State Supremes Dismiss Otter Claim For Att'y Fees in Gracedale Saga

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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has refused to hear Doylestown lawyer Larry Otter's continuing attempt to grab attorney fees from Ron Angle and yours truly in the never-ending Gracedale saga. This follows a Commonwealth Court opinion that quashed his appeal.

This claim for attorney fees arises from the ashes of a lawsuit that Angle and I filed, challenging the Gracedale referendum. We claimed there were not enough valid signatures. We came close, but in the end, we lost.

Otter, who claims he's an election law expert worth $450 an hour, claimed that Angle and I acted in bad faith. He claimed our lawsuit was funded by taxpayer dollars paid to a law firm hired by the County to expedite Gracedale's sale.

Then he proceeded to try his case in the press. Here's just some of the publicity, some of which were lead stories:

3/14/11: Morning Call - "Did taxpayers fund Gracedale petition fight?"

3/16/11: WFMZ - "Attorney: Taxpayer Dollars Used To Challenge Gracedale Petition" (In this one, Otter was demanding a criminal investigation and had us all in jail).

4/20/11: Morning Call - "Did taxpayers help fund a private Gracedale lawsuit?"

4/28/11: Express Times - "Attorney claims Bernie O'Hare, Ron Angle illegally used taxpayer money for Gracedale ballot fight"

But cases are tried in courtrooms, not newspapers. When Otter had to argue in front of a judge, instead of Channel 69 reporter Bo Koldcrow, he lost repeatedly.

Judge Baratta concluded that, even if the County acted improperly, that has nothing to do with Angle or me. "[W]e found that such evidence is irrelevant to the issue before the Court related to proving vexatious, obdurate, dilatory or bad faith actions or motive on the part of the pro se litigants. We have already ruled that Mr. O'Hare and Mr. Angle raised legitimate and justiciable issues and further presented competent and compelling evidence challenging the legality of thousand signatures. In fact, Mr. O'Hare and Mr. Angle successfully established that thousands of signatures were invalid ... ."

Otter, who incidentally has no malpractice insurance, claimed that I had perjured myself. He never bothered to state how. He also accused Angle, County Executive John Stoffa and I of being dishonest with the Court. Once again, he was a little short on details.

In addition to calling me a thief, Otter also happens to be the attorney who filed a malicious prosecution accusing me of sexual assault, stalking, burglary (twice) and even attempted pig poisoning (twice).

That was played up in the press, too.

That case was dismissed the day after it was filed.

Now it's my turn.