Krupa sues over CTU letter
Thursday, Feb 14, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Some background is here if you need it. Tribune…
A college student running to oust the prominent alderman of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s home ward sued the Chicago Teachers Union for defamation this week, adding another layer of intrigue and a second lawsuit to the campaign.
DePaul University student David Krupa sued the union and one of its members in Cook County court — while also naming Madigan, 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn and the influential 13th Ward Democratic Organization as potential defendants in one of Chicago’s latest cases of hardball politics.
Krupa and Quinn’s bitter battle over a city Democratic stronghold has already landed in federal court over alleged campaign violations. This week’s fight is over a Feb. 1 letter printed on CTU letterhead and addressed to 13th Ward residents from teacher Jeanine Muir.
Muir’s letter accused Krupa of unspecified “cyberstalking and cyberbullying” and urged residents to not vote for the 19-year-old candidate in the Feb. 26 election. Krupa on Wednesday described those allegations as “a completely fabricated lie.”
* Sun-Times…
CTU spokeswoman Chris Geovanis said Muir reported the situation with Krupa to the school district and was merely looking to protect her students.
“She was satisfied the conduct was terminated,” Geovanis said. […]
Krupa’s suit also names Quinn’s wife, Beth, as an employee at Hale, something the alderman scoffed at.
“Naming my wife, who has served the children of Chicago as a dedicated speech pathologist for decades and has no involvement in my campaign, in a baseless lawsuit is a new low for Tony Peraica, the Republican Party and its latest pawn, David Krupa,” Ald. Quinn said in a statement.
“Suing two public school teachers is a new low,” Madigan echoed in his own statement. “Certainly they don’t have the Republican backing to defend themselves like David Krupa does. These outrageous lawsuits are a disservice to the residents of the 13th Ward who are trying to focus on the issues that matter most to them.”
- Chris Widger - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:20 am:
==“Suing two public school teachers is a new low,” ==
That’s remarkable. Isn’t this why we have courts, to suss out disputes so that they don’t need to be litigated by popular opinion?
- lakeside - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:22 am:
Imagine being another student in his Intro to Psych class. The “actually”s must be constant. Exhausting.
I’m sure I’ll be served shortly.
- anon - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:27 am:
Muir signed her name onto a letter making claims about Krupa. There is nothing “low” about suing her for defamation. Her status as a teacher doesn’t protect her from defamation. Truth is a defense, however. So, if her claims were true, she has no worries.
- Chicagonk - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:28 am:
Quinn has give this guy way more attention than he deserved.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:30 am:
Nice of CTU and the Madigan crew to give this kid more free publicity. 3-D Chess Masters, obviously.
The accusation from CTU is serious. But if you’re going to accuse someone publicly like they did, you need to provide more information.
I guess we’ll find out in discovery, if it ever gets that far, maybe sometime before the kid can have his first legal beer.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:32 am:
== So, if her claims were true, she has no worries.==
Yeah, no worries except the time, money, and exhaustion that comes with defending a lawsuit. Your whole notion that truth tellers should have to vindicate themselves in court is totally backwards and the reason we should not have strict liable laws.
- Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:33 am:
===So, if her claims were true, she has no worries.===
Yeah, if it is true, I would be preparing a countersuit.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:35 am:
===So, if her claims were true, she has no worries===
Spoken like someone who’s never been sued.
- NotRich - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:37 am:
Love to know who is paying Tony P’s retainer???
- Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:43 am:
Maybe Krupa’s ex should sue him regarding her serious allegations against him.
- anon - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:45 am:
===Spoken like someone who’s never been sued===
I think you meant spoken like someone who has never made public claims against another person and had those claims distributed throughout a community, but believes having to defend myself too troublesome.
- anon - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:47 am:
As for her no worries, presumably she has personal knowledge of the claim and/or evidence to support it. That should permit relatively quick discovery and summary judgment.
- Lucky Pierre - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:48 am:
Shocking Speaker Madigan is lecturing about a “new low” in political gamesmanship with zero self awareness.
- Annonin' - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:53 am:
Love to know who is paying Tony P’s retainer???
Best bet is GovJunk but that withdrawal window might have closed with telling FastTony.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:56 am:
===who is paying===
I heard he’s doing the legal work pro bozo.
