Court rules against Carlsbad he-she council"it", lifts restraining order

This is a male pretending to be a woman.

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CARLSBAD —  A Superior Court last week dismissed the restraining 
order a Carlsbad councilwoman obtained in September against two 
of her constituents whom she claimed harassed her on Facebook 
and other online forums.

Councilwoman Cori Schumacher obtained the order against three 
people, Anthony Bona, Noel Breen and Larry Posner, although 
Posner was released from the case in October. The three men had 
criticized Schumacher for her positions on a number of community 
issues and posted comments that she considered threatening.

“The issue here is essentially whether Bona and Breen were 
engaged in a course of protected political commentary 
(legitimate conduct) or made unprotected “true threats” 
constituting harassment,” wrote Judge Cynthia A. Freeland in her 
tentative ruling released Thursday. “The only reasonable 
interpretation of these posts is social commentary, not personal 
threats.”

Reached by email Thursday, Schumacher declined to comment on the 
judge’s decision.

Bona said Friday by email that the judge “was able to look at 
the big picture of what was going on and render a fair, unbiased 
opinion.”

“I have been severely damaged by reckless news stories, which 
had me colored as a stalker when I don’t know where she lives,” 
Bona said. “Some news outlets reported me as surveilling her 
when I never did nor did I have any intentions to. This is wrong 
and needs to be acknowledged as wrong. My financial life and 
personal life have suffered tremendously as a result.”

Bona and Breen filed what’s called an anti-SLAPP (Strategic 
Lawsuit Against Public Participation) motion against Schumacher 
asking the court to lift the restraining order.

“The public should feel free to use social media to criticize 
public officials without fear of having their First Amendment 
rights trampled by thin-skinned politicians,” said Scott Talkov, 
an attorney representing Breen.

“When you run for elected office, you sign up to be disliked for 
any reason or no reason, including reasons you’ll never 
understand,” Talkov said in an email.

Breen posted several commentaries on the decision on Facebook, 
include a live 15-minute commentary.

“Whatever our individual politics or attitudes toward the 
councilwoman, the use of the court system in this manner is just 
another piece of the delegitimization of public commenters, 
reporters and news outlets,” Breen said by email Friday.

“I could have gladly missed out on the experience, but SLAPP 
suits are a sad manifestation of broader issues in our country,” 
he said. “It needs to be discussed every time it occurs.”

The judge scheduled a hearing April 9 for motions expected from 
Bona and Breen seeking attorneys’ fees.

Schumacher was first elected to an at-large council seat in 2016 
and ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2018. In a special March 
2020 election, voters chose her to fill the District 1 seat left 
open by the resignation of former Councilwoman Barbara Hamilton, 
a term that expires in 2022.

<https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/north-
county/carlsbad/story/2021-03-07/court-rules-against-carlsbad-
councilwoman-lifts-restraining-order>