Federal judge threw out SC school board ‘conspiracy’ lawsuit. How it’s being brought back
After a lawsuit a former Midlands school board member brought against his colleagues was dismissed by a federal judge, the former public official is trying to revive the charges by adding the former defendants to a separate lawsuit against another member of the Lexington-Richland 5 school board.
In September, a judge dismissed a federal lawsuit former board member Ken Loveless had filed against three other school board members and the school district’s former attorney, ruling that Loveless lacked standing to bring the suit in federal court. But Judge Mary Geiger Lewis allowed Loveless to revive the accusations in state court.
Last Friday, Loveless moved to add former board members Beth Hutchison and Ed White and former attorney Michael Montgomery to his pre-existing lawsuit against Kevin Scully, who is now also a member of the Chapin-Irmo area school board. Arguments for the motion have been scheduled for Jan. 22 at the Richland County Judicial Center.
Loveless had accused the three, along with former school board chairman Michael Cates, of conspiring to defame him and violate his free speech rights by accusing him of unethical conduct in his relations with the firm building a new elementary school. He was ultimately charged with violating the state’s Ethics Act, and was fined more than $6,000 by the S.C. Ethics Commission. Loveless is appealing that decision, denying that he did anything improper.
Since that lawsuit didn’t succeed, Loveless has moved to add the three to another defamation lawsuit against Scully. Cates is not being added to the Scully suit.
Loveless previously filed suit against Scully in 2022, accusing him of libeling the school board member in comments on Facebook, including calling Loveless “Crooked Ken” and “a loser.” The lawsuit has continued to wind its way through the courts even after Loveless lost his bid for re-election that year and Scully was elected to a separate seat on the board.
In framing the actions as part of a wider conspiracy, Loveless’ latest filing draws a connection between Scully and Hutchison in spreading a photo of Loveless and three other board members sitting in a Waffle House in 2021. The photo caused controversy because South Carolina’s open meetings laws prohibit a majority of a public body from meeting outside of a publicly announced meeting.
Loveless said at the time that he and his colleagues did nothing wrong, and says in the lawsuit he used the opportunity to share photos of his then-recently-born grandson.
“While gathered at the table, Loveless and his wife were showing pictures of the new grandson and someone approached the table and took photographs of them sitting around the table,” the suit says. “Loveless was aware someone approached them and took photographs of them but paid no attention to it.”
But Scully later said in a deposition that he was the one who took the photos, which were shared online by Hutchison:
“On information and belief, Defendant Scully is the one who took the photographs of Loveless and his party at the Waffle House and provided them to Defendant Beth Hutchison in furtherance of Defendants’ ongoing conspiracy to defame and attack [Loveless] and to spread falsehoods about him.”
Loveless accused Scully of working with Hutchison and White to distribute a press release about the ethics accusations against Loveless back in 2020, and of using his government email address as an employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to craft the press release and forward it to media outlets.
The suit even claims Scully got elected to the school board in 2022 “in furtherance of the conspiracy” in order to gain “official access to the administration of District 5 and continuing the defamation and spreading of falsehoods about Loveless.” As a school board member, Scully has “continue[d] to slander and defame Loveless, all in furtherance of the Defendants’ conspiracy against him.”
In her ruling dismissing the federal suit, Judge Lewis was dismissive of claims that the online comments by Scully, who was not a party to that suit, was responsible for any harm Loveless claimed to have suffered, including the loss of invitations to various community events Loveless had previously been involved in.
“There is no evidence Scully was the cause of Plaintiff’s alleged exclusion from these professional and charitable activities, other than Plaintiff’s unconvincing attempts to correlate facts, time lines, and suppositions,” Lewis wrote in her ruling.
Loveless attempted to regain his seat on the Lexington-Richland 5 school board in the Nov. 5 election but was unsuccessful, finishing third in a race for two open seats.
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