Judge rules Zimmerlink needs to be more specific
A federal magistrate found that the lawsuit filed by a Fayette County Republican commissioner against her Democratic colleagues “is insufficiently specific.” In a report and recommendation handed down Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy Bissoon found that an attorney for Angela M. Zimmerlink should file a more definitive complaint that further outlined her claims against Commissioners Vincent A. Vicites and Vincent Zapotosky.
An attorney for Vicites and Zapotosky had asked that the lawsuit be dismissed, or that Zimmerlink be required to file a more detailed lawsuit.
Earlier this year, Zimmerlink sued, claiming her colleagues violated her First Amendment rights, took official action without her and retaliated against her for being an outspoken critic.
Bissoon found that the lawsuit did not define what “official actions” were taken without Zimmerlink.
“Perhaps the starkest illustration of the lack of specificity is plaintiff’s allegation that defendants retaliated against her by taking ‘official action’ without allowing her to participate. The complaint is devoid of any factual allegations concerning the nature of this alleged ‘official action,'” Bissoon wrote.
Vicites and Zapotosky asked the suit be dismissed because the allegations were about legislative activities. However, Bissoon said in her ruling that the complaint did not give her enough information to go on to determine if the activities were indeed legislative.
If the actions were legislative, Vicites and Zapotosky can’t be sued, their attorney had argued.
But without more information, Bissoon found a judge couldn’t make that determination.
“A careful review of plaintiff’s complaint, however, reveals that her examples are far from concrete and her allegations are not sufficiently specific to evaluate defendants’ legislative immunity defense,” she wrote.
Zimmerlink will have until Sept. 14 to object to the report and recommendations, otherwise, they will go to a district judge to adopt them.