Libel Suit From Placentia ’80 Recall Drive Is Settled

In 1980 and 1981, Placentia City Hall became a battleground: the site of a fistfight between councilmen, a 2 a.m. firing of a city administrator and two recall drives to oust city officials.

The first recall drive failed. But the targets of that recall, then-council members Betty Mead and Peter Laborde, called the accusations against them “character assassinations” and filed a $12-million libel suit, which has just been settled.

Last month, Mead and Laborde won an undisclosed amount of money as part of a settlement to drop the lawsuit, those involved said Wednesday.

‘Regret Any Harm’

Also as part of the Nov. 20 settlement, the six recall leaders, including current Placentia City Councilman Richard Buck, signed a statement saying they “regret any harm that may have occurred” to Mead and Laborde.

“This was a satisfactory settlement,” Mead said. But not all the parties agreed.

“I don’t think anyone is (happy),” said one of the recall leaders, who did not want to be named.

Another recall leader said the settlement statement, which the six signed, was not an apology. “They asked for an apology. We refused to apologize. . . . We were adamant on not giving an apology.”

The recall leaders worded their three-paragraph statement with “subtle meanings,” the defendant said, such as saying that each one “rescinds said statements and sincerely regrets any bad effects that said statements may have had on the reputations and lives” of Mead and Laborde. The word rescinds , the defendant said, “doesn’t mean anything” almost five years after the fact.

Both parties said Orange County Superi or Court Judge Samuel B. Taylor ordered them not to discuss the case.

When the recall was launched in November, 1980, Laborde, a realtor, and Mead, a former newspaper woman, were accused of criticizing the police without justification, among other allegations.

The accusations stemmed from an Oct. 10, 1980, confrontation between police and about 30 youths after police arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of drunk driving. The youths allegedly hurled rocks and bottles at police, who allegedly responded with heavy-handed tactics, it was then reported.

Mead and Laborde requested an investigation, which their colleagues on the council turned down. Mead and Laborde had also pushed, unsuccessfully, for investigations by the grand jury and district attorney into allegations of illegal break-ins and searches and seizures by police.

Although the recall drive failed to gain enough signatures, a second recall drive launched against Mead, Laborde and then-Mayor Richard Acton during the summer of 1981 successfully forced the three from office.

The period was marked by public battles among council members, including a fistfight between Laborde and Councilman Norman Z. Eckenrode during a July, 1981, council recess. Four months later, a Superior Court judge ordered Laborde and his son, Paul, not to telephone Eckenrode’s home for three years. Eckenrode and his wife, Carole, had said they were plagued with 37 calls in 3 1/2 weeks after the brawl.

Only hours after the judge’s order, veteran city administrator Edwin T. Powell was fired at 2 a.m., for reasons that were never detailed but apparently were unrelated to the fistfight.

Powell filed a $3-million suit and was reinstated as part of a settlement. He retired from his post about a year later.

Mayor George Ziegler said the atmosphere at City Hall is different now. Both Ziegler and Mayor Pro Tem Art Newton said Wednesday that they were happy to hear that the libel lawsuit had been settled.

“It’s been a sore spot in the city for many years and a source of hard feelings,” Newton said. “I’m glad it’s been settled. It’s a chapter in the city history (that) should be closed and forgotten.”

The lawsuit named Almus C. Barlow, a salesman; Richard Buck, current councilman; Donald W. Clark; Virginia Farmer, former councilwoman; Duane C. Fink; and Jean Owen Pappas, Placentia Unified School District board president and city treasurer until recently. Most of the recall leaders were active in city and school district activities.

Had the lawsuit, filed Jan. 14, 1981, not been settled during the mandatory settlement conference, a trial date would have been set, attorneys said Wednesday.

By avoiding a trial, everyone “won,” attorneys from both sides said.

“We like to think there were no losers. Everyone won. When a case is resolved and put to rest, everyone wins,” said Betty Kurtzer, attorney for one of the defendants, echoing several other attorneys involved. Earlier this year, an arbitrator found in favor of the recall leaders, but the decision was non-binding, and Mead and Laborde did not agree to it, several people involved said.

Although they wrote the settlement statement, the defendants had no say in the monetary award. Because several were covered by liability coverage, attorneys from insurance companies handled that aspect of the suit, one of the defendants said.