Mediation urged in defamation suit against lawmaker

Saturday, Feb. 22, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Visiting District Judge James Brennan said that otherwise "you could end up in the federal system in a freedom of speech issue ... and that just saps everyone's energy and pocketbook."

Brennan also ruled Friday that if the case isn't settled, Sen. Kathy Augustine, R-Las Vegas, won't have to deal with it during the 1997 legislative session.

Brown, a Las Vegas Democrat, filed her defamation lawsuit against Augustine as a result of political ads Augustine ran in the 1994 campaign saying Brown "actively opposes prayer and refused to participate in Pledge of Allegiance in legislative sessions."

Other ads by Augustine, who ended up defeating Brown in November 1994, said Brown "turns her back on our flag."

Brown, who is Jewish, argued she was defamed by the ads that questioned her patriotism because she did not oppose prayer or refuse to say the pledge.

Three GOP senators signed a letter supporting Augustine's position that Brown didn't say the pledge or pray and Brown later sued them as well - Sen. Ray Rawson of Las Vegas, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio of Reno and former Sen. Sue Lowden of Las Vegas.

The ads were based on Brown's actions in the last two weeks of the 1993 Legislature. She said her complaints had been ignored that the daily opening prayers were too denominational, so she made a statement that she would pray in her own way outside the Senate floor and not enter the chamber until the prayer was over.

Because the pledge is given immediately after the prayer, she would stand in the back near the press gallery and give the pledge from there.

Raggio, Rawson and Lowden said they didn't see her give the pledge, although they wouldn't have been able to see her if they were facing the flag.

The three senators were sued for signing a letter about Brown that said: "We find it suspicious, more than interesting and highly coincidental that, with the revelation of the election season, she suddenly is a respecter of the Senate's traditional prayer and pledge to the flag, when her actions during the 1993 session spoke otherwise."

Her attorney and father, Melvin Lipman, argued that the senators' letter had anti-Semitic implications because attacking a Jewish person for being unpatriotic is one of the oldest forms of anti-Semitism.

Although at first Brown sought $3 million in damages, she has dropped her request for money and wants an apology and an admission of wrongdoing by the Republicans.

Brennan suggested that rather than litigate the case, which is already more than two years old, the parties should go into mediation before Washoe County District Judge Brent Adams.

The attorneys said they would meet with their clients and see if that is acceptable.