Tim Ryan, tryan@shawanoleader.com
A libel and defamation suit filed by Shawano Mayor Lorna Marquardt and her husband against the Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology (SIST) and its former chief financial officer was settled out of court after a mediation hearing this week.
Marquardt and her husband, Donald, filed the suit against Kalmar Gronvall, SIST and two of its subsidiaries in 2007. The suit centered on pamphlets and a website allegedly put together by Gronvall that referred to Marquardt as a racist and included derogatory, doctored photos.
The pamphlets were distributed on the street — in some cases by Gronvall himself — and at businesses owned by SIST subsidiaries Midwest Properties of Shawano, LLC, and Midwest Oil of Wisconsin, LLC, according to the lawsuit.
A mediation ordered by Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Gregory Grau was held Tuesday with attorney Mark Wendorff serving as mediator, after which the settlement was reached.
Details of the settlement were not disclosed. The original court filing sought $100,000 in monetary damages, punitive costs of $500,000 and legal fees.
Marquardt said, however, the financial settlement arrived at on Tuesday was minimal.
“Although cases are always filed with monetary figures attached, we did not file it for the purpose of a monetary gain,” Marquardt said.
“It was about principles,” she said. “It was about standing up and saying that writing and circulating defamatory materials depicting someone as an orangutan, a murderer, a Nazi, a descendant of Hitler and all the other outrageous accusations was unacceptable.
“Although we believe in free speech, we don’t believe this type of slander, lies, distortions and mean-spirited propaganda is what our forefathers fought to preserve.”
Marquardt said she and her husband had mixed feelings about settling out of court.
“But we considered the additional media attention a jury trial would bring to our beautiful community, and that played a big role in our decision to settle,” she said.
“We feel the fact that a settlement was awarded was a victory and an admission that we were wronged,” Marquardt said. “The settlement of this case does not prohibit us from further filings of this type of defamation occurs in the future.”
Representatives of SIST could not be reached for comment, but in the past they have sought to distance SIST and its subsidiaries from Gronvall and the pamphlets.
Several SIST board members filed court affidavits stating Gronvall was no longer on SIST’s board of directors when the pamphlets were handed out.
Gronvall was sentenced in May 2013 to four years in prison on federal charges of tax evasion.