FULLERTON : Three Officials Sued Over Campaign Signs
W. Snow Hume, who had been accused of illegally tearing down political campaign signs during last year’s heated recall election, has filed a lawsuit alleging malicious prosecution and naming as defendants the three City Council members who owned the signs.
Orange County prosecutors last month dropped a misdemeanor vandalism charge against Hume, citing evidence to support Hume’s statement that he was free to remove the signs because the candidates--now council members Don Bankhead, Jan M. Flory and Peter Godfrey--never had permission to post them in the first place.
The signs were on a vacant lot owned by Unocal Land and Development Co.
Hume, who was removed from the post of Fullerton Recalls Committee secretary over the flap, filed a lawsuit against the three candidates in Orange County Superior Court last week.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the council members; Unocal Land and Development Co.; Dennis Chapman, a company vice president, and Flory’s husband, Bill Flory.
Before Tuesday’s council meeting, Hume gave Flory, Bankhead and Godfrey court papers announcing the lawsuit.
“They lied to the police and got the case against me going,” Hume said. “It’s real simple.”
Jan Flory called the lawsuit “stupid, wasteful and pathetic.”
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