A day after the Flagler County Commission voted to settle the lawsuit former human resources manager Samantha Whitfield filed against the county in 2024, Whitfield is suing again, this time for defamation and other First Amendment claims based on how the deputy county attorney characterized the settlement at a commission meeting on Monday.
Whitfield’s Tallahassee-based attorney, Marie Mattox, signaled that the settlement may be set aside as her client pursues the new claim. It may have to be, since accepting the settlement includes waiving all future claims.
Whitfield’s October 2024 lawsuit charged that the county pushed her to resign after she brought to light what she considered to be rules violations and misconduct by one of her colleagues at the time. The claims included accusations that her colleague improperly accessed confidential personnel files and disseminated protected information. (Under Florida’s open records law, personnel files are public records, though there are exemptions for medical information and certain personally identifying details such as social security numbers.)
The county disputed the claims, showing that Whitfield had voluntarily resigned. Defended by its insurer’s attorney, the county had filed a motion for summary judgment against the lawsuit, which Circuit Judge Sandra Upchurch had not ruled on by the time the county announced the settlement.
On Monday, the commission voted 3-1 to approve a $20,000 settlement. Commissioners found the settlement distasteful, but said they wanted to be done with the case. Commissioner Andy Dance voted against the settlement.
Prefacing the proposal, Deputy County Attorney Sean Moylan told the commission in sharply explicit terms that “Every allegation in this lawsuit is completely frivolous, just balderdash. It is completely incorrect and wrong and false.” He said it was the county’s insurer who found the settlement preferable to further, costly litigation. (See: “Flagler Commissioners Approve $20,000 Settlement with Former HR Manager in Lawsuit Termed ‘Bogus’ and ‘Frivolous’.”)
Whitfield’s new lawsuit, filed on June 2, charges civil rights and whistleblower-rights violations, focusing especially on Moylan’s characterizations of the original lawsuit and the settlement. The four-count lawsuit includes a defamation count that claims Moylan’s characterizations of Whitfield’s lawsuit were themselves false and “defamatory because they impute dishonesty to [Whitfield] and portray her as having knowingly asserted false claims, tending to subject her to distrust and contempt in her community.”
The suit charges that the county engaged in a public condemnation of Whitfield to punish and discredit her for her right to file a whistleblower (or any) lawsuit against the government.
Moylan’s statements are defamatory, the suit claims, “because they impute conduct and characteristics incompatible with honesty and proper conduct of her affairs.” The county is likely to reply that opinionated statements at the commission meeting, which commissioners echoed, are themselves protected under the First Amendment, though even opinions about a private citizen may not be defaming. The suit claims that “Moylan made the statement knowing it was false or with reckless disregard for its truth, and with express malice and ill will toward [Whitfield] for having sued the County.”
Reached for comment on Wednesday, Moylan had not been aware of the filing–which had yet to appear on the clerk of court’s website; Moylan had not been served–and declined to comment, now that he is a named party in the lawsuit.
The settlement document commissioners received on Monday bore Whitfield’s signature. Whitfield had signed it on May 15.
“It looked like there was a disclaimer in there that this is it, she can’t come back,” Commissioner Greg Hansen said at Monday’s meeting, before adding: “This leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”
Hansen was right. The settlement document includes a general release immunizing the county from all claims by Whitfield. But the same document also includes a seven-day grace period when Whitfield is free to revoke the settlement. The seven days are dated from the time the document is fully executed–meaning last Monday, assuming that’s when the commission chair or the county attorney’s office signed it.
“She signed the document in good faith and we may have to move to set the agreement aside,” Mattox said of Whitfield in an email to FlaglerLive. “The events that occurred during the meeting on Monday had not yet occurred at the time she signed the agreement.”
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