Portsmouth vice mayor must pay $775,000 for defaming ex-city auditor, jury rules
A jury ruled Portsmouth Vice Mayor Elizabeth Psimas defamed the city auditor in comments to the media and should pay him $775,000 in damages.
“Her statements to the press were gratuitous and unnecessary,” said Christian Connell, the lawyer for former auditor Jesse Andre Thomas, who was fired in 2016. “If she wanted to critique him as her employee and subordinate, she certainly had the right to do that. But she didn’t need to do it publicly ... in a way to basically destroy him.”
Connell had sought $1.5 million in the suit he filed on behalf of Thomas last year. The jury reached its decision on Monday after a four-day trial that began last week in Norfolk Circuit Court.
In an email, Psimas declined to comment on the case “because it has not yet been concluded.” She cited the advice of her attorney, Alan Rashkind, who also declined to speak.
Read more: https://pilotonline.com/news/government/local/article_40b7b85e-ed05-11e8-8978-6b6501f4d529.html
