'Community for All' drama continues with a lawsuit, a near bankrupt newspaper and new legislation

Two years after Marathon County failed to pass a diversity resolution, a court battle over a defamation suit between a state senator and a local news site continues.

The fight has left The Wausau Pilot & Review in a dire financial situation, and led Democrats in the Legislature to introduce a bill that would allow judges to dismiss lawsuits they found were filed to stifle free speech.

Here's what to know.

What was reported at the 'Community for All' resolution meeting

Multiple media outlets covered the August 2021 debate over the revised "Community for All" resolution, which would have condemned hate speech and violence, recognized that "the diversity of our community is one of our greatest strengths" and declared Marathon County an "open, inclusive, and diverse place to live, work, visit, and do business," according to the resolution text.

The Wausau Pilot & Review reported Cory Tomczyk, a local business owner who has since been elected to represent Wausau in the state Senate, was overheard using a homophobic slur against a 13-year-old speaking in support of the resolution.

The slur was attributed to "a local businessman" in the initial Aug. 21 story. The Pilot & Review identified Tomczyk as the source of the slur in a follow-up story published August 28.

Tomczyk's office did not respond to The Post-Crescent's request for an interview. His lawyer, Matthew M. Fernholtz, told the New York Times his client was “categorically denying that he used the word" in the Community for All meeting. The Times reported that Tomczyk, in a deposition, acknowledged using the word at other times, but not at the meeting.

Tomczyk's defamation lawsuit was dismissed, but he appealed

Tomczyk filed a defamation lawsuit in November 2021 against the Pilot & Review, editor Shereen Siewert and reporter Damakant Jayshi.

While Tomczyk denied using the slur in the meeting and argued the Wausau Pilot & Review hadn't spoken directly to meeting attendees who had identified him, the news site demonstrated evidence to support its reporting, according to the summary judgment written by Judge Scott Corbett of the Marathon County Circuit Court.

In the course of that lawsuit, three people who were present at the meeting swore that they heard Tomczyk use the word.

The court found that since Tomczyk was a public figure as part of the Community for All debate, he would have had to prove the Pilot & Review knowingly or recklessly made false statements about him, a standard known as "actual malice." Corbett ruled the articles the news site published didn't meet that standard.

"What the plaintiffs’ arguments amount to is an indictment of the defendants’ journalistic practices," Corbett wrote in his summary judgment rendered April 28, 2023. He quoted a 1997 case, Torgerson v. Journal/Sentinel, Inc.: "'[A] court’s role is to interpret and apply the law, not to enforce standards of journalistic accuracy or ethics.'"

Corbett dismissed the case, but Tomczyk filed an appeal on June 6. The case is pending in the Wisconsin Appeals Court District 3, and will likely not be resolved until next year at the earliest, Siewert said.

New York Times reported Wausau Pilot & Review close to bankruptcy, leading to outpouring of donations

Meanwhile, the court battle was covered in the New York Times. The same day the story ran, Siewert launched a GoFundMe page for the Pilot and Review's legal defense fund.

“(Tomczyk) knows we’re a small news organization," Siewert said. "He knows we don’t have deep pockets and that continuing to fight this lawsuit is very damaging to us financially and could shut us down."

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg's husband Chasten Buttigieg and the nonprofit news organization Wisconsin Watch both tweeted a link to the GoFundMe on X (formerly Twitter).

As of Thursday, the fund had raised over $100,000 to cover outstanding legal bills, which Siewert said are over $150,000. And that amount may not be enough to cover everything, depending on how long the fight continues, Siewert said.

The Pilot & Review’s four-person newsroom has an annual budget of roughly $185,000, according to Siewert. Mounting legal expenses have already forced the news site to put off plans to hire an additional reporter.

Still, Siewert said her news organization has received many offers of help since the Times story ran. "We're not 100% out of the woods yet," Siewert said, "but we feel more optimistic about our future."

Wisconsin Democrats introduced anti-SLAPP bill in response

Wisconsin Democrats in the state legislature responded by introducing a bill Tuesday that would allow defendants to ask a judge to dismiss a lawsuit and have the plaintiff cover attorney's fees if the judge finds the suit was filed to stifle free speech.

The lawsuits the bill targets are commonly known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPP suits. At least 31 states, including Illinois, have anti-SLAPP laws on the books.

"We did this because local media is vital to a functional democracy," Sen. Kelda Roys said in a tweet. "We also did this because Sen. Tomczyk’s attempts to intimidate a non-profit local newsroom. The fact that he doesn’t like being exposed as an anti-gay bigot is understandable but he doesn’t get to use the legal system to silence legitimate reporting."

Debate over 'Community for All' resolution rippled through Marathon County lasted more than a year

The lawsuit stems from a drawn-out battle over the "Community for All" resolution introduced to Marathon County during the summer of 2020.

Supporters of the "Community for All" resolution said it would help make Marathon County a more welcome place for marginalized groups, while opponents dismissed claims of racism in the county and labeled the measure "divisive."

The debate over the resolution lasted a year and a half. At times it turned ugly; a local Hmong leader received a racist letter after advancing the Community for All resolution for its last vote. The debate brought national — and unflattering — attention to Marathon County, including an earlier story in the New York Times.

For her part, Siewert said the Wausau Pilot & Review's reporting at the time was important to illustrate the "high tensions" and "how highly charged this argument was" for opponents and supporters.

The resolution went through several revisions. After a failed vote in the Marathon County Board in April 2021, it was sent back to the Executive Committee, revised, and presented for another vote that August.

That same month, the Wausau City Council passed a similar resolution, titled "We Are Wausau," on a 7-3 vote with one abstention.

But Marathon County's updated Community for All resolution failed to pass the board for the last time on August 24, 2021, with a deadlocked 18-18 vote.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Rebecca Loroff is a breaking and trending news reporter for northeastern Wisconsin. Contact her at rloroff@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Tomczyk's lawsuit against Wausau Pilot & Review spurs anti-SLAPP bill