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Houghton County employee sues Kelly

HOUGHTON — A Houghton County employee is alleging Houghton County Clerk Jennifer Kelly defamed her in an email sent to other county employees and officials.

A four-count suit was filed in Houghton County Circuit Court Monday by Beverly Smith, an employee in the clerk’s office. In the complaint, Smith alleges an Oct. 19 email from Kelly falsely claimed Smith had threatened to run her over.

Smith is seeking whistleblower protection, while also suing for defamation and emotional distress. The suit also alleges that Kelly published confidential information, violating state law regarding standards of conduct for officials.

In the Oct. 19 email, included in the complaint, Kelly described a meeting with Administrator Ben Larson and Deputy Equalization Director Jaikob Djerf regarding a customer complaint about Smith. During that meeting, Kelly said, Djerf told her of an incident the year before in which Smith had said “that she was going to run me over with her vehicle.”

In a follow-up email, Djerf said Kelly was mischaracterizing the meeting, and wondered why so many people had been included on the email.

“…She was never mentioned directly, there was no mention of a car, and no direct threat of violence ever made,” he said. “It was a general statement, said in the heat of the moment, as we were leaving the room we were meeting in. To claim anything otherwise is false and misleading.”

In the complaint, Smith’s attorney, Matthew Eliason, linked the incident to a December communication by Kelly, in which she alleged Smith had made threats against her re-election and also negatively discussed the job performance of a clerk employee who had been demoted. That had gone out to village clerks and other county officials, the complaint states.

The December letter was the subject of a meeting with the Houghton County Board in March, most of which was closed to the public. The board took no public action; in the complaint, Eliason said there had been a reprimand.

Eliason is also representing Justin Kasieta, Kelly’s opponent in the clerk race, in connection with an alleged threatening call to Kelly made by Matthew Smith, a Genesee County board candidate. Because of that connection, several other county employees with grievances have come to the firm, viewing it as a “safe haven,” Eliason said. Those employees, who were not named, have complained of “violations of policy, mismanagement, cronyism, and dishonesty,” Eliason’s release states.

Phone records indicate Kasieta was on the line during the call, a Houghton County incident report stated. Kasieta said in a statement to investigators the call had not been his idea, the report said.

Beverly Smith’s attorney, Matthew Eliason, said he had only received the Oct. 19 email on Friday, after meeting with Smith. She was “shaken,” he said.

“Normally, would I have filed it five days after, three days after I get the client in the door? Probably not,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “I’m not going to say there’s no political motivation, but the political motivation serves my client.”

In a release, Eliason said the October email was part of a pattern of exaggeration by Kelly. In the incident report of the phone call made by Matthew Smith, Kelly said the call included threats to kill her dogs. The incident report stated Kasieta admitted Smith had cursed in the call, but said Smith had only expressed concern for the dogs’ safety.

The complaint and release have multiple mentions of the campaign between Kasieta and Kelly. In the release, Eliason ended by calling on Houghton County voters “to protect Beverly and others from workplace abuse.”

While the negative publicity could help Kasieta, it wasn’t brought for his benefit, Eliason said. Instead, he said, his concern in the case is protecting Smith’s job — with the quickest method being “a different boss.”

“I have no doubt over time that Ms. Kelly wants to fire Ms. Smith,” he said. “We can go through the courts, but it doesn’t solve it tomorrow, it solves it two years from now. An election gives a little more potential for an immediate result.”

Reached for comment Tuesday, Kelly said she had not had time to read the complaint and would discuss the issue with her lawyer.

Eliason said he did not see representing Kasieta and Smith as a conflict of interest, as both clients have a similar interest. He said he had filed a waiver for potential conflict that would allow him to withdraw as counsel if either client thought they were being misrepresented as a result.

In the release, Eliason said Houghton County could potentially be added as a defendant in the suit. Beverly Smith does not want to sue the county, Eliason said.

“She really doesn’t feel any animosity toward Houghton County,” he said. “Houghton County has been excellent to deal with. We pled the complaint in a way that we feel the behavior is outside the scope of Jennifer Kelly’s office.”

Other employees have said they do not want to join the suit now, but potentially could later, Eliason said.

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