The operator of
Sunbound Travels LLC--the focus of an ongoing investigation by the
Chesterton Police Department--has filed a tort claim notice against the Town
of Chesterton and the CPD, alleging that she was defamed by Police Chief
Dave Cincoski in an interview given to CBS-2 staffer Dorothy Tucker on May
27.
The notice is dated
May 29 and seeks unspecified damages for “loss of reputation.”
On or about May 27,
the notice states, Tucker contacted Cincoski and asked him to speak about
the Sunbound investigation. He did so, in a taped interview which aired at
10 p.m. that day, and made--according to the travel agent’s attorney,
Patrick McEuen--“false and defamatory statements,” to the effect that a list
exists of “well over 300 victims,” that some customers’ credit card numbers
were used to pay for other customers’ “entirely different” trips, and that a
particular tour operator with which Sunbound has done business has lost more
than $30,000 due to “falsified travel documents.”
The notice, while
stating that the travel agent’s “losses and damages are unknown,” includes
among them her “loss of reputation as a result of defamation,” “due to Chief
Cincoski’s communication with Dorothy Tucker that (1) imputes criminal
conduct; (2) with malice; (3) was published; and (4) caused damages,
including embarrassment and invasion of privacy by false light.”
When contacted by
the Chesterton Tribune after deadline on Monday, Cincoski declined to
comment and referred questions to Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann.
Lukmann’s response
to the tort claim notice, however, was blunt. “We just received it,” he told
the Tribune today. “It’s under investigation. But a preliminary
review of this shows it’s completely frivolous and without merit.”
According to a
statement released by the CPD late last week, its investigation of Sunbound
began on March 25, with an initial complaint alleging “fraudulent activity
during the course of the travel agency preparing trip and vacation request
for Internet and telephone customers.” Eventually, at least 80 complaints
were filed, with Sunbound customers reporting a variety of problems: making
partial or full payment for trips not subsequently received or later
canceled for non-payment; or providing Sunbound with credit card numbers
used to pay for other customers’ trips.
Seven of those
customers also filed complaints with the Indiana Attorney General’s Office.
Six of those complaints concerned a “failure to perform a contract.” The
seventh--filed anonymously--concerned a failure to refund. None of them was
filed directly against Sunbound’s operator, spokesperson Molly Johnson said.
On Friday, McEuen
told the Tribune that both the CPD and the AG’s Office have been
provided information “that these alleged victims have all received full
refunds.”
“Sunbound Travel
LLC is fully cooperating with the Chesterton Police Department and the
Attorney General’s Office,” McEuen said, “is meeting deadlines, sending
documents, and answering all questions about these alleged victims.”
In fact, McEuen
said in a statement released to the Tribune over the weekend, the
complaints filed with the CPD were initially prompted by an on-line campaign
against Sunbound and then acquired a momentum of their own. “Sunbound
Travels LLC was subjected to a firestorm of cyber-bullying fed by a Facebook
page for alleged ‘victims’ in March 2015. Before the group was made
‘Private’ by the group’s administrators, some Sunbound clients posted wildly
exaggerated (and false) horror stories about lost money or canceled
vacations they had ‘paid for,’ when in fact only a deposit was paid. If the
unidentified ‘reports’ to the Chesterton Police Department include these
phony claims, then reporting on them has only thrown gasoline on a wildfire.
The lesson is this: social media are the new lynch mob.”
The CPD, meanwhile,
“is apparently committed to make a crime out of what is essentially a civil
matter,” McEuen added.