{"id":1311896,"date":"2019-06-27T18:07:10","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T00:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=982482"},"modified":"2019-06-27T18:07:10","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T00:07:10","slug":"north-fork-activist-beats-libel-lawsuit-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/north-fork-activist-beats-libel-lawsuit-again\/","title":{"rendered":"North Fork activist beats libel lawsuit, again"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Pete Kolbenschlag<\/strong>
Luna Anna Archey<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

North Fork environmental activist Peter Kolbenschlag won, again, against the Texas oil company that brought a defamation lawsuit against him two years ago.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a ruling in Kolbenschlag\u2019s favor that threw out SG Interests\u2019 defamation lawsuit and ordered the company to pay Kolbenschlag\u2019s court costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case demonstrates, quite clearly, the type of under-handed tactics employed by a reckless plaintiff (and its counsel) that abuse our court system and sought to punish speech,\u201d Kolbenschlag said in a statement. \u201cSuch tactics have no place in our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

SGI filed the initial lawsuit after Kolbenschlag commented on the Nov. 28, 2016 Glenwood Springs Post Independent story \u201cDivide lease decision likely to land in court<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kolbenschlag pointed out in his comment that, while SGI at the time was accusing the Obama administration of colluding with environmental activists, SGI itself \u201cwas actually fined for colluding \u2026 to rig bid prices and rip off American taxpayers. Yes, these two companies owned by billionaires thought it appropriate to pad their portfolios at the expense of you and I and every other hard-working American.\u201d<\/p>\n

SGI filed the defamation lawsuit in early 2017, and the Delta County District Court dismissed it in 2018, finding that<\/a> \u201cKolbenschlag\u2019s comments were substantially true.\u201d<\/p>\n

SGI and competitor Gunnison Energy Corporation paid a fine to settle a Department of Justice complaint that they had an illegal arrangement to keep the price of lease auctions low.<\/p>\n

The higher court reiterated that ruling in a filing June 27, 2019, noting that \u201csubstantial truth is a complete defense to defamation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kolbenschlag considered it a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) \u2014 legal action designed to intimidate citizens from speaking out, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pleased that the publicity this case generated helped prompt the Colorado General Assembly and Governor Polis to enact an anti-SLAPP law,\u201d Kolbenschlag said in his statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my intent that no other Coloradan who wishes to participate actively in government or on matters of public interest will be forced to endure what I have,\u201d Kolbenschlag said.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pete KolbenschlagLuna Anna Archey North Fork environmental activist Peter Kolbenschlag won, again, against the Texas oil company that brought a defamation lawsuit against him two years ago. The Colorado Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a ruling in Kolbenschlag\u2019s favor that threw out SG Interests\u2019 defamation lawsuit and ordered the company to pay Kolbenschlag\u2019s court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 17:41:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}