All charges dropped in Levitt lawsuit
An Isabella judge ordered all charges filed in a defamation and ensuing damages lawsuit filed by Mount Pleasant attorney Todd Levitt to be dropped Jan. 9.
Isabella County Judge Paul Chamberlain of Isabella County Probate Court cited free speech issues as he nixed the case filed against attorney Gordon Bloem, as well as former Central Michigan University instructor Kenneth Sanney. Faculty member James Felton and his wife Angela, were also named in the lawsuit.
Formerly an instructor at CMU, Levitt originally sued student Zachary Felton in June 2014 after he had created a parody Twitter account. Levitt said the account caused him damage in lost revenue, as well as damaged his reputation which caused him to lose his teaching position at the university.
Chamberlain dismissed the suit against Felton, ruling the Twitter account was protected under the First Amendment. Shortly after, Levitt filed a $1 million lawsuit against The Morning Sun newspaper, Bloem, Sanney, the Feltons
The Morning Sun was dismissed from the lawsuit in May 2017.
Levitt named Sanney and James Felton for damages and emotional distress caused after an altercation with Levitt in front of his law office north of CMU's campus. Sanney and James Felton secretly recorded the encounter.
The recording was of a verbal confrontation that took place after Sanney and Felton called Levitt a "clown" outside of his office.
It was later uploaded to SoundCloud and distributed to more than a dozen outlets, including the Finance and Law department chair of the College of Business Administration, where Levitt was teaching at the time.
Levitt said that despite Chamberlain's decision, he and attorney John Devine plan to pursue the case through other venues.
"We are still considering filing (the judge's decision) in the (Michigan) Court of Appeals at this time," Levitt said.
Levitt also said he plans to use his radio show The Todd L. Levitt Radio Show and podcast The Todd L. Levitt Law Show to offer "his side of the story."
