Defeated Clark County candidate sues primary foe for defamation
A former candidate for Clark County public administrator is suing his primary opponent for a now-deleted post on an election website.
Aaron Manfredi filed a defamation suit against Thomas Fougere in Clark County District Court on Thursday, claiming damages in excess of $10,000.
In a statement, Manfredi blamed his loss to Fougere in the Republican primary on alleged “slanderous statements.”
“I will not let someone destroy my good name and the work I have done over the past 20 years with lies and attacks on my integrity just for their personal benefit, and this community deserves the truth, especially from anybody even attempting to run for government,” Manfredi wrote.
The lawsuit alleges that Fougere falsely claimed Manfredi “paid himself $65 per hour for ‘volunteer work’ from contributions” to his Las Vegas nonprofit The Achievement Academy, Inc., which helps find employment for adults with high-functioning autism and other disorders.
The post on Fougere’s campaign website cited an Internal Revenue Service filing from 2015 that showed Manfredi, the nonprofit’s executive director, paid himself $23,700. The form also stated Manfredi devoted an average of seven hours per week to position.
The post also claimed that the nonprofit “lost money every year” since Manfredi became executive director in 2014.
“Our only comment is that we are disappointed that Mr. Manfredi has found it necessary to add to the caseload of our already inundated courts with litigation which we believe is without merit,” Fougere campaign consultant Kassee Bulen wrote in an email.
The lawsuit is the epilogue of an irregular race between the two candidates.
Manfredi defeated Fougere by four votes in the June 12 primary, but the election was redone after it was discovered that as many as 43 voters had cast ballots twice.
In a rematch last week, Fougere bested Manfredi by 23 percentage points.
In a now-deleted post to his campaign’s Facebook page, Manfredi wrote on July 18 that he would help elect Democrat candidate Robert Telles to the public administrator position.
Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.
