Hartford community activist files defamation lawsuit against lobbyist regarding North End flooding
A Hartford community activist has filed a defamation lawsuit against a lobbyist regarding the controversial sewage and flooding problems in the city’s North End.
Bridgitte A. Prince, an outspoken advocate of her native Hartford who now lives in Manchester, is seeking $100,000 and representing herself in the lawsuit that stems from the decades-long problems of flooding in the Capital City.
A disabled veteran of the U.S. Army, Prince is claiming “violation of the First Amendment, defamation, harassment, and threatening against a person with disabilities,” according to the lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in Hartford.
Prince had been seeking to get help from the state legislature to address the sewage problems, a long-unsolved issue in the city’s predominantly Black North End.
Prince states in the lawsuit that she “demonstrated that the legislation’s handling of the Hartford sewage outflow victims paled in comparison to the remedies afforded to suburban crumbling foundation victims, who were predominantly white.”
The case has been filed against Janice Flemming-Butler, a lobbyist who is the founder of Strategic Outreach Solutions, the state’s only Black female lobbying firm. Flemming-Butler, who was named one of Hartford Business Journal’s Top 25 Women in Business in 2022, was lobbying for the Metropolitan District Commission and the city of Hartford, according to court papers.
But Flemming-Butler is pushing back strongly with a recent motion to strike all key parts of the case, saying her comments about Prince were true.
“While defendant may have published certain statements on her Facebook page directed toward the plaintiff [Prince], nothing that she stated was false,” according to court papers.
Through her attorney, Flemming-Butler said in a seven-page motion to strike that all counts “should be stricken” in their entirety by the Superior Court judge.
Among other things, Prince claims that Flemming-Butler stated, “Bridgette Prince go back to Glastonbury and ask your legislators to fix whatever problems you having because you won’t sleep messing with me.”
While they are little known outside the capital city, Prince wrote in court papers that, “Prince and Flemming-Butler are both public figures in the Greater Hartford community.”
The standard of being a public figure in libel cases is critical because proving a case in court is more difficult against a public figure under the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York Times vs. Sullivan, which was decided by the nation’s highest court in 1964 in favor of the newspaper.
Prince said that the two women “often encountered each other at the CT state Capitol and the Legislative Office Building. In fact, the two were on opposite teams.”
When the flooding and sewage problems remained unresolved, House Speaker Matt Ritter of Hartford — the most powerful player on Hartford issues in the legislature — stepped forward to craft a compromise.
Eventually, an amendment was passed to set aside $170 million to resolve the problems, and top state officials, including Gov. Ned Lamont, gathered in June on Granby Street in the city’s North End to say the resolution should not have taken so long.
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com
