August
12th 2010 Federal Lawsuit Has been Filed in Phoenix
Here is an attachment
PDF file of the Federal Lawsuit that today has been filed in Phoenix.
Zanna/Langston vs Mohave County, Sup. Tom Sockwell, Sup. Buster Johnson,
Sup. Gary Watson, County Manager Ron Walker, County Attorney William Ekstrom.
This is lawsuit is regarding the ordeal started November the 13 2009 at
the McCain townhall meeting / campaign event... The County was served
on date May 3rd 2010 the claim that have refused to answer.
The deadline to answer to it was July 5th 2010.
for the whole story read here how all this
started... and evolved
Zanna
files complaint against county
By JIM SECKLER/The Daily News August 13, 2010 2:53 AM MDT
Zanna
files complaint in district court
Golden Valley man says county violated his rights
8/16/2010 Kingman Daily Miner
Watson,
Goodale blast ADOC policies
S. Adams Kingman Daily Miner 8/19/2010
Republican Men's Club President Dr. Larry Schiff pointed out that Luca
Zanna and the others who had filed lawsuits felt that they been treated
with disrespect by the county. Perhaps if they had been treated with a
little more respect they would not have resorted to lawsuits, he said.
Watson agreed.
"There were two letters that went out. I didn't approve
of the letters, and if I had had the authority, I wouldn't have approved
them," he said.
NOTICE
OF CLAIM
Mohave County Supervisors have
been served!!!
Almost 6 months since the violation of rights at the Sen. McCain Kingman,
AZ. Townhall meeting occurred,
9:00 am May 3rd 2010 in Kingman AZ at the Mohave County
Administrative Building, right before the Board of Supervisor meeting
started, Sup. Buster Johnson, Gary Watson, Tom Sockwell, County Manager
Ron Walker and County Attorney Bill Ekstrom were all served
with the Notice of Claim for the pending lawsuit by Luca Zanna and Bridget
Langston against Mohave County.
Conspiracy
against rights, Deprivation
of Rights under Color of Law, Destruction
of Public Records,
Violation
of ARS 11-410, Defamation of Character, and more!
If you want to read the whole story how
all this started click here
DOWNLOAD THE ORIGINAL NOTICE OF
CLAIM (6 pages)
Dowload Page 1 - Download
Page 2 - Download Page
3 - Download Page 4
- Download Page 5 - Download
Page 6
Zannas
sock county with $500,000 claim
Civil rights violations, slander, libel alleged by
Golden Valley couple 5/4/2010
Kingman Daily Miner
County
supervisors served notice of claim
Citing civil rights violations, Golden Valley man asks for $500,000 By
JIM SECKLER/The Daily News
Second
claim filed against supervisors
Golden Valley man seeks $42 million in damages for alleged rights violations
By JIM SECKLER/The Daily News Published: Friday, May 7, 2010
5/18/2010
House gun bill creates a stir
Measure prohibits record-keeping by governments
Lawsuit
against county moved to federal court
by Suzanne Adams Kingman Daily Miner 6/22/2010
Fried
puts county on notice
Man arrested with pitchfork says his rights were violated
8/12/2010 Kingman Daily Miner
ZANNA
ATTORNEY VICKI LOPEZ WINS ILLEGAL SEARCH AND SEIZURE CASE AGAINST THE
STATE vs Pastor Anderson
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTICE
OF CLAIM
April 30, 2010
Ron Walker, Gary Watson, Barbra Bracken, Matthew Smith
700 W. Beale Street 700 W. Beale Street
Kingman, AZ 86402 Kingman, AZ 86402
Tom Sockwell
1130 Hancock Road 315 N. 4th Street
Bullhead
City, AZ 86442 Kingman, AZ 86401
Buster Johnson
2001
College Drive, Suite 90 700 W. Beale Street
Lake
Havasu City, AZ 86403 Kingman, AZ 86402
Mohave County
Civil Attorney William Ekstrom
700 W.
Beale Street 401 Spring Street County Courthouse
Kingman,
AZ 86402 Kingman, AZ 86401
NOTICE OF
CLAIM
Mr. Gianluca Zanna hereby gives notice to the Mohave County Manager, Ron
Walker, Mohave County Board of Supervisors Tom Sockwell, Buster Johnson,
and Gary Watson. Mohave County Attorney Matthew Smith, Mohave County Civil
Attorney, Mohave County Attorney William Ekstrom and the Mohave County
Clerk of the Board Barbra Bracken of the following claim:
1. Claimant
Information.
