Lorain attorneys ask judge to sanction lawyer for citing non-existent cases in legal filing

Lawyers for the city of Lorain have asked a judge to sanction attorney Robert Gargasz for allegedly citing nonexistent legal cases in his client Garon Petty's most recent lawsuit against the city and its officials. City attorneys in a Jan. 9 filing asked Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Melissa Kobasher to sanction Gargasz for citing cases "for which there is no record" — meaning, they don't exist in law as cited in his legal filings. Gargasz also allegedly cited cases "for a proposition of law that the cited cases do not even discuss" and mischaracterized the city's legal arguments, its attorneys wrote. City attorneys wrote that of 24 court cases Gargasz cited in a Jan. 2 filing, 14 "do not appear to exist." "Such fabrication has no place in a court of law," they wrote. "At best, plaintiff has failed in spectacular fashion, to review the cases cited for accuracy. At worst, plaintiff has attempted to mislead this court into ruling in a way favorable to plaintiff by citing to apparently fictional cases." Gargasz allegedly misrepresented the law seven other times, city attorneys wrote. Those actions are "clearly sanctionable and should not be tolerated," they wrote, asking for sanctions including attorney fees. Gargasz denied any wrongdoing in a Jan. 14 filing, calling the city's allegations improper, unsupported and saying that "any citation inaccuracies were inadvertent and clerical in nature," not intentional. In an email Tuesday to The Chronicle-Telegram, Gargasz wrote that the city's allegations "are incorrect without the procedural context reflected in the actual filings. That allegation is incorrect and only works if the filing is read selectively and without regard to its procedural posture." Petty was charged with two misdemeanors after a July 2024 City Council meeting in which he allegedly trespassed in an area off-limits to the public and approached Clerk of Council Breanna Dull in an "aggressive" manner. Council members approached, Petty was asked to step away from Dull and she was escorted to her car, according to a police report. He was criminally charged the following month. A separate defamation suit Petty filed against Dull in September 2024 is pending in front of Judge Donna Freeman. Petty pleaded "no contest" in October to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in Lorain Municipal Court, was found guilty by Visiting Judge James Kimbler and fined $100. A misdemeanor trespassing charge was dismissed. Petty filed the newest lawsuit in November. It names the city of Lorain; former Lorain police chief James McCann; Lorain police Capt. Jake Morris; Council members Joel Arredondo, Mary Springowski, Tony Dimacchia and Dan Nutt; and Dull as defendants. The lawsuit alleges the defendants violated Petty's civil rights and that they maliciously prosecuted him with "false and fabricated" charges to punish him for exercising his constitutional rights, among other allegations. It seeks unspecified damages. In court documents, city attorneys have described Petty and Gargasz's filings in the case as "rambling and meandering" and full of "broad and confusing allegations that are not clearly linked to any claim and seem to have little to no relevance." Gargasz wrote that the city "presses motions and seeks sanctions while relying on a improper representation and selective account of the criminal case." He said the city's law department should recuse itself from handling the civil lawsuit just as it did the criminal case, which was overseen by a special prosecutor. The issue at hand "is no longer rhetoric or citation error. It is whether the city's filings should be given legal effect at all, or whether the failure to properly address and cure conflicts renders those motions procedurally defective and subject to being treated as moot or fraudulent," Gargasz wrote. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com