Loren Reagan seeking $450K in libel lawsuit
Less than a week before his arrest Sunday in Calgary on a Canadawide warrant for failing to appear for his trial in Penticton last year, Loren Reagan fired off a dubious defamation lawsuit seeking $450,000.
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 28 in Calgary, lists six defendants, including his ex-wife, cousin, sister and Mike Elphicke, the man with whom Reagan was jointly charged with three offences related in part to the failed Penticton hockey dormitory.
At issue, according to the statement of claim, is a Facebook group created in 2013 by Elphicke through which the defendants allegedly “caused public ridicule” of Reagan.
As a result, claims Reagan, he lost his job with the Kuwait Drilling Company, and the postings also “prejudiced the plaintiff in obtaining a fair trial” in Penticton.
“Rather than permitting the justice system to determine the plaintiff’s guilt or innocence, the defendants who participated in the Facebook posting defamed the plaintiff and did so in a malicious and planned manner,” Reagan alleges.
The group has since been removed from Facebook as a result of what Reagan described as multiple requests to the company on his part.
A clerk of the Alberta courts confirmed the lawsuit was filed Feb. 28 at the Justice Centre of Calgary, but it’s unclear by whom, as the document sent to the defendants is unsigned.
The statement of claim also contains two questionable pieces of information.
The first is a phone number for Reagan that goes to a voicemail stating it belongs to a person named Alan Adams.
The second is Reagan’s address for service in Sylvan Lake, Alta., which appears to be a residential property that doesn’t exist on any of the town’s maps.
Police in Calgary have declined to comment on the circumstances of Reagan’s arrest.
B.C. Prosecution Service spokesman Dan McLaughlin said Reagan appeared in court in Calgary on Monday and was ordered to remain behind bars for at least six days to allow for his transport to Penticton to face a judge here.
The arrest warrant was issued Sept. 11, 2017, when Reagan was a no-show for the first day of his trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Penticton on charges of fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and unauthorized management of a lottery scheme related in part to the failed Eckhardt Avenue hockey dormitory project.
Co-accused Mike Elphicke did stand trial and was found guilty on all counts. He is set to be sentenced April 18.
Elphicke’s trial heard how he and Reagan launched the Okanagan Elite Hockey Association in 2010 ostensibly to send teenagers and their parents on an overseas hockey tour.
The trip never left the ground, however, and funds were diverted to personal expenses and the dormitory project, which was scuttled in 2011 when Reagan failed to come up with the cash required to purchase the properties under it from the City of Penticton.