By Dan Murphy
Yonkers Police Benevolent Association President Keith Olson has filed a $10 million libel-defamation lawsuit against Hezi Aris, publisher of the Yonkers Tribune. Olson’s suit comes one week after Yonkers Police Department Deputy Chief John Mueller filed a $7 million suit against Hezi, bringing the total sum sought to $17 million against Hezi, labeled by the New York Times as the “acid tongued blogger.”
Olson’s suit is similar to Mueller’s in the accusations against Hezi and the Yonkers Tribune, primarily because the accusations highlighted in the lawsuit stem from a series of “Blue Truth” columns that Hezi wrote about Mueller, Olson, and YPD Sgt. Brian Moran. The three officers were the targets of Hezi’s relentless attacks through the “Blue Truth” stories, and the comments posted below them online.
Both Olson and Mueller’s lawsuits claim Hezi printed the stories with accusations against them knowing they were false, and that Hezi permitted malicious comments against Olson and Mueller to stay on the website while he edited and removed other comments.
“Defendant’s campaign of defamation, libel, ridicule and harassment consists of two distinct methods of defamation: first, defendant HEZI ARIS has permitted, allowed and encouraged defamatory, libelous and false comments about plaintiff’s character and integrity to be published in the YONKERS TRIBUNE in violation of his own guidelines, and with the intent to defame, ridicule and impugn the integrity of plaintiff’s personal and professional character, with the specific intent to cause personal, professional, economic and emotional distress and harm. Second, Defendant ARIS has authored and published statements in his BLUE TRUTH articles which are defamatory per se, with knowledge that the claims he has made about plaintiff were false and defamatory at the time he wrote and published them, and targeted plaintiff in his professional and personal capacity articles for over five years,” writes attorney Andrew Quinn in Olson’s lawsuit.
The comment section on the Yonkers Tribune website allows posters to make anonymous comments, without verification. “Many of the comments on the Blue Truth articles contain threats, including physical threats, to Plaintiff, KEITH OLSON. Many of these comments also contain various curse words and epithets degrading women, homosexuals, and other groups of people. Additionally, hundreds of “comments” consisting of false, libelous and defamatory statements relating to the personal and professional character of KEITH OLSON have been posted in the comments section; Defendant HEZI ARIS has maliciously and with knowledge that the statements contained provably untrue defamatory “comments” allowed these false and defamatory statements to be published without edit or correction, and has maliciously prevented other commenters from posting comments that rebut, contradict, disprove and refute the false and defamatory “comments” published in the YONKERS TRIBUNE,” states the lawsuit.
Among the many claims made against Olson in the Blue Truth series was that “KEITH OLSON has committed multiple criminal, unethical and immoral acts, inter alia, including conducting various corrupt and illegal quid-pro-quo schemes with local and state officials; authorizing an unwarranted $48,000.00 annual fee from the Yonkers PBA to Empire Strategic Planning; giving away Yonkers Police Department members’ benefits away for his own personal gain; offering an illegal monetary bribe to a county political leader and state political leader; misusing the PBA funds and refusing to release expenditure reports; stealing funds from a charity event and diverting the stolen money for his own illegitimate purposes; violating federal election law; harassing and employing intimidation tactics against other members of the Department to further his own future ambitions; using city resources for his own personal benefit and committing various crimes, including perjury and evidence tampering,” states the lawsuit.
Hezi has also “repeatedly accused plaintiff, KEITH OLSON, of having an unethical relationship with Nick Spano and Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, in which plaintiff provides them with PBA contract terms that benefit them, monetary contributions from the Yonkers PBA, and political endorsements in exchange for them turning a blind eye to plaintiff’s alleged illegal behavior, a take-home car, and providing jobs for plaintiff’s friends and family.
“In a Blue Truth Article published by defendants HEZIMEDIA, INC. and the YONKERS TRIBUNE on October 7th, 2017, defendant, HEZI ARIS, with actual malice, knowing of its falsehood and with reckless disregard as to whether it was true or not, wrote: “The Spano’s have put all their relatives and their puppet union heads like Yonkers PBA President Keith Olson… on behalf of the Spano Clan. Insiders in the know have advised the Yonkers Tribune that these guys were given promotions and take home cars so as to urge their membership to settle on contracts that were not beneficial to their respective membership,” according to the lawsuit.
Defendant, HEZI ARIS, with actual malice wrote: “Keith Olson was bought and paid for. He doled out the membership’s funds for his purpose and his benefit and those of family and friends. He engaged in political fundraising efforts that were clearly part of the Spano-Olson menu. Olson had become an ATM for Mayor Mike Spano and those Spano’s that spoke in Mayor Mike Spano’s name. As PBA President, Olson would dispense funds for transfers he wanted, promotions among politicians willing to play quid-pro-quo for Olson’s benefit”
Two accusations made in Blue Truth concerning financial improprieties include: “ In a Blue Truth article published on October 7th, 2018 by defendants the YONKERS TRIBUNE and HEZIMEDIA, INC., defendant HEZI ARIS, knowing of its falsehood and with reckless disregard as to whether it was false or not, wrote: “The contractual arrangement where the union membership pays for an additional lobbying firm permits the three amigos [OLSON, Mueller and Moran] to call the shots within the Yonkers Police Department. Puppet Master Nick Spano owns these three marionettes, and wears them like a suit lapel pin. They each define the ‘pay to play’ system; sort of like gambling dice against a wall on the streets of Yonkers.”
