Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Travel agent under CPD investigation moves to sue alleging defamation

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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.

 

 

Posted 6/2/2015

 
 
 
 

 

 

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