Sender of inflammatory emails loses suit against West Des Moines for contract cancellation

A security provider who sued West Des Moines for retaliation after it canceled its contract with him following a Des Moines Register report about incendiary emails he wrote can't show he was wronged by city officials, a federal judge has ruled.

Security firm Conley Group Inc. provided armed security services for both West Des Moines and Des Moines until 2021, when West Des Moines canceled its contract and the company mutually agreed to end its contract with Des Moines.

Those actions came after the Register reported on emails company President and CEO Tom Conley sent to police and city officials, including Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert. The emails accused Des Moines Black Liberation Movement demonstrators of "terrorism" and shared memes mocking George Floyd, LGBT people and racial justice protesters.

Conley and Conley Group sued West Des Moines in 2023, accusing the city of unlawful retaliation against him for protected free speech and defamation. He also accused Councilmember Renee Hardman of contract interference for improperly urging Des Moines City Manager Scott Sanders to cancel that city's contract with Conley Group.

The city asked the court to dismiss the suit, arguing none of Conley's claims are legally viable. On Monday, federal Chief Judge Stephanie Rose agreed, ordering all of Conley's claims dismissed.

Mike Richards, an attorney for the city, praised the order, calling it in an email to the Register a "thoughtful and well-reasoned decision." Attorney Ken Munro, representing Conley, declined to comment beyond saying Conley intends to appeal.

Judge dismisses each of Conley's claims

Conley claimed that by ending his contract in response to the publication of his emails, West Des Moines was retaliating against him in violation of his First Amendment right to free speech.

The problem, Rose wrote, is that Conley the person and Conley Group Inc. the company are different entities. Conley, she wrote, appears from court filings to have been acting as an individual rather than on behalf of his company when he sent the objectionable emails.

West Des Moines' action in ending the contract only legally affected Conley Group. Despite being the company's sole owner and shareholder, Rose found, Conley lacks standing for his First Amendment claim because he has not suffered any legal injury distinct from his company.

Conley also accused the city of "defamation by implication," meaning the city juxtaposed facts or omitted context to create the impression that he, as he put it in his complaint, "was a racist." But Rose pointed out in her order that Conley does not in court filings identify any specific statements made by city officials, direct or indirect, that support his case, and that he instead suggests that the city's actions related to his company's contract amount to defamation.

"This is not a proper basis for a defamation claim," Rose wrote.

As for "tortious interference with business contracts," Rose wrote that the one example Conley gave — of Hardman allegedly contacting Des Moines officials to "demand" the city also cancel its Conley contract — also is inadequate to support his claim.

A litigant must not only show that another party "improperly" interfered in their contract, but that the interference was the cause of the resulting damage, Rose wrote. She found that Conley failed to explain how Hardman's alleged actions caused Des Moines to terminate his contract, and in fact admits that he voluntarily ended that contract himself, meaning that he "falls far short" of establishing a contract interference claim.

Prior to the Register's 2021 reporting, Conley Group had security contracts at both the Des Moines and West Des Moines city halls as well as in the Des Moines skywalk. It is unclear the company is still contracting to provide security to any metro cities.

Conley has said in court filings he was planning to sell the security portion of his business in summer 2021, one reason he said he voluntarily chose to end the contract with Des Moines to avoid further controversy. But the company's website still lists armed security as one of its services and Conley as its president and CEO.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Security contractor loses First Amendment suit against West Des Moines