Hezi, in his Blue Truth series, mentioned again and again that the Yonkers PBA paid the lobbying firm Empire Strategic Planning, ESP, $48,000 per year. ESP’s founder is Nick Spano, former State Senator and brother of Mayor Mike Spano. While ESP is paid by the Yonkers PBA to represent them in Albany, which is common practice and completely legal, they are not paid the $48,000 per year that Hezi mentions, ad nasuem on the Yonkers Tribune. “The assertion that the Yonkers PBA pays Nick Spano or Empire Strategic Planning $48,000 annually is provably false… yet defendant has failed to retract the statement and has continued to publish this false assertion with actual malice,” states the lawsuit.
Another possible libelous story from Blue Truth was that Olson and Mueller collected $30,000 from its annual Toughman charity event and that the $30,000 in cash, was donated to the School for Special Needs Children, and given to Len Spano, Director of the School, in cash. “In a Blue Truth article published on January 13d’, 2018, defendant HEZI ARIS with actual malice published the following: “The Yonkers PBA has been exposed for police misconduct and its unwavering financial and political support of Mayor Mike Spano, and the Spano Brothers since 2012. Recent reports by people in the know have alleged that $30,000 in cash was given to Lenny and John Spano to benefit the school for special needs students on whose board they serve….The $30,000 ‘donation’ was said to have been accrued from the annual Yonkers Police v. Yonkers Firefighters Toughman Competition,” states the lawsuit.
Last week we reported on YPD Deputy Chief John Mueller’s lawsuit against Hezi. Mueller sent us the following statement via email to follow up on our story.
“My lawsuit against Hezi Aris and the Yonkers Tribune is not, and never has been, an attack on the First Amendment and the right to free speech. I have always had a strong personal belief in the constitutional right to freedom of speech. What the First Amendment does not protect, however, is someone, with full knowledge that the allegations they are making are completely untrue, falsely accuses another person of serious criminal acts that never occurred.
“There is no protection of this type of speech under the United States Constitution. This point goes to the heart of my lawsuit. Hezi Aris, the Yonkers Tribune and anonymous bloggers have continually and repeatedly, over a period of approximately six years, with full knowledge that the allegations of criminal conduct he accused of never, ever occurred. They are false accusations that can and have been disproven with factual certainty.
“Hezi knew that these false accusations of the criminal acts that he has continually accused me of, never occurred and he chose to repeatedly print them anyway, without a shred of factual evidence. He has also created and encouraged a very vile and hateful forum for anonymous posters to do the same. There are literally thousands and thousands of posts that contain the same false allegations that parallel Hezi’s articles.
“Hezi has sole control of what gets posted and the forum he has nurtured and encouraged run the gamut of horribly racist, homophobic, sexist and physical threats. I don’t think you’ll find many people who would disagree that no person has the right to falsely accuse someone of criminal acts that never occurred. It is something that should never be tolerated and rightfully does not fall under protected speech.
“My civil action against Hezi Aris and the Yonkers Tribune is public information and I would encourage anyone to take the time to read the lawsuit. It was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Westchester on 12/07/2018. Those interested can make up their own minds as to whether this was freedom of speech or, as I contend, a malicious campaign to destroy my reputation through knowingly false accusations of criminal activity. A reputation that I have worked very hard to build over my 27 year career in law enforcement.
“Hezi intentionally tried to ruin my professional reputation and he should be held accountable for that. His malicious six year campaign of libel is something that has taken a tremendous toll, not just on me, but on family, friends, and the department I love. I would not wish what he has done to me, my family and friends on anyone,” writes Mueller.
The other piece of this lawsuit is that Hezi is being represented by City Council President Mike Khader, in his professional role as an attorney. Before he was elected, Khader represented Hezi successfully against a similar suit filed by former Yonkers Fire Commissioner John Darcy.
Many believe, now that Khader is City Council president, he should no longer be representing Hezi. Khader disagrees with that analysis and told us so in a phone conversation in which he believes he is representing someone who is exercising their First Amendment freedom of the press.
There is no city ethics violations for Khader to represent Hezi, and in our view, this piece of the story dwarfs the issue of libel and defamation charges by Olson and Mueller against Hezi. Others disagree and are outraged by Khader’s representation of Hezi, and try to link the hateful comments made on the Yonkers Tribune to the council president.
That judgement can only be made by our readers and the people of Yonkers.
