"Anti-SLAPPed! Why a City Hall Operative Will Soon Cough-Up Cash" by Daniel Guss
Larry Gross, a Karen Bass appointee, f*cked around and found out.
Political shenanigans and censorship just got costly for Larry Gross.
The long-time president of the LA Animal Services commission, who is blamed by many for the hideously (if not criminally) inhumane conditions at LAAS, tried to silence Joy Freiberg, one of LA’s most dedicated animal rescuers and an outspoken critic of LA Mayor Karen Bass’s deadly, diseased animal pounds.
He failed.
Completely.
According to a minute order, Gross’s defamation lawsuit against Freiberg was struck-down — in its entirety — yesterday afternoon by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Theresa M. Traber, though the order is just a notice of Traber’s ruling, which has not yet been posted.
We’ll come back to those words: in its entirety.
As documented exclusively in this column last week, in response to Gross’s lawsuit, Freiberg’s attorney, Paul Nicholas Boylan, a First Amendment and public records expert based in Davis, California, filed a masterful Anti-SLAPP Special Motion to Strike, winning on each and every point.
Section 425.16 of California’s best-in-the-nation Anti-SLAPP law now allows Boylan to recover from Gross the reasonable value of his legal representation of Freiberg and related costs.
That reasonable value of a year of Boylan’s legal expertise will soon be determined, as Boylan will, within 15 days, make that case to the court.
So let’s come back to those words: in its entirety.
As in:
Accordingly, Defendant’s (Freiberg’s) Special Motion to Strike is GRANTED.
Plaintiff’s (Gross’s) Complaint is stricken in its entirety.
That’s where the thoroughness of Boylan’s efforts are likely to weigh heavily against Gross, who has 60 days to appeal, starting when the Court issues a final judgment. That won’t happen until several other procedural events take place.
It is unclear how much Gross has already spent on his now-failed lawsuit, and how much more an appeal, assuming he files one, may cost.
But today, it’s a victory for free speech, as well as for Joy Freiberg and those like her, who speak out against corrupt governments and their enablers at the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere in the media. They speak for voiceless, neglected animals in places like Karen Bass’s deadly, diseased, cruel — and let’s be clear — very high kill animal pounds.
Like Larry Gross was supposed to do.
Bass and LA City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who chairs the LA City Council committee that oversees LA Animal Services, have not yet responded to this column’s questions. Gross has not yet responded to an interview request.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a multi-award-winning journalist. In June ‘23, he won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards. He has been City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)