Pond Association Heads Countersue Jacobs

Little Fresh Pond Association President John Barona and Vice President John Gorman have counter sued Jay Jacobs, who, claiming defamation, over a flier and website critical of his plans to open a day camp in North Sea.

The counter lawsuit is based on New York State’s Anti-SLAPP Law, which protects petitioners from “strategic lawsuits against public participation." The counterclaim states that Jacobs’ lawsuit “was commenced and continued for the purpose of harassing, intimidating, punishing or otherwise maliciously inhibiting Gorman’s and Barona’s free exercise of speech, petition or association rights.”

But Jacobs said Thursday that the Anti-SLAPP law does not give "statutory permission to say anything." He said that, of all the opponents who spoke at public hearings and wrote letters to the editor, he has only sued Barona and Gorman because they have maligned and defamed him.

“If I was looking to intimidate or surpress, I would go after every single person who has made false statements about this project," Jacobs said. "We have not done that, and we will not do that. I will argue the merits in front of the proper authorities.”

Jacobs said Gorman and Barona have libeled him, accusing him of a criminal act, namely lying to government agencies to get his application approved. “We’re going to take action in self defense,” he said.

The Little Fresh Pond Association, a group of pondfront homeowners formed to protect their quite enjoyment of the pond and the pond’s ecological health, has fiercely oppose Jacobs’ application for a day camp at the former . They are joined in their opposition by North Sea Neighbors, a group with a broader base formed specifically to block the proposed camp.

The original lawsuit for $65 million also asked the court to gag Barona and Gorman from making statements against him alleging "wrongful, criminal, or fraudulent conduct," and to require them to disclose the identities of those who received the fliers and take out a full-page newspaper ad recanting allegedly false statements made in the flier and on a website.

But Barona denies that he and Gorman made the flier they are being sued over, and said they do not run the website, northseaneighbors.yolasite.com, either.

Jacobs said any reasonable person would not believe they had nothing to do with the flier. “Anybody that looks at it, is going to say, ‘You’re listed as a contact person. You’ve got your name and your phone number on there. You had nothing to do with this? It really defies logic.'”

Gorman and Barona are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and to recover legal costs and attorney’s fees. And in their answer to Jacobs’ lawsuit, they are asking for it to be dismissed, saying that the statements they are alleged to have made constitute Constitutionally protected free speech.

Jacobs said he will drop his lawsuit if Gorman and Barona take out a newspaper ad apologizing for making false statements and retracting them.

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