Council Candidate Files Slander Suit
William E. Baker Jr., a City Council candidate who finished third in the Nov. 5 race for two open seats, has filed a slander lawsuit related to the election.
In his lawsuit, Baker accuses two Villa Park residents, Marilyn Johnson and Sherry Zakowicz, of saying untruthfully he had been disbarred or suspended from his law practice.
Filed Thursday in Orange County Superior Court, the lawsuit states that Baker “has never been disbarred or suspended by the State Bar [of California] or any other licensing association.”
Zakowicz said Friday that she had no comment on the lawsuit. Johnson could not be reached for comment.
Baker’s attorney, Christopher Mears of Irvine, said his client recently resigned from two civic positions because of things said about him in the campaign.
“Bill resigned from the Friends of the Villa Park Library and the Villa Park Community Access Television Corp. because he did not want those causes to suffer from the things said about him,” Mears said.
The lawsuit alleges that Johnson and Zakowicz said at an Oct. 28 meeting of the board of directors of the Women’s League of Villa Park that Baker “had been disbarred and/or suspended from the practice of law.”
The suit states that defamatory statements made about Baker caused his defeat in the City Council election and have hurt his law practice. The suit asks for unspecified damages.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
