Pastor Bob Grenier
Fathers don’t sue their stepsons for defamation every day. Even less often do pastors of large churches in California’s Central Valley sue their stepsons for what they term a “cyber-bully hate campaign.”
But Bob Grenier, the senior pastor at Calvary Chapel in Visalia, Calif. – and an author and Christian radio host – did exactly that. Grenier and his wife Gayle sued Alex Grenier, Gayle’s son from a previous relationship and whom Grenier raised from the age of three, for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress after Alex created a website detailing his life with Pastor Bob.
The family portrait Alex paints in his website – which is still up and occasionally updated – is not a flattering one. According to Alex and co-defendant Tim Taylor, a one-time member of the Calvary Chapel Visalia flock, Pastor Bob emotionally and physically abused the four Grenier brothers and sexually molested one of them.
Alex’s website also details supposedly well-known instances where the Greniers have used the church’s money as their own personal slush fund and committed “spiritual abuse” of church staff and parishioners who didn’t see or do things Pastor Bob’s way. All the while, friends in the Visalia Police Department – where Pastor Bob is a volunteer chaplain – have either looked the other way or concluded after tepid investigations that the statute of limitations has run out for any crimes Grenier may have committed, according to the website.
Alex and Taylor filed a motion to strike the Greniers’ lawsuit as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or SLAPP. But while Tulare County Superior Court Judge Paul Vortmann concluded that the website’s defamatory statements concerned issues of public interest and deserved protection – and that Pastor Bob was a limited-purpose public figure – he also held that the Greniers had shown enough defamation and emotional distress to prevail on their claims, and rejected the motion to strike.
All parties appealed to the Fifth Appellate District, which held on Wednesday that Vortmann got nearly all of seemingly conflicting aspects of his ruling right.
While the Greniers tried to paint Alex’s Internet rantings as a private family squabble made public – and therefore not protected speech – the panel found that Pastor Bob’s congregation had a community interest in at least some of the allegedly defamatory statements deserving of protection under one prong of the anti-SLAPP statute.
“Here, at a minimum, the issues raised by Alex and Tim’s allegedly defamatory statements are of interest to the community made up of the church’s members,” Judge Herbert Levy wrote for the three-judge panel. “The number of members, ranging from approximately 1,000 to approximately 550, is large enough to qualify as a ‘community’ for purposes of the anti-SLAPP statute. Considering that church members donate money to the church, allegations regarding theft and misuse of those funds is of concern to the membership. Such allegations could lead to discussion within the membership and the implementation of new financial standards. Further, as pastor of the church, Bob is the members’ spiritual and moral leader. As such, allegations regarding Bob’s character and fitness to serve as a pastor are of interest to the membership.”
But the panel rejected Vortmann’s finding that Grenier is a limited-purpose public figure under the anti-SLAPP statute, despite his roles as church pastor, author and radio host.
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SOURCE: Courthouse News Service
William Dotinga
