Spreadbury v. Bitterroot Public Library et al

Filing 124

AMENDED DOCUMENT by Lee Enterprises Incorporated. Amendment to 111 Affidavit in Support of Motion,, AMENDED AFFIDAVIT OF JEFFREY B. SMITH IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT LEE ENTERPRISES INC'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON REMAINING COUNTS. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A, # 2 Exhibit B, # 3 Exhibit C, # 4 Exhibit D, # 5 Exhibit E, # 6 Exhibit F, # 7 Exhibit G, # 8 Exhibit H, # 9 Exhibit I, # 10 Exhibit J, # 11 Exhibit K) (Smith, Jeffrey) Modified on 10/21/2011 to create relationship w/ 108 Motion (APP, ).

EXHIBIT E

MONTANA TWENTY-FIRST

I

RAVALLI

2

4

MICHAEL

E.

COUNTY

ro\/
Lr-u

SPREADBURY,

PIaintlff,

5

6

JUDICIAL DISTR

Cause No. DV- 10-223

\t q

KENNETH

S.

'..

BELL,

Defendant

B
j

Taken at the Ravalli County Courtho c6
205 Bedford St.reet, Hamifton, Mont na

I\J

Friday, August 6,

11

2010

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13

The Honorable Jeffrey

H.

Langton Presiding.

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TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

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APPEARANCES

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Plaintiff,

:

Michael E. Spreadbury, appearing pro se.

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FOr thc DCfCNdANT: NATASHA PRINZING JONES
Boone Karlberg P.C.
207 West Main Street, S ite 300

Missoula, MT 59802

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Tarnmy

Stuckey ** 375*6783

FRIDAY, AUGUST.5, 2011

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THE COURT:

Very weI-1, the matter is

deemed

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counsel. That's Spreadbury v. Bell, DV'10-223. Miss
Jones is here on behalf of Mr. Bel1, and Mr. Spreadbury

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again pro se. This is a

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appropriate in this case to hear legal argument. we'Il
follow the same format as we lust ut.ilized; again, the

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moving party goes first,

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middle and the moving party with the burden closes.

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Miss Jones.

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.

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submitted.

There's a second case j.nvolving dif f erenc

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(b) (6) motion on dismissal on

such a motion, while argunent is not required the way it
is required on summary judgment motion, I felt it

the party opposing is in the

MS. JONES: Thank you, Your Honor. And f'll

be brief.

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The Court wil.1 issue a written rulinq.

I don't think that there's much that I

can

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on this issue. I would simply
highlight this: That this is a motion to dismiss and
ere are bound to the record. However, I provided the

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Court with the authority that alfows the Court to take

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judicial

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notice of related proceedings. And those
reulated proceedings, of course, are the criminal cases
involving the same person, Mr. Spreadbury. And so this

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is relevant because Mr. Spreadbury has tried to view

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whaC

add to the briefing

Mr.

so

Cit,y Attorney Bell's role in the protective
Tammy

Stuc kev ** 375-6?83

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tvivril,l

order hearing v/as in a vacuum. And the Court, of
course, can take judiclal notice, in the context of

a

motion to dismiss, of the related proceedings so that we
have context for his rol_e there. And it becomes clear
that his role there was refaEed Lo the criminal

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proceedings because Nansu Roddy, who das movi_ng for the
protective order at that time, wds also a key wiCness in

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a crimi-nal matter. the crininal

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victim of a crime that was under investigation

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assist.ance of City Attorney Bel],. and that is the felony

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intimidation

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Mr. Spreadbury for t.he exact conduct that was at issue

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in the order of proteccion hearing.

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reasons, of course, it was absolutely appropriate for

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Cify Attorney BeIl t.o partj-cipate in Lhat hearing. And
indeed, Mr. Spreadbury hirnself was represenEed by his

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publlc defender who had been assigned to him in the

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criminal- trespass case.

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applies.

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immunity, as that's been the issue of multiple legal

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briefs by Mr. Spreadbury

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trespass case, and the
with the

charge that was subsequently fjled

against

And for those

Then, of course. it is that immunity
And with that I'll-

leave it to the briefs

on

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, as weLl- as in
related cases on that issue, so I don't think I can

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anything to that.

rt.

