Atkinson v. McLaughlin, No. 1:03-cv-091.

• Decision Date: 28 November 2006
• Docket Number: No. 1:03-cv-091.
• Citation: 462 F.Supp.2d 1038
• Parties: Patrick ATKINSON, an individual, and The God's Child Project, a North Dakota nonprofit organization, Plaintiffs, v. James McLAUGHLIN, an individual, and Roberta McLaughlin, an individual, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of North Dakota

462 F.Supp.2d 1038

Patrick ATKINSON, an individual, and The God's Child Project, a North Dakota nonprofit organization, Plaintiffs, v. James McLAUGHLIN, an individual, and Roberta McLaughlin, an individual, Defendants.

No. 1:03-cv-091.

United States District Court, D. North Dakota, Southwestern Division.

November 28, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Monte Lane Rogneby, Vogel Law Firm, Bismarck, ND, Sidney J. Spaeth, Vogel Law Firm, Fargo, ND, for Plaintiffs.

Kraig A. Wilson, Michael J. Morley, Morley Law Firm, Grand Forks, ND, for Defendants.

ORDER GRANTING PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT TO DEFENDANTS

HOVLAND, Chief Judge.

Before the Court is the Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment filed on July 26, 2006. The Plaintiffs filed a response in opposition on August 21, 2006, and both parties have submitted supplemental responses and reply briefs over the last month. For the reasons outlined below, the motion is granted in part and denied in part.

I. BACKGROUND

The God's Child Project is a North Dakota nonprofit corporation with its headquarters located in Bismarck, North Dakota. The God's Child Project has an organized volunteer network that "provides health care, medical care, housing, food and education to ... children, adolescents, and young adults, and provides educational and health services for ... poor persons in nine departments across Guatemala." Complaint, ¶ 2. The plaintiff, Patrick Atkinson ("Atkinson"), is a resident of North Dakota who founded the God's Child Project in 1991 and continues to serve as the executive director.

Prior to founding the God's Child Project, Atkinson worked for the Covenant House from approximately 1982-1990. See Docket No. 85-12. The Covenant House is a charitable organization headquartered in New York. It is similar to the God's Child Project in that it is a charitable organization that operates facilities in Guatemala and provides assistance to children and adolescents. See Docket No. 89-5.

From July of 1997 to March of 1998, the defendants, Dr. James McLaughlin and Roberta McLaughlin ("the McLaughlins"), volunteered for the God's Child Project in Guatemala through a Guatemalan-registered charity entitled Association Nuestros Ahijados which was also founded by Atkinson. In March of 1998, the McLaughlins were suspended and ultimately terminated from their volunteer positions.¹ After their dismissal, the McLaughlins compiled a list of allegations against Atkinson and, with the assistance of others, filed them with various Guatemalan authorities.

The McLaughlins returned to the United States in March of 1998. In April of 1998, and upset with Atkinson over being terminated, the McLaughlins began emailing the Project's board members as well as more than thirty of the Project's supporters claiming that they had been improperly terminated and questioning Atkinson's ethics and character. See Docket 85-30. Later in April 1998, the McLaughlins sent an email to Project supporters containing a copy of a previous letter in which they similarly questioned Atkinson's character. The McLaughlins requested that the supporters discontinue donations to the Project and that they write to board members to investigate the McLaughlin's serious concerns about Atkinson and the God's Child Project. See Docket 85-29. In response to the McLauglins' email, the Project received numerous letters from donors in which the donors cancelled their support. See Docket No. 98-8.

On June 1, 1998, the McLaughlins began emailing former God's Child Project volunteers and alleging that Atkinson had caused the McLaughlins' landlord to physically threaten them, and that Atkinson had purchased a house for two male prostitutes with money from the Covenant House. See Docket 98-5. On June 3, 1998, the McLaughlins sent out emails to at least twenty volunteers alleging that Atkinson had been arrested and that two boys had been located who would testify that Atkinson had sexually abused them. See Docket No. 85-33. The McLaughlins admittedly took no steps to determine the accuracy of the email before sending it. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, p. 197.

As a follow-up to the June 3, 1998, emails, the McLaughlins prepared and caused to be widely distributed an international press release alleging that Atkinson had been arrested on charges of sexually abusing young boys. See Docket 85-34. The press release alleged that Atkinson had been forced to resign his position with the Covenant House in the early 1990s because of financial and sexual improprieties related to the misdeeds of former Covenant House Leader Father Bruce Ritter. The press release also stated that a number of boys were willing to testify that Atkinson molested them while in the God's Child Project. A copy of the press release was sent to the Associated Press Reuters and to the New York Times. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, p. 92; Docket No. 85-114 at Bates CH143. The press release resulted in media inquiries to Atkinson and the God's Child Project.

