St. Paul neighborhood Facebook fight spills over into court, pulling in city and county officials

Deanna Weniger, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
·2 min read

Jul. 23—A five-month legal dispute involving St. Paul Planning Commissioner Rich Holst, Ramsey County Commissioner Trista MatasCastillo and contributors to the "Rice Street Neighbors" Facebook page reads like a comment section of a political social media post — probably because that's where it started.

Holst filed a lawsuit Feb. 24 in Ramsey County District Court against six contributors on the "Rice Street Neighbors" page, four whose names he knew and two he didn't. The suit against Thomas Tehle, Michele Hays, Paul Krieger, Marge McPartlin, "John Doe" and "Mary Roe" alleges that these six defendants defamed his reputation. They've called him "dirty" and "lazy." They have allegedly accused him of owing the city $800,000 and circulated a rumor that he's had a sexual affair, according to his lawsuit.

Holst, who is married, says none of those things are true. And he's willing to say as much in court. He seeks at least $50,000 in damages.

Rather than back off, Krieger doubled down with legal counterclaims that seek to link Holst and MatasCastillo to alleged violations of the open meeting law, skewed traffic count data and other improprieties.

These allegations pulled in the District 6 Planning Council, Ramsey County and MatasCastillo as third-party defendants. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi got involved, filing a motion in May to dismiss Krieger's counterclaims and extricate MatasCastillo and the county from the lawsuit.

Holst, who was appointed by the mayor's office this year to the St. Paul Planning Commission, said the issues started during his tenure as president of the North End Neighborhood Organization. He advocated for bike lanes on Rice Street, among other changes that have irked some neighborhood traditionalists.

Since Krieger filed his counterclaim, the legal process has included multiple memos from the attorneys of the various parties calling for each other's claims to be dismissed, accusing them of not being based on evidence and picking them apart via legal technicalities.

The most recent document filed Friday was a letter from Krieger to Holst's attorney following receipt of a cease and desist order. The letter, dated Jan. 4, seems to be Krieger's attempt at reconciliation.

He writes, "I'm known to be very cynical and sarcastic online, for that I do apologize. I've always seen Facebook as fake and had no intent of being truly malicious or causing harm. Had I intended to be malicious or harmful, I'd have made my own post. I don't live in the neighborhood and have no clue what is happening, I can only go off of what I see shared."

It's unknown what transpired between Jan. 4 and Feb. 24 when Holst filed his lawsuit, but the 58 court documents filed since show no signs of resolution.