Sarasota City Commissioner Battie sued for alleged false claims against local activist
Sarasota City Commissioner Kyle Battie has been sued for alleged defamation by a local activist in a lawsuit that says he falsely accused her during a Jan. 16 public meeting of making a racist Facebook post.
The lawsuit seeks in excess of $50,000, as well as legal costs, according to the 157-page civil complaint filed Monday in Sarasota County’s 12th Judicial Circuit Court. The case was assigned to Judge Stephen Walker.
After receiving warning of the suit, Battie refused to apologize publicly and said on Feb. 5 at a City Commission meeting that the onus is on his critics to prove the hoax post is not real, rather than on him to verify its authenticity.
The city allocated $15,000 in public funds to his legal defense – possibly more if the commission deems it necessary.
The activist, Kelly Franklin, said in a statement this week that she has requested a formal investigation into the matter by the city and an acknowledgment that neither she, nor CityPAC, a local government accountability group she is involved with, were involved with the post Battie displayed before the City Commission last month.
“All of our overtures have been stymied and rejected by Battie, so I have no choice but to proceed with legal action to clear my good name and reputation,” Franklin said.
Richard Harrison, Franklin’s attorney, admonished Battie in a public comment at the Feb. 5 meeting and called on the commissioner to resign.
The alleged Facebook post Battie brought before the commission showed a post with a photo that featured Battie and Tanya Borysciewicz, the co-owner of the Corona Cigar Company, at the establishment’s September 2023 ribbon cutting with a racist caption.
The legal complaint also features a screenshot of Franklin’s Facebook post that was apparently used to make the hoax image, with the original caption above pictures of gorillas. It also attaches correspondence between Battie and Borysciewicz that Harrison acquired from a public records request that shows they were aware of the actual post nearly a month before the city commissioner spoke publicly about it.
Harrison has claimed the correspondence is proof Battie knew the post he brought before the commission was fake.
“To be clear,” the complaint alleges, “by the end of the day on December 19, 2023, Battie had in his possession both the Hoax Post and Franklin’s original, actual, completely innocuous post with the identical text as was used in the Hoax Post.”
The lawsuit seeks damages for “conspiracy to commit defamation,” alleging the commissioner “conspired with one or more persons, including but not limited to Borysiewicz” against Franklin.
Battie has not responded to numerous requests from The Herald-Tribune for comment. Borysciewicz has also declined to comment.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota City Commissioner Battie sued for alleged defamation