Claimant’s
name: Gianluca Zanna and Bridget Langston Zanna
Address:
Phone no.:
Date of Birth:
Occurrence/Events giving rise to the claim.
Date of Occurrence: November 13, 2009
Location of Occurrence: Mohave County Administrative Building
700 West Beale Street
Kingman, Arizona
Basis
on which liability is claimed:
On November 13, 2009 Mohave County residents gathered at the Mohave County
Administrative Building for Sen. McCain’s Town Hall Meeting. Gianluca
Zanna, Bridget Langston-Zanna, and Dean Jacobs, who were present to attend
the meeting, began to exercise their First Amendment rights and pass out
flyers regarding Sen. McCain’s voting record to other attendees at
the Town Hall Meeting. When the passing of these flyers came to Supervisor
Buster Johnson’s attention, he immediately instructed them to stop.
Gianluca, Bridget, and Dean complied, with no hesitation, and discarded
the flyers. Supervisor Johnson then proceeded to state, “There was
a law prohibiting them from such an act, and as private citizens “some”
of their freedom of speech rights were null and void in a county building.”
The Zanna’s and Jacobs were then approached by security and Buster
Johnson and were informed that they would be “escorted” out
of the building if they continued to pass out Sen. McCain’s voting
record. Since they believed this request violated their constitutional
right to free speech, they reported the incident to Sheriff Sheahan, who
was also attending the Meeting. During the time these events took place,
Sen. McCain’s staff and supporters were exercising their First Amendment
rights by passing out flyers and collecting signatures.
During the Meeting, questions were taken from the attendees, with the
exception of Mr. Zanna. It was immediately apparent that Zanna was being
prohibited from participating in the Meeting. Mr. Zanna’s hand was
raised for the entire meeting and he was blatantly ignored and passed
over, and it was clear it was related to his attempt to pass out the flyers.
Gianluca became very uncomfortable as he felt he has been “marked”
by John McCain and his staff. Mr. Joe Hart, the current State Mine Inspector,
soon started to motion and nod in the Zanna’s direction while whispering
into the ear of a McCain employee, as if he was identifying the Zanna’s.
Sen. McCain’s staff had also taken many photographs of Zanna. Gianluca’s
hand was raised during the length of the meeting, with no disruption,
and Supervisor Johnson singled out Zanna more than once to silence him
from speaking at all. Gianluca, who was always respectful and law abiding,
waited until the meeting had adjourned, to politely stand up and insist
that he deserved a chance to speak, as he was an American too. Gianluca
continued to be ignored, even after he had waited, to the end of the Meeting
so he would not disrupt Sen. McCain. Finally Zanna was given the microphone
to say what he felt was important. He wanted to discuss Senator McCain’s
voting record and he was not given a sufficient opportunity to speak.
Subsequent to the Meeting, he made numerous attempts to contact the Board
of Supervisors and the County Attorney to obtain an answer to the question
of why his First Amendment rights did not apply in a county building.
After unanswered efforts through e-mail, phone calls, and voicemails,
Gianluca simply felt as if they were continuing to take no notice of his
concern, just as they had done in the meeting. County Manager, Ron Walker,
and County Supervisor, Tom Sockwell, chose to write derogatory letters
about the Zanna’s and published them in local newspapers. These published
letters were filled with lies and discriminatory remarks, launching a
defamation of character assault.
On December 2, 2009, Gianluca Zanna sent out a public email to all of
the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Sheahan, and Sen. Gould, again asking
for the answers as to why his First Amendment rights were suspended in
a County building. Instead of directly addressing Mr. Zanna, an e-mail
interchange between County Manager, Walker, and County Attorney Ekstrom
took place. The conversation went as follows.
Ekstrom to Ron Walker
“It has long been our position and policy that County property is an appropriate place to conduct county business unmolested by political activities and opinions. It is not meant to be a forum for constitutionally protected free speech as there are other convenient places where those rights can be exercised without disrupting the rights of others. Bill”
Walker to Bill Ekstrom
“I figure we only say it is the policy and will be enforced. Then let the chips fall where they may”.
