filed an anti-SLAPP motion and Superior Court Judge Barry LaBarbera dismissed her suit on Sept. 6. Judge LaBarbera concluded that Torres was a public figure involved in a matter of public interest, the treatment of homeless persons in San Luis Obispo County. The judge concluded that because Torres was not likely to prevail in her suit, that the case should be dismissed.


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I am so glad CCN has taken an aggressive stance with this bogus lawsuit. For some opponents, that is the only thing they can understand.


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Gee, is this simply an amazing confluence of fortuitous events? Mr. Supervisor himself, Adam Hill, is on the board of the Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA), a key player in this lawsuit, and also is engaged to CAPSLO’s Dee Torres. Hill’s fingerprints are all over both of these lawsuits. Wonder why.


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Don’t even get me started on IWMA.


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I just have to say thanks to CCN. If it were up to The Tribune this kind of news of misconduct would never see daylight. Keep up the great work!


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Well no wonder why “The Tribune” doesn’t do “In Depth” reporting…!

Leaves it up to CCN…


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Perhaps CalCoastNews will be able to fund itself from the proceeds of continual litigation. This may be a new business model for online news media.


Interesting, indeed!


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WiserGuysays: “Perhaps CalCoastNews will be able to fund itself from the proceeds of continual litigation.”


Troll 1/10


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If you keep uncovering this stuff, it is going to make it harder and harder to fleece the public coffers for these people! Come on, he even has “eco” in the name: that alone should get all the environmentalists rallied to his cause without so much as a single, original thought of their own!


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I believe that Thomas Burke is considered to be the top First Amendment attorney on the West Coast. This is going to get interesting.


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Where is the money coming from to pay for Mr. Burke’s services? THAT is part of what is “interesting”.


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WiserGuy says: “Where is the money coming from”


Again anonymous commenter want’s real names?


Also why would anyone out themselves, with the Obispo cyber committee of vigilance active on the tribs topix and else ware.


Start with your name.


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Why are you giving me a hard time? I posed a legitimate and relevant and interesting question.


What is YOUR point?


Aren’t YOU the least curious?


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By the way, I don’t “have a dog in this fight.” If CalCoastNews has done the right thing and its reporting is fair and accurate, I truly hope CCN prevails.


If the case goes to trial it should be, as Dave Congalton likes to say, “interesting.”


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Yet you do with your continued use of coached words to share the possibility’s.


For example “If CalCoastNews has done the right thing and its reporting is fair and accurate”


If wiserguy has done the right thing and not stolen from his employer and has not abused his dog.


It is a conversational troll to cause a reader to consider the possibility.


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The point is you are a hypocrite to hide yourself yet you keep asking for names.


Asking where the money is from and who may be paying is a giant troll to expose people to community repercussions, the same reason you are hiding.

Also none of your business. If someone want to step foreword they will.


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Here’s a tip for dealing with the Topix-type gang-attack postings….


In these types of gang attacks, the posts are almost always strictly straight-forward personal attacks. For instance, they call you a liar, but never describe what the lies are. In my case, they focused on discrediting my opinions by calling me a liar.


So I thought, what opinions have I been aggressively posting, and what person or special interest group information have my posts been in response to.


Adam Hill, Dee Torres, and the lawsuit have been the biggest topics lately. And Hill is the only really stupidly vindictive politician in the news at this time, at least locally, to my knowledge.


Really, the posts attacking Karen Velie, and now me, at Topix are so stupid and childish, I knew there wasn’t a rocket-scientist behind these posts.


It seemed obvious it must be an Adam Hill and/or Dee Torres backer who is orchestrating these posts. The fact that apparently the same posters have been attacking Karen Velie for months just made my guess more likely to be correct.


Once those things were figured out, it was easy to come up with a plan. My plan was to include some of the vat of negative information about Torres and Hill in the majority of my replies to the attackers’ posts. If the attacking posters were really working to diffuse the already-published information about the myriad scandals and improprieties swirling around Hill/Torres, the last thing they want is to have their own posts stimulate the negative info about Hill/Torres being brought up again.


