Port of Vancouver commissioner candidate Kris Greene’s legal effort to silence a former campaign strategist before the Nov. 7 general election failed Wednesday in Clark County District Court.
Court Commissioner Todd George extended a temporary order against Robert Sabo until a Nov. 8 hearing. But he rejected a request to forbid Sabo from speaking about Greene’s campaign to the public or the media.
George said he’s not comfortable issuing an order that would prevent Sabo’s right to free speech. Sabo’s attorney, Erin McAleer, had argued that even though Greene doesn’t like Sabo’s comments to the media, Sabo’s actions didn’t constitute harassment.
Sabo is barred from making contact with Greene or his family.
After the hearing, Sabo said that he was pleased with the ruling.
“I have no interest in contacting Kris,” he said. “And I appreciate the court upholding my First Amendment rights.”
After the hearing, Greene emailed a statement to The Columbian that said Sabo had threatened his family, business and campaign. Greene’s statement also mentioned Sabo’s 1997 felony conviction for robbing his father’s Texaco station. In 2004, Sabo was pardoned by Gov. Gary Locke.
Insider turned critic
Sabo, a former Greene campaign adviser and friend of Greene, has gone public with documents that reveal fossil fuel industry insiders are effectively dictating who works with Greene’s campaign, reshaping the campaign’s message and providing direction for how the campaign should spend $370,000 in contributions from companies with an interest in the oil terminal project.
Vancouver Energy wants to build a $210 million oil terminal at the Port of Vancouver. If built, it would handle an average of 360,000 barrels of oil per day, delivered by train from the Bakken formation in Montana and North Dakota and be stored and shipped from the port by water, bound for oil refineries along the West Coast.
Greene has expressed varying degrees of support for the project but as a candidate has stated only that he is in support of the state’s ongoing evaluation of the project. One of the other port commissioners is strongly in favor of the project, and the third is strongly opposed.
Sabo said he left the campaign in early September, shortly after an early $75,000 contribution from Vancouver Energy to Greene’s campaign.
On Oct. 6, after Sabo’s departure but before his disclosures were first published, Greene filed a petition for an order of protection from harassment, saying he was fearful of Sabo and was unsure how he might retaliate.
“Since I’m not sure how mad he can get, I feel very threatened, physically, emotionally and financially, my family, my home, my business and my campaign,” Greene wrote in his petition.
Additional allegations
The hearing was continued until 8:30 a.m. Nov. 8 — the morning after Election Day — on the request of Sabo’s attorney after Greene served Sabo with 25 pages of documents on Wednesday morning.
The supplemental documents were filed with the court on Tuesday. They include a police report Greene made on Oct. 3 after police responded to Greene’s home in response to alleged threats from Sabo to Greene that he would “ruin him and his campaign.”
Greene’s report claims that his campaign had “let go” of Sabo. Sabo said he left the campaign on his own accord after becoming fed up with the direction the campaign was headed and failing to convince Greene to reject the outside influences and not being honest about his support for the oil terminal.
Police documents include allegations from Greene that Sabo made comments including, “I’ll hurt you and your family,” and “I have an anger problem. It takes every ounce of me to control it.”
The report also references texts allegedly made by Sabo to Greene with further threats.
Greene told police Sabo sent him a text on Oct. 3 that reads: “Ignore me and watch every remaining day of your candidacy be devoted to spending all that new donated money in developing somebody who knows how to use the Internet. You have exactly 24 hours to get honest. Before everything you read online goes south.”
Police spoke with Greene again Oct. 4 and 5 concerning his claims of harassment by Sabo. On Oct. 4, Greene told police about additional texts reading, “You think removing me from a Facebook will affect anything.” Police advised Greene that he might consider an emergency protection order.
On Oct. 5, police contacted Sabo to talk about Greene’s claims. Sabo told police he did not make any “specific threats” against Greene. Police then informed Sabo that Greene was seeking a protection order to which Sabo responded, “As long as it doesn’t interfere with my civil liberties, I don’t care.”
In an interview Friday, Sabo said he never violently threatened Greene. He described the interactions as a “spirited conversation” with his best friend because he was afraid Greene’s campaign was being substantially overcharged by outside vendors.
