An appeals court has dismissed an attempt by one-time Local Station Board (LSB) partisan and erstwhile Pacifica attorney Richard Phelps to remove SaveKPFA representative Dan Siegel from the boards of both KPFA and Pacifica. After the court initially barred Pacifica from removing Siegel, Phelps convinced Pacifica’s board to let him pursue an appeal on Pacifica’s behalf. The suit is now dismissed for good.
Phelps has been the attorney behind a series of harassing lawsuits against SaveKPFA members. In 2010, he brought a libel suit against Siegel so frivolous that the judge ordered him to pay Siegel $10,000 in attorneys’ fees. Phelps filed an appeal: it failed to reverse the lower court’s decision, but succeeded in doubling the amount of attorneys’ fees Phelps had to pay Siegel.
Currently, Phelps is pressing a suit against four SaveKPFA-affiliated LSB members — the Morning Show 4 — for alleged “disloyalty” to Pacifica stemming from their efforts to raise pledges to support a return of the Morning Show to KPFA’s airwaves. SaveKPFA‘s campaign raised a little over $60,000 in pledges (not actual money). Phelps’ suit demands $800,000 in damages.