Trial begins over alleged defamation of candidate during 2020 legislative race
LINCOLN — A lawsuit over the alleged defamation of a political candidate during the 2020 election has finally made its way to a jury trial.
On Monday, opening arguments were delivered in the case brought by a state legislative candidate, Janet Palmtag of Nebraska City, against the Nebraska Republican Party.
Palmtag, who lost the election to then State Sen. Julie Slama of Peru, has accused the GOP of defaming her by falsely stating, in political mailings, that Palmtag had broken the law in Iowa and had lost her real estate license in that state. Palmtag, who denies the allegations, is seeking damages for financial losses and emotional distress.
The case hinges on whether Nebraska GOP leaders acted with 'actual malice' in making the claims, or whether it was an honest mistake during a heated political campaign that pitted two Republicans in a race for the officially nonpartisan Legislature.
The contest illustrated a split in the state party. Executives then running the Nebraska Republican Party, along with then-Gov. Pete Ricketts (who appointed Slama to her post) backed Slama, while Palmtag, a long-time Republican volunteer and real estate broker, had the support of former Gov. Dave Heineman and then-U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb.
Palmtag's attorney, Dave Domina of Omaha, told jurors that it was 'a case about words and the damage they can do' and that 'democracy is not savagery.'
'We can't get along in this country with the political extremes calling each other stupid things,' he said, pausing for effect. 'You have a big role to play in that.'
But the lead attorney for the state GOP, Kamron Hasan, told jurors there was insufficient evidence to prove by 'clear and convincing evidence' (the standard in civil cases) that GOP officials had acted maliciously or with willful disregard for the truth.
'The evidence is going to show that the mailers … were not false,' Hasan said.
Instead, the attorney said, he would show that Ryan Hamilton, the executive director of the Nebraska Republican Party in 2020, had checked and doubled checked records of the Iowa Real Estate Commission before mailing two fliers in October 2020 that stated Palmtag had 'broken the law and lost her real estate license' and was a 'liberal' who was 'irresponsible.'
Domina repeatedly stated that Palmtag had never been disciplined for her work as a real estate broker or as owner of her real estate brokerage, J.J. Palmtag, Inc., which operated in Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa.
In 2018, he said that Palmtag agreed to pay a $500 fine as part of a 'consent' agreement with the Iowa Real Estate Commission to settle a mistake made by one of her agents, who was gravely ill from cancer. The settlement, over the 2017 sale of a home in Thurman, Iowa, made no admission of a law violation, Domina said, and did not result in her losing her real estate license.
'(Her license) was not suspended, it wasn't revoked. To say that is a lie,' he said during his opening statement.
Domina, one of the state's most prominent lawyers and a one-time Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said Hamilton, the State GOP executive director, had 'giggled' when Palmtag asked him to retract and correct the claims.
But Hasan told jurors that Hamilton had looked up the Iowa Real Estate Commission's settlement with J.J. Palmtag Inc., which was signed by Janet Palmtag. It stated that her firm 'did not contest the alleged violation' of state laws pertaining to such financial transfers, he said.
Hasan told jurors that Hamilton had also checked the status of the Palmtag firm's Iowa license, and it indicated that it had been 'cancelled.'
'These (records) are accurate. This is true,' the GOP attorney said.
While Domina portrayed Palmtag's campaign in 2020 as fairly passive after she was roundly out-polled by Slama in the 2020 primary, Hasan called it a 'bitter' contest at a 'vicious time' in politics during the COVID-19 pandemic.
'There was negativity. There was hostility,' Hasan said.
When called to testify, Palmtag told jurors she had no role in the sale of the Iowa home and had only learned later, via a routine audit by the Iowa commission, that the permission to transfer a $5,000 earnest deposit on the sale had been signed by only the seller and not also the buyer. Both signatures are required in Iowa.
'I did pay a $500 fine for Dale,' Palmtag testified, referring to her agent, Dale Rogers, who has since died.
She also testified that she had voluntarily taken 'inactive' status as an Iowa real estate broker and voluntarily 'cancelled' her company's Iowa license in the wake of devastating floods along the Missouri River in Iowa during 2019 because the floods had ruined the market there.
The case took so long to get to trial, in large part, because of an appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court. The trial judge, Lancaster County District Court Judge Andrew Jacobsen, had initially dismissed the case, agreeing with the Nebraska GOP that Palmtag had failed to show that the party had acted with actual malice.
But, after Palmtag appealed, the State Supreme Court ruled last year that a jury, and not the judge, should decide if there was a 'genuine issue' of malice. That ruling sent the case back to Jacobsen for trial. The trial is expected to continue most of this week.
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