JOURNALIST DEFENDS HIS USE OF DISPUTED ‘FOOTNOTE 15’

City attorney seeking to dismiss defamation case brought by local reporter

A journalist suing San Diego’s city attorney said in a recent sworn statement that a highly placed and knowledgeable source in City Hall confirmed the veracity of a disputed footnote in a report explaining how San Diego taxpayers ended up paying millions of dollars for the Ash Street building lease.

NBC 7 producer Dorian Hargrove, who is suing City Attorney Mara Elliott and her top lieutenant for defamation, said the truth about the footnote will emerge if his lawsuit is permitted to move forward in federal court.

“The discovery allowable in the matter will reveal that the footnote at issue was added as a draft of the subject report by a person within the city of San Diego with detailed knowledge of facts disclosed herein that were not known or knowable at the time,” Hargrove declared under penalty of perjury.

Hargrove also said in his declaration that Elliott abused her authority by attacking him personally and accused her of influencing NBC 7 to remove him from future coverage of City Hall.

“NBC 7 was instructed and/or compelled to take the specific actions taken against me and to publicly retaliate against me by Elliott acting through her surrogates,” he said in his declaration.

The filing came in response to a motion filed by the city asking a judge to dismiss Hargrove’s lawsuit.

Lawyers defending the city told the court that Hargrove’s case lacks merit and said the defendants are protected from liability under the legal theory of qualified immunity, which protects public officials from the threat of civil litigation for doing their job.

They also said they had nothing to do with the disciplinary measures imposed by NBC 7 against Hargrove.

“Defendants did not ask, and had no ability to compel NBC 7 to suspend plaintiff from his employment or to prohibit him from reporting on matters involving City Hall,” the city’s lawyer wrote in a filing this week.