A Modesto Irrigation District internal legal battle came to a close last week, leaving one of its own board members owing tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees. The board member, Janice Keating, called the decision vindictive and retaliatory.
In May, District 2 representative Keating filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against MID and fellow board member Robert Frobose. In response, MID filed a so-called anti-SLAPP motion, resulting in Keating being charged with over $44,500 in attorney fees.
Anti-SLAPP motions are a way for defendants to compensate themselves for attorney fees associated with Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) suits. MID’s motion claimed Keating’s lawsuit “involve[d] speech or conduct in the scope of their protected legislative activities.”
The original lawsuit claimed Frobose intimidated Keating during an inspection of the La Grange Dam and berated her in closed session to approve a former MID lawyer.
“Director Frobose kept getting angrier and angrier and angrier that he couldn’t make me feel or vote the way he wanted me to,” said Keating, who is the first woman on the MID board in its 137-year history.