‘False and defamatory’ memo led to settlement

Former Juvenile Education and Training Court coordinator Marina Kalani received a $70,000 settlement after she threatened to sue Kootenai County over an allegedly “false and defamatory” memo criticizing her job performance.

The county’s insurance program, Idaho Counties Risk Management, said it negotiated the March 23 settlement to prevent a potentially more-costly lawsuit. Yet ICRMP officials said Tuesday the settlement doesn’t make any judgment about the content of the memo written by J.T. Taylor, who manages the District 1 Juvenile Detention Center.

“We are not admitting our member did anything wrong,” said Lynette McHenry, ICRMP’s claims manager. “We are just making a global settlement to avoid any potential suits in the future.”

The insurance provider on Tuesday released an affidavit by McHenry that spells out the reason for the Kalani settlement. The document was prepared in May for a district court judge but was never officially submitted.

The settlement was intended to resolve any potential claims by Kalani regarding her employment as the JET Court coordinator. Kalani voluntarily resigned March 21, the day after the Kootenai County Commission released heavily edited copies of roughly half of the 1,060 e-mail exchanges in the past year between Kalani and her boss, Prosecutor Bill Douglas.

The commission asked for the e-mails in an attempt to find out more details about the management and finances of the failed drug court that was paid for with a $498,000 federal grant.

The affidavit states that none of Kalani’s potential claims were against Douglas.

Instead, the settlement was focused on the Taylor memo in which he calls Kalani’s conduct with the court “inappropriate, unprofessional and unethical” and writes that she has “significant character issues and questionable practices.”

In the Feb. 14 letter to 1st District Judge Benjamin Simpson, Taylor blames Kalani for the failure of JET Court, in which only 12 children out of 44 enrolled graduated. Prosecutors offered the program to children in lieu of jail time.

Taylor, who is still juvenile detention manager, didn’t return phone calls Tuesday.

Kalani said on Tuesday that she and Taylor disagreed about how to run the program but that he escalated it to a “personal attack.”

“His memo was simply inaccurate,” Kalani said, adding that she spoke with Taylor several days before he wrote the letter and that he didn’t mention any concerns.

She called the letter “highly libelous” and said it opened the county to lawsuits. She questions why neither Taylor’s supervisor nor the county commission has disciplined Taylor over the memo.

“To my knowledge they have done nothing and that’s risky business,” she said.

Kootenai County Commission Chairman Gus Johnson said the commissioners weren’t involved in the settlement negotiation and were actually “caught off guard” that Kalani received nearly $70,000 two days after she resigned.

Based on the commission’s own investigation, Johnson said Taylor was just trying to bring attention to what he perceived as problems with the court program.

“I felt it was not administrated appropriately and from my view I think we are better off without it,” Johnson said.

Even though the county had nothing to do with the settlement, Johnson said the insurer recently told the commission it made the payment to settle the case because there were potential claims that have noting to do with Taylor’s actions or memo.

Johnson said he couldn’t elaborate because it was a personnel issue.

Kalani said the settlement proves to her that Taylor’s action were unlawful and did expose the county to liability.

To Douglas, the settlement and McHenry affidavit prove that “none of my actions were the reason for the claim,” he said.

Douglas protested Taylor’s letter at the time and told the commission it was “highly inappropriate” and “unfairly disparaged” Kalani’s character and reputation.

The county began investigating the JET Court program after it came to an abrupt end Feb. 16 when Simpson quit, saying he had “serious concerns about ongoing personnel problems and legal issues.”

That’s when the commission requested the e-mails between Douglas and Kalani. The e-mails didn’t reveal any financial problems but the commission said they did raise concerns about an improper relationship between Douglas and Kalani.

Both Kalani and Douglas have repeatedly denied accusations of an affair.

In July, a judge ruled that the e-mails are public record and not protected by privacy laws.

Cowles Publishing, which owns The Spokesman-Review newspaper, sued the county to gain access to hundreds of e-mails exchanged between Kalani and Douglas.

The e-mails have not been released, however, pending appeal.

Kalani’s attorney, Greg Horne, has said he plans to file an appeal in early August.