Ekstrom to Ron Walker
“I agree, Bill”
Tom Sockwell wrote a letter which was published in The Standard newspaper
on January 20, 2010, in the Kingman Daily Miner newspaper on January
21, 2010 and in the Mohave Valley Daily News newspaper on January 24,
2010, in which he claimed that on November 3, 2009 he had a conversation
with Mr. Zanna regarding the current issues. However, in an e-mail dated
March 4, 2009 he indicated otherwise.
Tom Sockwell to Patricia Moran
“Never in my life have I had an email or telephone conversation with Mr. Zanna”.
Shortly thereafter, Gianluca Zanna got his name on the agenda for a County
Supervisors Board Meeting. Although Mr. Zanna was not able to put his real
issue on the agenda, when Mr. Zanna’s turn came around, it became apparent
that Tom Sockwell was going to make it clear that Gianluca was not to mention
anything but what the agenda listed. Sockwell had addressed Zanna and his
wife as “you people”, twice. Sockwell told Zanna that he was to
speak about exactly what he has listed on the agenda or he would be instructed
to sit down. Gianluca addressed Sockwell and asked to be put on the agenda
for the issue concerning what “Law” prohibited the passing out of
flyers at the Sen. McCain Town Hall Meeting. Zanna was immediately shut down
and told that he was not to speak out on other issues, and that he would have
to put existing concerns on the agenda for a later appointment. Gianluca expressed
that he had tried numerous times to do so but he never received a response
from anyone. He was then told to contact the County Attorney, but expressed
that he had tried with no response. County Manager Ron Walker says that “We
have an open meeting law, and our board meetings are for official business.”
This was official business that the Board of Supervisors did not want to address.
Although the Board and Gianluca Zanna had never spoken about the issue
directly, Tom Sockwell then proceeded to write a derogatory letter to
the local papers stating, “There is a good reason people are not
allowed to politic on county property. “We the people” should
be able to carry out the public’s business without running a gauntlet
of a soapbox activist like Zanna, Langston, or Hanoi Jane.” Soon
after his letter was released, a follow up editorial from the County Manager
was written. This editorial referred to Mr. Zanna as a part of a “lunatic
fringe” and compared Gianluca to Timothy McVeigh. He wrote, “Let
us never forget a former local person who blew up the Alfred P. Murrah
Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 169 innocent people and injuring
681 others. This editorial from Ron Walker was clearly intended to deride
and defame Mr. Zanna by inferring that his behavior was that of a terrorist.
This incident was discussed on statewide television news programs with
a backdrop of images of Timothy McVeigh and Gianluca Zanna. Mr. Zanna
also felt it was unfair that Walker on more then one occasion referred
to him as a “Naturalized Citizen” and a “Former Italian
National,” as if his behavior was attributable to the fact that he
was not born an American citizen. After numerous slanderous and libelous
remarks and comments directed towards Gianluca Zanna, he has become recognizable
by the general public. During a visit to the Post Office, Mr. Zanna was
publicly embarrassed in front of twenty people when an employee asked
him if, “He was the one that flew the plane into the IRS building.”
These comments to Mr. Zanna are directly attributable to the slanderous
and libelous public comments by Ron Walker and Tom Sockwell.
As recently as April 20, 2010, Supervisor Tom Sockwell gave a public speech
to the Bullhead Republican Women’s Association ridiculing and defaming
Mr. Zanna, further damaging his reputation in an attempt to diminish Mr.
Zanna’s position on the incident on November 13, 2009.
Bridget Langston Zanna has suffered emotional distress over the damage
to her husband’s reputation and standing in the community and the
damage to her reputation and standing in the community as a result of
the above listed actions and incidents.
4.Public
Records Request Violation
On March 5, 2010 Mr. Gianluca Zanna put in a public records request for
all information dated from February 15, 2010 to March 5, 2010 regarding
him and the current public situation. Mr. Zanna only received a selective
portion of the information, as e-mails had been deliberately destroyed
and/or omitted. This is a Violation of Public records request.
Supervisor Sockwell wrote in a letter to the Kingman Daily Minor on January
21, 2010 “ I talked to Zanna on November 3 regarding an issue, yet
today he claims he hasn’t talked to any of us. “ However, in
an e-mail to Patricia Moran on March 4, 2010 he stated, “Never in
my life have I had an e-mail or telephone conversation with Mr. Zanna.”
