Preliminary legal skirmishes in the lawsuit filed against former councilman Anthony Miller by the City of Wayne continued last week before Michigan Circuit Court Judge Sheila Ann Gibson.
The city is suing Miller, charging him with violations of his fiduciary responsibility during his term as a council member. The city claims Miller provided confidential information to Michigan State Police during an investigation which caused financial damage to the municipality. The documents Miller provided to state investigators include both a 105-page and a supplemental 33-page report regarding employee claims of a hostile working environment in Wayne City Hall. Those documents subsequently became evidence in at least two other ongoing lawsuits seeking monetary damages from the city. The investigative reports, completed by an outside legal firm, were critical of City Manager Lisa Nocerini and recommended her dismissal or discipline by members of the city council.
During the hearing last week, attorney Jim Rasor, who represents Miller, asked the judge to revoke the temporary restraining order against Miller which prevented him from releasing confidential documents concerning the city, including the investigative reports. Rasor argued that both reports had already been released and were in the public domain before Miller provided the information to the state police investigators. He suggested a restraining order against releasing documents already a matter of public record was without basis or merit.
Scott Ruark, representing the city of Wayne, disputed that argument and claimed the city had revoked privilege on only the 105-page report and not the 33-page supplemental report. Ruark also requested an order from the judge to compel both former Wayne Mayor Susan Rowe and former Councilman Ryan Gabriel to undergo formal depositions regarding the release of the reports to the public.
Rasor argued that both reports were already available to the public as exhibits in an ongoing federal lawsuit seeking damages from the city and that the inclusion of the reports had been approved by the federal judge in that case, making them a matter of public record. In addition, he told the judge, the entire matter was outside the statute of limitations as the city did not file the suit until 2022.
“There is no way to restrain my client from releasing material that was already in the public domain,” Rasor told the judge, citing a video tape of a city council meeting of Sept. 4, 2018 when the members of the council voted to publish both reports on the city website, thereby waiving privacy privilege. Ruark claimed the city only waived privilege on the initial report and that Miller gave state investigators the 33-page subsequent report which he argued remained privileged, a claim Rasor disputed.
Rasor played a 5-minute videotape of the meeting during which Rowe clearly states that “everything we received” would be made public in response to a question from an audience member regarding both reports. “Everything we got, you will get. You paid for it, you'll get it,” the former mayor stated emphatically. On the tape, one council member explicitly asks that the motion, approved with one no vote, include both the initial and subsequent reports.
“The city of Wayne is extremely litigious,” Rasor told the judge. “This case wasn't filed until June 17 of 2019 and never had merit and the city knew it.”
After extensive arguments and discussion, the judge agreed there was no merit in continuing the restraining order against Miller who left the council in June of 2021 after serving for six years. She added that should Miller release any other confidential information in his possession he would be cited for contempt of court, but that she couldn't restrain him from releasing information already in the public domain.
The judge approved Ruark's request to compel both Gabriel and Rowe, also represented by Rasor, to submit to ZOOM depositions within 28 days.
Gibson repeatedly reminded both attorneys who continued to refer to other aspects and evidence in the case, “We will get to that during trial. I can only rule on what is before me now.”
