Judge rejects Gov. Kim Reynolds' request to toss former spokesperson's wrongful termination lawsuit
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A wrongful termination lawsuit filed against Gov. Kim Reynolds can continue, a district court judge ruled.
Former Iowa Department of Public Health spokesperson Polly Carver-Kimm sued Reynolds and several other current and former state employees last year, alleging Reynolds and a top aide forced her termination because she was being too responsive to the media and in fulfilling open records requests.
Assistant Attorney General Samuel Langholz, who is defending Reynolds and the others, in turn argued that state open record law is not "a well-recognized public policy," and that the lawsuit should be dismissed.
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On Dec. 22, District Court Judge Lawrence P. McLellan rejected that request. Carver-Kimm's job within the Iowa Department of Public Health included "the specific obligation to fulfill open record requests," the judge wrote, and her contention is that she was forced out for fulfilling that role.
Carver-Kimm alleges that during the early days of the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic she was slowly being stripped of duties after working with media on things like modifying open records requests to speed up that process and passing along concerns about sanitation and social distancing inside state emergency operations center.
She alleges the act that finally led to her dismissal was providing abortion statistics to the Des Moines Register. The statistics were routinely provided to the media, but "likely embarrassing" to Reynolds since they showed an increase in abortion rates, Carver-Kimm alleged.
"The court finds that providing the citizens of Iowa with information on the activities of their government furthers the welfare of the citizens of Iowa as a whole," McLellan wrote.
The judge also rejected arguments that Reynolds and her former spokesperson, Pat Garrett, weren't liable for her dismissal because they weren't her direct supervisors and did not directly force her to resign or be fired. Carver-Kimm "set forth sufficient allegations" that they may have been the ultimate cause for, McLellan wrote. Garrett has since left the governor's office to join her political team.
The order does not confirm Carver-Kimm's account or any wrongdoing by Reynolds or her staff, but that the allegations are plausible enough for the lawsuit to continue.
The governor's office declined to comment on the lawsuit, though chief of staff Sara Craig said in a previous statement the lawsuit is "without merit." Carver-Kimm's lawyer, Thomas Duff, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Monday afternoon.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the nature of the increased abortions in Iowa. The data in question was the first of consecutive years of increases.
Nick Coltrain is a politics and data reporter for the Register. Reach him at ncoltrain@registermedia.com or at 515-284-8361.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Judge rejects Reynolds' request to dismiss Polly Carver-Kimm lawsuit
