Former Cedar Rapids council member’s comments go on trial this week

CEDAR RAPIDS - Mayor Ron Corbett and members of the City Council are among a long list of people slated to testify this week in what will be a rare event in Iowa: A slander trial against an elected official.

Eight Linn County jurors will decide if, as a City Council member in 2011, Don Karr slandered a builder of homes that sit on posts or piers, or if Karr's comments were part of a robust council debate.

Cedar Rapids city law does not permit homes built on piers or posts without continuous frost-free foundations. At a meeting on Oct. 25, 2011, the council debated a request from a couple of local builders to amend the city law to allow post- or pier-supported homes.

The council turned down the amendment on a 5-3 vote, with Karr siding with the majority. Karr commented that permitting post- or pier-building homes would lower the city's building standards and subject owners to shifting floors and walls because of Iowa's freeze-thaw cycle.

In his comments, Karr mentioned builder Dave Stutzman, saying in part that Stutzman built a post-supported home in Linn County without proper permits that burned down, and built one in Cedar Rapids without proper building permits as well.

Karr, a plumbing contractor, called the construction 'substandard,” and said he turned down an offer from Stutzman to work on post-built homes because he did not like the building technique.

Stutzman said Karr slandered him, and filed a lawsuit in June 2012.

In opening arguments on Monday afternoon, Richard Pundt - one of Stutzman's two attorneys - said Karr launched into a 'tirade” at the 2011 council meeting in question, and had no reason to insult Stutzman in a 'malicious” fashion.

Karr's comments damaged Stutzman as an individual and hurt his construction business, Pundt said.

Pundt said the evidence in the civil trial will show that 'most if not all” that Karr said about Stutzman was untrue. Stutzman is seeking actual and punitive damages.

In opening remarks for Karr, Assistant City Attorney Mo Sheronick told jurors that the very nature of City Council debate involves council members expressing their opinions. He said the only reason for Stutzman's slander allegations is that 'somebody with some skin in the game didn't like” what Karr said about post-supported construction.

Pundt told the jury that Stutzman was not at the City Council meeting on Oct. 25, 2011, where Karr made his comments.

A video of the meeting was shown to the jury in which Vern Zakostelecky, a senior planner for the city, recounted how one or two local contractors had pushed to amend the city's continuous foundation law in front of the City Council's Development Committee and the City Planning Commission.

Pundt told the jurors that the evidence will show that Stutzman is 'a good person.”

Sheronick said Karr had lived in Cedar Rapids all his life, served in the Vietnam War and came home and eventually started his own plumbing business.

The business took on four-and-a-half feet of water in the Flood of 2008, but Sheronick said Karr got the business back up and running while helping lead a group of small business owners to secure state disaster funds for flood-damaged local businesses.

In 2009, Karr was elected to an at-large City Council seat, Sheronick said. Karr chose not to seek re-election in 2013.

Sheronick told the jurors that they would see Karr as 'passionate,” 'a straight shooter” and someone 'who doesn't leave any wiggle room” when they see him on the video of the 2011 council meeting.

Sheronick asked presiding Judge Patrick Grady, chief judge of the Sixth Judicial District, to answer the legal question of whether or not Karr, as a council member, had a 'qualified privilege,” which Sheronick said would require Stutzman to show that Karr's comments were malicious or were made with reckless disregard for the truth.

Grady said he wanted to hear evidence at the civil trial before deciding about the request.

The judge said the trial should conclude this week.