(Michigan City, IN) - A defamation of character lawsuit against the former mayor of Michigan City is no longer being pursued while he works out a bankruptcy case.
The cases were filed last month on behalf of LaPorte County Prosecutor John Lake and Mary, a deputy prosecutor for her husband.
A stay of the proceedings by the plaintiffs was filed Tuesday in the lawsuit filed in LaPorte Superior Court 3. The plaintiffs dismissed the case in Starke County Circuit Court without prejudice on November 2.
The action was taken to get back into compliance with the law governing bankruptcy proceedings at the request of Daniel Freeland, an attorney from Highland.
Freeland filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in U.S. District Court in South Bend on April 2 on behalf of Ron Meer. Freeland said a bankruptcy filing under federal law comes with an automatic stay.
A stay prohibits other legal action from being filed against the individual seeking protection from creditors until there’s a final decision in the bankruptcy case.
If taken to court, Freeland said violation of a stay could result in damages and even punitive damages for the individual seeking bankruptcy if a judge ruled the filing of a lawsuit was done to harm a person asking for protection from creditors.
In the third year of his first term as prosecutor, Lake said the stay was violated accidentally. Lake said he and his wife were never served with any notice of a bankruptcy filing since they were not listed as creditors in Meer’s bankruptcy petition.
“We had no knowledge of the bankruptcy,” said Lake.
Lake said he didn’t learn of the bankruptcy filing until recently when notified by his attorney in the defamation case, Guy DeMartino.
The defamation of character lawsuits is in response to Meer publicly alleging Lake targeted his stepson, Adam Bray, for arrest to hurt his chances of being reelected. The arrest on gun and drug-related charges occurred a month before the November 2019 election, which Meer lost by 76 votes to current mayor Duane Parry.
Meer was later charged with six felony counts of intimidation and misconduct and two misdemeanor counts of false informing for his alleged behavior toward police following his stepson’s arrest. The felony cases were later dismissed.
The misdemeanor cases were scheduled for dismissal in February until Meer was charged in December 2020 with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident and resisting law enforcement. After the accident, Meer allegedly drove home, where he ignored a police officer’s request to discuss the motor vehicle accident, police said. Meer alleged the lawsuits were filed as a way for Lake to continue harassing and intimidating him.
Freeland would not speculate on a motive.
“I have no opinion on that. I don’t know why they were filed,” he said.
Lake said he doesn’t know if he’ll move forward again on the defamation cases. He believes the decision will depend on whether seeking damages in the case is allowed under the judge’s bankruptcy protection order.
