From Thursday's N.Y. Appellate Division decision in Irizarry v. Zelaya (Judges Troy Webber, Ellen Gesmer, Lizbeth González, and John Higgitt) (see here for more details on the underlying election):
Plaintiff [Edward Irizarry] opposed defendant Betty Lugo in the June 2021 Democratic primary election for the office of Judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York…. Defendant Ariana Zelaya was a volunteer for the Lugo campaign.
Zelaya alleged that while standing on a public sidewalk in Manhattan, petitioning for Lugo, plaintiff "walked up to [Zelaya], stood very closely to her and aggressively grabbed the petition board from [Zelaya's] hands with force placing her in imminent fear of harm" and also "aggressively yelled at [Zelaya's] in a menacing and intimidating manner with the intent to cause intimidation, harm and fear." Zelaya initiated two actions against plaintiff, both of which were dismissed. Zelaya also filed a complaint with the police, which was dismissed as well.
Plaintiff commenced this action for defamation … based upon allegedly false statements, made in a campaign flyer and in tweets posted by Zelaya, accusing plaintiff of assaulting or harassing Zelaya and of abusing women more generally….
