Susan Freeman, a local business owner and wife of Riverside City Manager Mike Futrell, filed a claim last week alleging the city retaliated against her for criticizing public officials online, violating her constitutional rights in the process.
“I believe wholeheartedly that the city council was given incomplete, inaccurate and misleading information by certain individuals inside city hall,” Freeman said in a video statement. “My claim raises serious questions about whether I became the victim of retaliatory conduct and whether official power was allegedly used to distract from, or avoid, accountability for serious issues inside city hall.”
Freeman did not immediately respond to The Riverside Record’s request for comment.
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The claim stems from a December 11 letter alleging Freeman had harassed city staff. The letter, signed by Councilmember Chuck Conder and sent on behalf of the entire council, did not include specific examples and the city declined to elaborate further in response to an early-April request from The Riverside Record, citing employee privacy rights.
Freeman has since denied the claims on several occasions, again calling it “absolutely false, unsupported and defamatory,” in her video statement.
In the claim, she alleged the city investigated her without due process in the lead up to the letter. According to the claim, Freeman sent a letter to the council a week prior addressing what she said were attempts to silence her free speech. In that letter, she also suggested her social media was being surveilled and that she had received implied threats against her husband’s job.
These actions, she alleged in the claim, violated several of her rights, including California’s Tom Bane Civil Rights Act.
The city attorney’s office denied Freeman’s claims, according to a statement shared with The Record by Public Information Officer Phil Pitchford. The department added the city, in general, has 45 days to respond to claims and, if they are rejected, claimants can then file a lawsuit against the city.
Freeman’s attorney, in a letter sent June 10 to the city, stated the filing was submitted in advance of a lawsuit to recover damages.
As part of the claim, Freeman is seeking $1 million to compensate for damages to her reputation, violations of her freedom of speech, emotional distress and legal costs. However, the claim also noted it was too early to determine the full extent of damages and said the monetary amount was added as a placeholder.
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