So that is what I did. I started adding info about Hill/Torres in most of my replies, with the lead in like, “If you want to pitch a fit about something…”


The attacking posts have stopped.


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If Tenborg loses–like Dee Torres lost in her lawsuit against Mike Brennler–then Tenborg will likely end up paying for CCN’s court costs, legal fees, etc.


Isn’t interesting how Adam Hill seems to have such connections in lawsuits against CCN and/or its associates?


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I believe that Thomas Burke is considered to be the top First Amendment attorney on the West Coast.

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No such thing. The law is the law. Anyone skilled in the practice can do it.


And what’s interesting is that a guy claims he’s been defamed so what’s he do? Sue which means publish the defamation himself about 5 more times.


Undoubtedly, this lawsuit will stick in people’s minds much more than an article 6 months ago.


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You’ve been eating too much chocolate apparently if you honestly believe all lawyers are the same. Thomas Burke is legendary in First Amendment because he’s the first attorney to devise the anti-SLAPP strategy, i.e. this guy wrote the book. The fact that he’s representing CCN is huge. Very impressive. Watch what happens in October!


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You’ve been eating too much chocolate apparently if you honestly believe all lawyers are the same.

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First, chocolate is very high in antioxidants and is well known to soften and widen the blood vessels for a couple of hours after consumption which would increase thinking skills not decrease them. Maybe you should try some? Secondly, I never said all lawyers are the same. Again, in need of some chocolate? Thirdly, this is what is known as law and motion. This isn’t a trial where a fast talking lawyer can dupe ignorant jurors. In law and motion all you can do is cite the law and the pleadings. And any skilled lawyer knows how to cite the law and the pleadings. As an analogy, what you are suggesting is that one skilled engineer can do calculations given to him/her better than another engineer, when the obvious answer is that any skilled engineer can do the calculations.


Thomas Burke is legendary in First Amendment because he’s the first attorney to devise the anti-SLAPP strategy, i.e. this guy wrote the book.

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Legendary? Funny. Take a poll. Guaranteed 99,999 out of 100,000 people have never heard of him. I’ve never heard of him until today.


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Do we know how it came to be that Thomas Burke is representing CalCoastNews? And what are the financial arrangements? Is there a third party funding this action?


Dave, maybe if you have Thomas Burke as a guest on your show, you can pose these questions.


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What business is it of yours – exactly – whom this company uses or how it pays for it to defend itself from a lawsuit?


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WiserGuy: Give it up! It is no damn business of yours or anyone else who a lawyer represents, why, or how much he is charging. Lots of attorney donate to a cause, or have a friend, relative or other connection. We all know that CCN has a fine reputation, takes on causes and maybe this is a little karma payback for them. But again, in the end, it is none of your damn business or get off the donkey and feed it! If you would like to send a donation to Karen feel free to follow the direction on this site, as I’m sure it would be appreciated. Your welcome…


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SLOBIRD says: “But again, in the end, it is none of your damn business or get off the donkey and feed it! ”


Yes! Get off the donkey and feed it!


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Burke certainly sounds like an impressive lawyer. However, reading comprehension skills are important (“Burke actually wrote the anti-SLAPP legislation.”) Here’s what it says: “Wrote Anti-SLAPP Litigation (2013 The Rutter Group), the first comprehensive, practical guide to litigation under California’s anti-SLAPP statute, enacted to protect petitioning and free speech activities.”


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It’s like the difference between writing the Constitution and writing a book about the Constitution.


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Yes, it should be interesting. The plaintiff’s law firm: http://www.kerrwagstaffe.com/attorneys/james-m-wagstaffe/


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If you do not like a story or an accusation just sue! (regardless of the facts)


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First Torres and now this guy. For the LOVE OF GOD CCN, stop reporting the news you’re making these people look bad. For criminy sakes can’t we go back to a time when this went unreported and these guys could get by doing whatever the hell they wanted, without the worry of the truth getting in the way??


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