Water agency targets its critics with rare libel suit

It all started with anonymous emails. The Central Basin Municipal Water District, the emails alleged, was guilty of corruption and double-dealing in awarding a $1million federal grant.

Officials at Central Basin, a water agency serving more than 2 million L.A. County residents, publicly denied the claims, suggesting the emails were sent by the firms that didn’t get the contract. But Central Basin didn’t stop there. It hired a law firm and last month filed a highly unusual libel suit against the unnamed authors of the email.

Such lawsuits are rare because, under free speech laws, governments generally cannot be defamed by public critics or whistle-blowers.

“You can’t defame the government,” said Eugene Volokh, a professor at UCLA Law School. “The government can’t sue for libel even if it feels they can prove statements about it are not just false, but lies.”

The suit comes as the water district faces a raft of official investigations. The district attorney’s office is investigating questionable travel expenses as well as the finances of one of its board members. And Central Basin is one of several local water agencies whose rates and spending practices are being audited by the state.

In an interview Friday, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley blasted the district’s action as a “strategic lawsuit