alt="Lake County Record-Bee" class="property-logo small" title="Lake County Record-Bee" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025">

Community News

Copyright © Lake County Record-Bee

Former HVL golf pro awarded $2 million in damages

POSTED: 02/27/18, 12:42 PM PST | UPDATED: ON 02/28/2018

0 COMMENTS

SAN FRANCISCO >> Earlier this month, after eight full days of proceedings, a jury unanimously awarded Wayne Clark a total of $2 million in a defamation of character case against the Hidden Valley Lake Association.

The Northern California District Court, located in San Francisco, was the platform for the court proceedings. Clark was the Golf Pro at HVLA, until he was fired by General Manager, Cindy Spears April 15, 2015.

Because Clark was hired under “at-will” employment, he sued the HVLA not for wrongful termination, but for defamation of character.

There had been several derogatory postings on the Hidden Valley Lake Forum Facebook Page after the firing of Clark — posted, the court said, by Michelle Wade, a member of HVLA.

Wade testified that all of this information came from rumors that she was hearing, which she referred to as a “Little Birdie.”

Julie Vonada, the Human Resource Director at HVLA, testified Spears was “feeding” information to Wade.

The Facebook postings were brought into the trial and during the proceedings, Wayne Clark’s Attorney Victor C. Thuesen directly read some of the posts.

“Well, just imagine this hypothetical,” Thuesen told the jury. “An employee is leaving HVLA employment. In today’s world, everywhere, and here, I would hope, the employee removes personal stuff from the office with supervision.”

Thuesen reminded the jurors that testimony from witnesses shows Clark was not present when his personal belongings were removed.

“Just imagine that the computer is examined, and is found to be filled with young, nubile, naughty stuff of indeterminate age,” he continued reading the posts. “In that case, normally law enforcement is called to determine if there are a bunch of felonies on HVLA’s computer.”

The Facebook posts further alleged there were open bottles of alcohol in the office, along with a roll of toilet paper.

“What is this? An adult version of Lord of the Flies? Clearly this has nothing to do with any work an employee was hired for,” one post read. “Most workplaces are glad to be rid of the rotten egg, and don’t take it further; the impulse being to cut their losses.”

There are approximately 3,500 homes in HVL and a large Facebook presence. It is unknown as to the exact number of people who had read these Facebook posts. Clark contended that Spears defamed him, invaded his right to privacy by disclosing private information to third parties, painted him in a false light and negligently and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on him.

Clark further contended that the HVLA willfully failed to pay him all of his wages that was due at the time his contract terminated.

The HVLA denied all liability as to Clark’s claims and contended that the allegedly defamatory statements were made by HVLA members exercising their First Amendment right on issues of public concern, for which HVLA is not responsible.

HVLA also argued that, to the extent any statements were made by Spears, the statements were privileged, substantially true, or otherwise not made in the course and scope of her employment as General Manager for HVLA.

They denied that Clark has been damaged as a result of the alleged wrongful conduct.

In his opening statements, Clark’s attorney emphasized, “We don’t know why she’s (GM Cindy Spears) no longer there (Hidden Valley Lake Association). You can draw your own conclusions from the evidence that you hear in this trial. She cannot be located. She is the principal actor in the case with respect to all of the defamation claims, all of the invasion-of-privacy claims, all of the claims involving mental and emotional distress inflicted on Mr. Clark.”

During the trial, Richard Alan Pritchard, who now serves as Director of Golf, testified he was the Asst. Golf Pro at the time Clark was employed at HVLA and he also used the same computer Clark used. Pritchard testified the bottle of alcohol was not Clark’s but his and it sat on a shelf across from the desk. The bottle was a gift to Pritchard from a member during Christmas.

Law enforcement reportedly found no evidence of felony pornographic photographs.

Vonada also testified in an earlier deposition that those same photographs were in a stack of documents on the desk, which were now next to the alcohol bottle standing upright in Clark’s desk.

Pritchard also testified he never saw any pornographic photos.

In the end, the jury concluded that Clark was due both economic and noneconomic damages as follows:

Past Actual Damages (lost earnings) $271,250.00

Past Noneconomic Damages $143,436.00

Future Actual Damages (lost future earnings) $1,155,000.00

Non-Future Noneconomic Damages $430,314.00

Presumed or Assumed Damages “zero”

Punitive Damages “zero”

It is uncertain at this point if HVLA will appeal the decision.

The local NEVADA NEWS MEDIA has not posted this lawsuit.  Major victory for the UNIT OWNERS IN HOAS. Gigantic award for Fair Debt Collection violations and the RICO.

CROSSROADS III  Writ of Mandamus... Election and Financial Records.