Greg Lederer Wins Defamation Case

A district court judge has dismissed the lawsuit by a former University of Iowa dean of students against UI President Sally Mason, the Iowa state Board of Regents and others.

Johnson County District Court Judge Fae Hoover-Grinde granted a summary judgment to dismiss the case brought by Phillip Jones, a former UI dean of students and vice president of student services, on Jan. 26. The ruling was made public Wednesday.

Jones’ attorney, Dave Dutton of Dutton, Braun, Staack & Hellman PLC in Waterloo, said they plan to appeal Hoover-Grinde’s decision. The appeal will go to the Iowa Supreme Court, which can decide to handle the case itself or transfer it to the Iowa Court of Appeals.

Dutton declined to comment further on the lawsuit.

Jones sued Mason, UI, the Board of Regents and The Stolar Partnership, a St. Louis law firm, for defamation, wrongful termination and intentional interference with prospective business advantage after he was fired from the university in 2008 for his handling of a sexual assault allegation made in 2007 that involved three student athletes.

Hoover-Grinde ruled that Mason, as president of UI, has immunity from defamation lawsuits. The Board of Regents has similar protections.

The judge also ruled that because Jones was an at-will employee, he could not file for wrongful termination.

In their arguments for summary judgment, Mason’s attorneys argued that even if she did not have immunity from charges, her comments did not reach the level of defamation of a public official.

On Wednesday, the state Attorney General’s office referred comments to UI.

“The judge’s ruling summarizes the issues very well and the ruling speaks for itself,” UI spokesman Tom Moore said of the outcome.

In his argument against Stolar Partnership, a firm hired by the Board of Regents to conduct an independent investigation of the university’s handling of the sexual assault report, Jones said Stolar intentionally provided a negative report of his handling of the assault investigation.

Stolar’s report laid much of the blame for the mishandling on Jones and former UI General Counsel Marcus Mills.

Hoover-Grinde sided with Stolar, which argued it could not act improperly by simply doing its job.

“For my client, I’m very pleased with the decision,” said Greg Lederer, an attorney with Lederer Weston Craig of Cedar Rapids, who represented Stolar. “The Board of Regents retained the Stolar Partnership to conduct an investigation and the Stolar Partnership did the best job they could and issued a report that they believe in and what else happened after that in terms of what the university did was between the university and the Board of Regents.”

Mason, UI, the Board of Regents and Stolar are in the middle of a similar lawsuit brought by Mills, who also was fired following the assault investigation. Mills’ lawsuit was transferred to federal court, and a jury trial has been scheduled for December.

Lederer is representing Stolar in the Mills case as well and said that although the Jones decision does not directly impact the other lawsuit, it does provide one judge’s view on the legal issues that are similar in both cases.