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and myself

THE COURT: Thank you.

Tanmy Stuckey

**

Mr. Spreadbury

375-6783

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add

MR. SPREADBURY: Yes, Your Honor. Thank

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you. If it pleases the Court, I just have a few

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comments. We can sav all we want to that Ken Bell

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was

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acting within his authority and there's aII these
crlminal charges- Well, if you think that sitting on
public park owned by Lhe City of Hamilton in a public

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place with, I don't know what

you

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freedom of access, definitely

freedom of assembly, which

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is in both constitutions

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'd caIl it,

a

Iiberty,

of the flaqs on either side of
you, and Lt you think asking a IiOru.:."n for help j-s a
felony, thenr you know, 1et's talk about the criminal
matcer.

In fact, Ken Bell \.ras in a civil

proceeding

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Like we are ri.ght now and there was no criminal stuff
going on. I hate to use the word "stuff."
But itrs

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very clear in

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city attorney.

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my pleadings, Your Honor, none of them lis.t,ed include

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MCA

7-4-4604, which are the duties of

None of them listed,

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and I have that, in

representing an employee who is not a city employee or
even entering a civil courtroom like we're here right

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now. None of those duties. They are
the duties are
to prosecutor for the city, to draft ordinances for the
city, and do whatever other services that the City

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Council, upon a vote, deems the city attorney should do.

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And I might be missing one there, but it's

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Tammy

Stuckey

*

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375-578

definitely

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not being in a civil

courtroom.

I'm gorng to go on to the conflict

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of

He sat in a crirninal

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interest that Mr. Be11 engaged in.

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courtroom, ds I was being arraigned. dS a stand-j-n

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prosecutor on November 10th in Justice Clute's

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courtroom, ird then on November 20th he was in this

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aforementioned civil

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which she i-s not a city emp.Ioyee. She is an employee of

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the Bitterroot

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library

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however, she i.s not an employee of the City of Hamilton.

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So he prosecuted one party ten days prior,

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in to, f guess yourd call il defended or represented

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non-city business on November 20th, 2OOg, in Municipat

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Court in Hamilton.

n. 1 ?. ?n

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me

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oh, and then we have the sittingr on the library
Iawn prosecution. I believe there was a date sometime

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in November. I canrt quite remember, but he was also

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the prosecutor on that case. The tria1,

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February 18, 2O1O. November
f 'm golng to move on.

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if you act outside of the duties, that's one of the

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requirements for emotional distress is to be outrageous.
It's outrageous for Ken BeI1 to be in a civif courtroom

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district

hearing on behalf of Nansu

Roddy,

Public Library, which is an i-ndependent
who gets funding frorn the City,

and then

came

Just as a laym,an, that appears to

I know, was

So Ken BelI acted outside of the duties, so

fammy St,uckey

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as a city attorney without including any city business.
So that's one of the requirements for emotional dlstress

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cases. I've already talked about the conflict

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of

interest.
ft's

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a well-established

prosecutors have no immunity in civil
Mr. Corn is sitting

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fact that

right here.

courtrooms.

He has no innunity in

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courtroom. He's the prosecutor for Ravalli
County. If he were to say something to me or anything
eLse, that could be used as defamaeion. That could be

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used as misrepresentation.

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deputies could sdl, which fhey have, if this were

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anybody else but Mike Spreadbury, we would have dropped

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Lhis case. So trhen they say something llke thatl they
only have qualified immuniLyr if anything. So there's

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certain stages of immunity. And in a civil

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there's no immunity.

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well-establ.ished fact and observed, in a civil

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courtroomr flo immunity.

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LW

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that chere is a burden of proof. And respectfully, I'm
getting f rom the def ense counsel that, it's just in he,F
pleadings, that there is immunity. f dontt see any

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burden there.

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in a civil

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this civil

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You know, one of his

So Ken Be11, it's

The other thing I'1I

courtroom,

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get into is the fact

I don't see any proof t,hat, okay, he

was

courtroom, here's how he has immuriity right
Tammy

Stuckey ** 375-6?83

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Lhere in that courlroom. If he's outside of his duties
and hers also in a civil courtroom. he's Iost in space,

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Your Honor. He has no immunitY.

