Civil lawsuit for damage done during George Floyd protests dropped against 90 defendants

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https://www.fox19.com/2021/01/15/civil-lawsuit-damage-done-during-george-floyd-protests-dropped-against-defendants/

 

 

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CINCINNATI (FOX19) - A lawsuit filed on behalf of a Downtown Cincinnati condominium unit owners association has been dropped less than a month after the first court appearance.

Attorney William Blessing filed a motion to dismiss for Court Street Executive Suites, the plaintiff, on Jan. 11.

The initial complaint accused 90 people allegedly involved in the late-May protests of aiding and abetting damage done throughout the city.

The defendants were selected based on arrest records in the aftermath of the protests, according to Blessing.

 

The suit was brought as a class action on behalf of businesses “looted, vandalized, broken into, damaged, defaced or destroyed” in the West End, Clifton Heights, University Heights and Fairview as well as Downtown Cincinnati and Over-the-Rhine.

It sought both compensatory and punitive damages.

Blessing told FOX19 NOW in October, when he announced the suit, that the class could recover damages in the form of insurance coverage.

 

According to court records, Blessing is a member of the HOA and, according to Ohio Secretary of State filings, he is also its director, which at least one motion argued was itself grounds for summary judgement.

 

The parties met with a common pleas judge for an initial case management conference Dec. 28. By then, case documents show the suit had already taken a bitter turn, with one motion characterizing it as “a travesty” and a waste of time.

The HOA came out swinging in the complaint, saying each defendant “participated, aided and abetted, ratified, tacitly consented, and promoted a pattern of riotous conduct,” as well as “connived and acted to encourage […] the violence and destruction of property that was perpetrated.”

The HOA’s complaint did not provide specifics — not on the acts of damage, who performed them, what damage was done, when it was discovered and what proof of it exists.

Some defendants answered the HOA was simply mistaken, that their arrests (in one instance, for a concealed weapon) were not related to the so-called riots.

 

Otherwise, motions to dismiss were plentiful and strident. Most accused the HOA of substituting spurious legal conclusions on rioting and conspiracy for actual facts — that is, for lacking “proof, evidence, basis or even a hunch that Defendants caused any injury to its property.”

A motion for summary judgement argued (bold in the original:) “This lawsuit is a baseless, hopeless and disgusting attempt punish those who spoke out against police brutality and racial inequality for their views. There is NO evidence, none whatsoever, that any of these individuals committed or participated in any property damage.”

 

The same motion continued: “The HOA at most claims that some people, not these Defendants, took harmful actions against some other people, not this HOA. This is hardly enough to demonstrate that Defendants committed a criminal act which caused damage to the HOA’s property, and the HOA’s claim therefore lacks the requisite statutory elements.”

Blessing replied to the motions through Dec. 29.

 

On the accusation of racism in the motion quoted above, he called out the “base epithets” he said are “increasingly in use across the nation.”

He wrote: “This is a blatant attempt (to) impugn character and to inject crude, street-level incivility into what should be a respectful, balanced and professional setting.”

Then Blessing imposed upon the court to “protect the integrity of the judicial process,” to unequivocally condemn this sort of harassment, and to sanction lawyers and parties who engage in such misbehavior.”

He submitted the dismissal filing 13 days later without rationale.