This March 4, 2010 e-mail was never provided to Mr. Zanna in response
to his Public Records Request.
This further demonstrates the public lies and efforts by the Supervisors and
the County Manager to publicly humiliate Mr. and Mrs. Zanna.
Supervisor Johnson had no authority to stop Mr. and Mrs. Zanna from distributing
flyers on county property at a public forum. The peace was not disturbed.
This is a violation of Mr. and Mrs. Zanna’s civil rights under the First
Amendment of the Constitution.
This violation was particularly egregious since Supervisor Johnson only forced
Mr. Zanna and his wife to stop distributing flyers and information. He did
not stop Sen. McCain’s staff from doing so. Supervisor Johnson’s
action against Mr. and Mrs. Zanna was a selective and discriminatory action
against Mr. and Mrs. Zanna in violation of their constitutional rights. In
addition, Mohave County was in violation of A.R.S. §11-410 by allowing
County resources and County employees to influence a re-election campaign.
Further more, the institution of any policy, either written or understood
disallowing the distribution of pamphlets or flyers on County property violates
Mr. Zanna’s and all citizens’ civil rights under the First Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution.
The Board of Supervisors and the County Manager have abused the authority
of their respective offices by implementing an unconstitutional policy and
by publicly slandering, libeling, and defaming Mr. and Mrs. Zanna.
5. Statement
of Liability
Supervisor Johnson violated Mr. and Mrs. Zanna’s First Amendment rights
by refusing to allow them to distribute flyers at the Town Hall Meeting while
allowing Sen. McCain and his staff to exercise their freedom of speech, distribute
information and register voters. Additionally, the subjects of this claim
violated Mr. and Mrs. Zanna’s First Amendment rights by implementing
an unconstitutional policy prohibiting the distribution of flyers and information
on County property.
The subjects of this claim engaged in slanderous and libelous actions, which
have defamed Mr. and Mrs. Zanna, causing damage to their reputations and standing
in their community.
The subjects of this claim are in violation of Federal Statutes 18 U.S.C.
§241, 18 U.S.C. §242 and 42 U.S.C. §1983 and state statutes
A.R.S. §11-410.
6. The
Subjects of this Notice of Claim.
This Notice of Claim addresses the conduct of the Mohave County Board of Supervisors,
Mohave County Manager and the Mohave County Attorneys.
7. Damages
Mr. and
Mrs. Zanna have suffered from their denial of their First Amendment rights.
Such denial has interfered with one of the basis liberties provided by the
Constitution of the United States. Such denial has caused Mr. and Mrs. Zanna
to be unable to exercise their right to free speech, unimpaired and unencumbered,
by the actions of the Government.
The subjects of this claim have violated Mr. and Mrs. Zanna’s right to
free speech under the color of law.
The subjects of this claim have publicly slandered, libeled and defamed Mr.
and Mrs. Zanna causing loss of reputation and standing in the community in
which they reside.
8. Litigation
Hold
This Notice of Claim constitutes a request for a litigation hold to be
placed on all documents and correspondence, including e-mails, pertaining
to this matter to prevent the destruction of such information.
Claimant has information indicating that the Board of Supervisors and Ron
Walker have meetings in which decisions have been made to purge e-mails and
documents relating to Mr. Zanna and that explicit instructions have been given
to purge such documents.
A subsequent request will be made for all the computer meta-data relating
to the purged data.
The destruction of such documents is a violation of A.R.S. §38-421.
9. Demand.
As a result of the aforementioned activities of the subjects of this claim,
Mr. and Mrs. Zanna have suffered emotional distress. Their reputations
have been damaged,
In order to comply with the requirements of the A.R.S. §12-821.01 and
pursuant to Deer Valley Unified School District No. 97 v. Houser, 214 Ariz.
293, 152 P.3d 490 (2007), and based upon foregoing facts currently ascertainable
to Gianluca Zanna and Bridget Langston Zanna at this time, they claim damages
in the amount of $500,000.00, not only for Mr. and Mrs. Zanna’s emotional
distress, but also for the violation of their civil rights and the extensive
damage to their reputations and standing in their community.
Sincerely,
Vicki A.R. Lopez
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