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Again, Smjth on behalf of Snjth BuEte-Sjl-vet

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Bow, Lgg4, "Prosecutorial imrnunity does not shield
for atl factsi or
prosecutor from civil Iiability
omissions." Definitely with probabl-e cause hlere

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sLandj-ng on public properLy.

I,,1aybe

Mr. BeIl iwould Iike

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Lo charge me with trespassing today.

I don'ti know. It

r

^.

I'm

I don't know. But if

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would be another year of fun.

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there's no probable cause' imnunity stoPs dead. Just

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s

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And in a situation

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tops .

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Hhere BeII is in

a

November 2Oth hearing for an order of protectio n, there

is an argument that could be made that. there's
probable cause for that because there is alread v
indiscrepancies (sic) with the testimony of qhe

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detention of Nansu Roddy, wha! she made with lth e police

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and what she did with

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Iot of things going on here where there's

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improprieLies.

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misconduct of Mr. BeII to this Court.

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anshrer. I have in the docket because I believe

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happened.

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sworn to a judge.

I

Slo

there's

a

some

f've already asked for official
I don't get

an

ir

I'11 kind of end with the fact that there is

Tammy

Stuckey

**

315'6793

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no criminal case invo lved her e. November 20th, 2009 hras
a civil proceeding. I was no t allowed to "o*L*. I was
'l
advised by my counsel , who ha d just showed uP at that
Eime that he wasn't P repa red. We have another criminal
case involving this s ame inci dent. So f wasnl't alfowed
to speak to the fact that the re was no danger involved.

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case. TresPass ing is notac rime on public pFoperty if
you're sicting peacef uIIy and it's open access to the
public. And I'1I jus t end wi th the fact that this is

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probabl y the easiest decision to make becausel Ken BelI

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There was no danger a t a1I.

So this wasn't a criminal

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no immuniLY to
ptosecutors, Your Hon ott in a civil. courtroom. It
doesn't get any c.Lear e.r than that. And I'd Iike to

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respect t,he Court

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ne sa

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If there is immunity assigned or dismissal
assigned, I'lrt going to ask the higher court t6 look aL
this because I feel strongly that the immunity is

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something that isn'E assigned in a civil

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it should be established in this court. And I thank you
for your time.
t.
THE COURT: Very weLI, Miss Jones you may

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concl ude .

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h/as in a civil

MS

courtr oom.

and

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Th ere's

hope we move

forward'lvith this
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courtroom

and

JONES: Irve already briefed the scope

Taruny SLuckey

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3?5-6783

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of the duties of the city attorney, which includes
appearances in civil maCCers. There is no Iimitation
immunity or the duties of a prosecutor to purely

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criminal matters.

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There is no case or statut

on

that says
t e movlng

This was a city business case because tn
party for the protecLive order v,ras the vicLim lo f a crime
and was a key witness in another crime' and s it was
that..

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clearly rel.ated to city business. And we can l* ake it
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true his a]legation that she wasnrt a cit.y em t. oyee.
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as
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can take all of his allegaLions as true. The i* act
remains that given judicial notice of related

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proceedings, t,hat Mr. Bell was acting in his scope

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The Cou.rt will

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is entitled to
city attorney; that he r.ras entitled t,o
immunity for his acEions in Lhat regard, Thank you,
THE COURT: The

matter is deemed $ubmi-tted.

issue a written ruJ.ing in thatjmatter.
Proceedings concluded.

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Tammy Stuckey

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3?5-6783

r.E,D.fTFraDTtr
LLnfr!fu6l!

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STATE OT
COUNTY

MONTANA

ss.

OF RAVALLI

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I, Tamara Stuckey, Official Court Repo te r for
the State of Montana, do hereby certify:
That I was duly authorized to and did eport lhe
proceedings in the above-enLitIed cause;
ThaL the foregoing pages of this trans ript
fny
constitute a true and accurate transcription
stenotype notes.
I further certify that I am not an att rney, nor
couns e I of any of the parties, nor a refative or
employee of any attorney or counsel connected with the
actionr nor financially lnterested in the act ]- on.
I N !{ITNESS 90HEREOF, I have hereunto
on this 2nd day of September, 2071.

se i

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State of Montana
Twenty-First Judici al Distric

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Tammy

Stuckey ** 375-6783

my hand