- Powdered Whig - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 9:58 am:
=== I think you meant spoken like someone who has never made public claims against another person and had those claims distributed throughout a community, but believes having to defend myself too troublesome. ===
Cmon… Krupa is suing Quinn’s wife too. What does she have to do with anything? She’s not even involved in the campaign! This is another attempt by Krupa to drum up attention because he doesn’t have any other way to reach out to voters.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:01 am:
I’m looking at this a bit differently… but not taking away all this situation is, and has been;
The “kid” is 19 years old.
Why put yourself through all this at 19 when you have your whole life after 19 defending these things?
I’m not saying he should or shouldn’t do anything, should fold, should fight… but this type of fight, you do need to consider being 19 and how far you wanted to take this… now with that letter and legal issue…
- City Zen - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:02 am:
“Suing two public school teachers is a new low,”
Especially if thy’re Tier 2 teachers. Right, Mr. Speaker?
- The Captain - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:06 am:
CTU’s settlement offer should be a box of diapers. I’m surprised he didn’t ask for eleventy million.
- steve - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:19 am:
This lawsuit is probably about getting certain people on the record in court and then yelling perjury.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:34 am:
Pro bozo. Anybody? Is this thing on?
- lakeside - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:39 am:
47th - I see you. Well played.
- TheInvisibleMan - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:42 am:
He’s going to lose this. Badly.
Unfortunately, he’s too immature to see he is being used. The people using him don’t care a single bit about his future.
- NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:42 am:
I think I’d fight also if I had been the target of a manufactured attempt by the Dems to get me off the ballot using invalid affidavits. Krupa may have had some problems but let’s not make Quinn and the Dems saints here. They don’t want any real challengers and have demonstrated what lengths they’ll go to get rid of someone like Krupa.
- Cermak - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:54 am:
I miss the days when campaigns were about winning at the polling place, not the court room.
- Birdseed - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:55 am:
Also, they are still worried about this election?
- "Old Timer Dem" - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:58 am:
Tony “The Tiger” is like a kid in a candy store. He is generating a lot of legal fees for himself by filing all these publicity seeking lawsuits. A lot of red meat being thrown Tony “The Tigers” way and he is loving it.
- Bourbon Street - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 10:59 am:
Anon@9:47: Don’t discount the time and money it takes to defend a civil lawsuit. Discovery can be a lengthy and costly undertaking. Summary judgment is generally not appropriate where there are genuine issues of material fact. The argument that a litigant who has “evidence to support” a claim or defense has “no worries” fails to recognize that the legal process can be time-consuming & expensive.
- TrumpsSmallHands - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 11:16 am:
Krupa better have a good lawyer because Illinois has a fairly robust anti-SLAPP law (735 ILCS 110/ Citizen Participation Act) which could put Krupa on the hook for the CTU teachers attorney fees and costs, just look at what happened to Stormy Daniels defamation suit.
Also he is unlikely to prevail in a defamation suit even if he gets past the anti-SlAPP law as the current standard to win requires proving actual malice, Times v. Sullivan.
The actual malice standard requires that a plaintiff alleging defamation who is a public official or public figure prove that the publisher of the statement in question knew that the statement was false or acted in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity
These types of defamation suits are very hard to win and increasingly likely to be quashed by anti-SLAPP laws.
(735 ILCS 110/) Citizen Participation Act
Sec. 25. Attorney’s fees and costs. The court shall award a moving party who prevails in a motion under this Act reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred in connection with the motion.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 11:17 am:
===Illinois has a fairly robust anti-SLAPP law ===
Yeah, but the courts have watered it down. This needs to be revisited.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 12:06 pm:
Discovery could be fun.
- Flapdoodle - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 3:36 pm:
Jeez, 47th, trying to get there — that was excellent
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 3:40 pm:
===Pro bozo. Anybody? Is this thing on?===
I was waiting for the follow up joke.
“I heard he’s doing the legal work pro bozo.
Yeah he works hard, long hours, no clowning around with him… “
- DrurysMissingClock - Thursday, Feb 14, 19 @ 6:36 pm:
==Quinn has give this guy way more attention than he deserved.==
Let’s not forget the Trib and Ahern propping him up. They loved the idea of a kid taking on the machine before the allegations came to light (and still give him way too much credence).