SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – The California Supreme Court voted 5-2 to uphold an injunction against a 53-year-old Newport Beach woman who verbally trashed a local bar by accusing it of serving tainted food and making sex videos.
A lower court enjoined Anne Lemen from bashing the Balboa Island Village Inn after a trial court found her public comments defamatory, including calling a bartender “Satan’s wife” and telling her she was “going to have Satan’s children.”
Lemen, who lives across from the inn, repeatedly complained about the bar’s drunken patrons, and took more than 50 videotapes and photos of customers leaving the bar. She occasionally followed them to their cars, calling them “drunks” and “whores,” and told arriving customers that the “food is shitty” and that the inn was involved in child porn, prostitution, drug dealing and Mafia activity.
She also collected 100 signatures on a petition opposing the Village Inn. The Supreme Court held that the injunction barring her from defaming the tavern, filming customers and contacting employees is constitutional, but needs to be more narrowly tailored. In dissent, Justice Kennard wrote that the ruling authorizes prior restraint and “goes beyond chilling speech ... It freezes speech.”
