Racine County judge dismisses defamation suit by Foxconn critic
A Racine County circuit judge has agreed to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by a former candidate against Village President David DeGroot.
Kelly Gallaher, a critic of the village board and its support of the Foxconn development, sued DeGroot in April 2023, claiming that he had defamed her in statement he made about her personal finances and fitness for office during a board meeting and on social media. Gallaher challenged DeGroot in the April 2023 election for village president.
Judge Faye Flancher last week found DeGroot’s statements were “substantially true” and said Gallaher could not be defamed because she was, as a candidate for office, a public figure. A hearing to dismiss the lawsuit is scheduled for July 16.
The statements at issue focused on DeGroot’s claim that Gallaher was a “failed business owner” based on her ownership stake in Senior Campus at Campbell Woods LLC. He said Gallaher would receive money from the sale of the business, which was “foreclosed on them due to numerous missed loan payments and in addition owed $70,000 in back taxes.”
Gallaher countered that she was gifted one of 90 shares in the company and was not involved in board meetings or business decisions.
Todd Terry, DeGroot’s lawyer, said the judge found DeGroot’s statements “were either entirely true or substantially true and weren’t defamatory under any standard.”
The end of the lawsuit did nothing to reduce Gallagher and DeGroot’s very public hostility toward each other. DeGroot issued a statement through his campaign committee that referred to Gallaher as a “master crybully” who “can dish it out daily for 10 years, but when the tables are turned on her, she can’t take it for a minute.”
Gallagher countered by calling DeGroot a “small and odious person.”
“Mr. DeGroot remains responsible for the largest failed publicly funded economic development in Wisconsin history. No amount of his mudslinging will change that fact,” she said in a statement.
Gallaher has for years been a fierce critic of the village board and its in
vestment in the 2,500acre business park developed for Foxconn. State and local governments in 2017 put together a multi-billion incentive package to lure the company, which said it would build a state-of-the art LCD manufacturing plant that would employ up to 13,000 people, to Mount Pleasant.
When she challenged DeGroot in the 2023 election, Gallaher also worked to line up a slate of candidates to challenge the village board incumbents who were up for election.
Each of the challengers was defeated in the April 2023 election, which was held one week after Microsoft announced it would build a data center on 315-acres previously controlled by Foxconn.
That deal, valued at $1 billion, was finalized in May. Six months later, Microsoft paid $176 million for an additional 1,048 acres that will house a minimum of four data center buildings north and east of the Foxconn Campus. A guaranteed minimum value of $1.4 billion ensures that Mount Pleasant will be able to meet its tax obligations related to development of the industrial park.
Foxconn has a similar $1.4 billion obligation that it must honor regardless of the value its development creates. The company employs about 1.500 people in Mount Pleasant, where it now makes servers for data centers and electrical components for solar arrays.
A countersuit filed in the defamation case by DeGroot’s campaign manager, Sam Wahlen, remains open. Wahlen claims Gallaher repeatedly went to the bank where he works and made false statements about and tried to get him fired, Terry said.
Gallaher said she will not appeal the judge’s ruling and expects Wahlen’s claim to be dismissed as part of the settlement. A trial date remains on the calendar for late August.