On June 7, 1998, the McLaughlins sent another email to some of the recipients of the press release. See Docket No. 85-33. Apparently in response to reporters' statements that there was no record of Atkinson's arrest, the McLaughlins alleged that "[a] coverup is a strong possibility." On June 12, 1998, the McLaughlins distributed an article which appeared in the June 11, 1998, Guatemalan newspaper Siglo XXI. The article contained accusations that Akinson had sexually abused children. See Docket No. 85-34. The McLaughlins claim that the source of their information for the press releases and emails was an investigator name Toledo. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, pp. 109, 196-199. James McLaughlin testified that he quit trusting Toledo in 1998 because Toledo had filed charges against Atkinson without first consulting an attorney. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, p. 80. However, McLaughlin sent the email and press release based on the information provided by Toledo even after McLaughlin had quit working with Toledo because he believed Toledo to be an untrustworthy person.

Sometime after leaving Guatemala and returning to the United States, the McLaughlins filed accusations of sexual abuse against Atkinson with the Federal Bureau of Investigations in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in Miami, Florida. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, pp. 117-118. The McLaughlins relayed the information they had learned from Toledo as well as additional accusations made previously by Bruce Harris ("Harris"). Harris was the successor to Atkinson's position in the Covenant House as the executive director for Casa Alianza — a Guatemalan charitable entity operated by the Covenant House. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, p. 126. Harris allegedly told the McLaughlins that Atkinson had purchased a home for male prostitutes and that Atkinson had taken inappropriate pictures of nude boys. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, pp. 122-123, 127-128. The McLaughlins also told the FBI that Atkinson was sexually abusing Francisco Choc, a boy in his care. The McLaughlins alleged that the adoption of Atkinson's son was somehow inappropriate. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, pp. 137-139. James McLaughlin testified that he had no personal knowledge whether Atkinson had sexually abused children or others, or whether Atkinson is a pedophile. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, p. 137.

During the summer of 1998, the McLaughlins sent numerous emails to Hanley Denning, a long-time God's Child Project volunteer, and relayed to her their allegations against Atkinson. See Docket No. 98-21. These emails were sent from May 19, 1998, to August 16, 1998, and repeated allegations that Atkinson had committed child abuse and claimed to know more about Atkinson. While asserting these allegations, the McLaughlins urged Denning to leave her position with the God's Child Project.

Sometime in 1998, after leaving Guatemala and discontinuing their work with Toledo, the McLaughlins hired Guatemalan Jose Reanda to investigate whether Atkinson and the God's Child Project were guilty of sexually abusing children. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, p. 58. The McLaughlins claim Reanda sent them a report in Spanish and they had it translated by a Spanish teacher. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, pp. 70-71. The McLaughlins published the contents of the report, but failed to keep a copy of the original report and did not take steps to verify the accuracy of the information contained in the report before sending it out. See Deposition of James McLaughlin, pp. 67-68, 72.

In late November of 1998, the McLaughlins created a website entitled "Friends of Guatemalan Children" at the domain name www.guatemalanchildren.org (the "website"). The website allegedly contains "both specific false statements about Atkinson and God's Child as well as innuendo, insinuations and unrelated inferences to and about various individuals that have been accused and, in some cases, convicted, of criminal and other wrongful conduct." Complaint, ¶ 24. Atkinson contends that the McLaughlins have used the website to conduct a "smear" campaign. The smear campaign included telephone calls made to God's Child Project board members, benefactors, regional and local ecclesiastical authorities, and political authorities discouraging them from supporting the God's Child Project. Complaint, ¶ 26.

In April and May of 1999, the McLaughlins repeatedly contacted the North Dakota Attorney General's Office concerning Atkinson and the God's Child Project. See Docket No. 55. On May 7, 1999, the McLaughlins spoke via telephone with David Huey, an Assistant Attorney General with the Attorney General's Office and told Huey that Atkinson had used charitable funds to buy a home for two teenage male prostitutes. See Docket No. 85-38. On April 10, 1999, the McLaughlins sent a letter to the North Dakota Attorney General accusing Atkinson of financial improprieties and child...