Tech Guild Leader Sues Foes Over False Charge

CLAUDE FORT: Alleges internal critics libeled him.

Civil Service Technical Guild President Claude Fort is suing the president of his local's largest chapter and several of its board members for libel, accusing them of causing him "great embarrassment and humiliation" and "severe emotional distress" by circulating leaflets about an ongoing ethical practices investigation involving Mr. Fort.

The complaint was brought against Behrouz Fathi, president of New York City Transit Chapter 2, and five chapter officers: Vice President Raoul Nazon, Recording Secretary Dave Whitman, Salary Chair Vijay Kapoor, Education Chair G. Augustine, and Grievance Chair George L. Dames Sr. The complaint seeks $1 million in damages.

Grew Out of 'No-Show' Probe

The crux of the complaint is that Mr. Fathi allegedly handed out three anonymous leaflets, authored by "Insider," that made several accusations about an ongoing investigation into the local by District Council 37's Ethical Practices Officer, Bruce Maffeo. Mr. Maffeo examined an anonymous allegation that Tech Guild Public Relations Chair Vincent Sawinski was not performing his duties, and that Mr. Fort had been complicit in Mr. Sawinski's "no-show" status. The Tech Guild is Local 375 of DC 37.

BEHROUZ FATHI: Based accusation on DC 37 charges.

Among the allegations in the anonymous leaflets were that Mr. Fort had knowingly submitted erroneous records on behalf of Mr. Sawinski, that he gave false testimony to mislead the investigation, and that he agreed to support reimbursement of legal fees incurred by union officers for work-related activities to buy the support of Mitch Feder, his former opponent in leadership elections. The complaint goes on to accuse Mr. Fathi of authoring the leaflets "upon information and belief."

"I'm not the insider, I'm not the generator of those flyers, but that's besides the point," said Mr. Fathi in a phone interview. "A lot of those flyers have been issued by different people and different groups."

'He Adopted It'

Arthur Schwartz, Mr. Fort's private attorney who authored the complaint, said that he thought that Mr. Fathi probably wasn't the author of the "Insider" leaflets, but that he had witnesses corroborating that Mr. Fathi had handed them out. "Even if he didn't author it, once he distributed it, he adopted it," he said in a phone interview. "I wouldn't have sued [him] unless I had statements from witnesses."

Also mentioned in the complaint is the letter to the editor in this newspaper's Jan. 2 issue that called for Mr. Fort to step down as union president, which included allegations that the union head had solicited and accepted a bribe. DC 37's charges against Mr. Fort, which the letter repeated, had seemingly cited the wrong article of its constitution, which implied he was being charged with bribe-accepting instead of interference with testimony. That letter was authored by all six people in Chapter 2 currently being sued.

'Don't Think He Was Confused'

Mr. Schwartz asserted that the more serious issue was this letter, which he said showed "a reckless disregard for the truth." Mr. Schwartz said Mr. Fathi took advantage of the mix-up in citations by District Council 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and Associate Director Oliver Gray to make libelous claims. "I don't believe that Fathi was confused," he said. "He saw what the allegations were. He went to the constitution. He saw the words in the constitution very clearly that were cited had nothing to do with the description of the alleged wrongdoing, and he said, 'Aha!' "

Mr. Fathi denied the accusation, saying that he and his fellow chapter members had gone with the information that the charges gave them. "You're saying the charges wrongly accused him of that, but that's not my call," he said.

"We did not hear any revisions from the originator of the charges. If they use that citation, we have to take it as it is. Unless they officially announce that they made a mistake, then of course we are going to rely on that."

Mr. Fathi said that he and the other members mentioned in the suit would fight the allegations. "Everybody's in support of the letter that we sent to The Chief, and they are very much in support of each other, and we are jointly going to respond to Claude's accusation," he said.