Appeals Court Overturns Judge Babineau’s Ruling in Matthew Coulter Case
Recently the Third Appellate District Court overturned Judge Kelly Babineau’s ruling that Matthew Coulter had violated restraining orders against the City of Grass Valley. Now, in addition to the City spending over $170,000 of General Funds on the judicial stalking of Matthew Coulter, they are subject to coughing up attorney’s fees for Coulter’s council, Patrick Dwyer.
Coulter alleges errors by Judge Babineau
On March 19, 2024, Dwyer filed a Writ of Prohibition asking the Court of Appeals to vacate a judgment of contempt against Matthew Coulter for posting photos and comments on his Facebook page.
Judge Babineau’s serious errors quoted directly from the Writ:
First, the court’s interpretation of the scope of the March 13, 2023 (“Restraining Order”) went far beyond its “clear, specific, and unequivocal language.
Second, the court misinterpreted CCP 527.6 by expanding the definition of harassment far beyond the legislative intent of the statute.
Third, the court ignored Petitioner’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech and right to petition for redress concerning unequal enforcement of municipal regulations.
Fourth, there was no substantial evidence before the court to support the finding of contempt, let alone evidence that satisfied the requirement that there was willful violation “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
In plain language, the City of Grass Valley cannot just bring a case to court and make stuff up.
Appeals Court overturns Judge Babineau’s ruling
Following the overturning of Judge Babineau’s ruling, the City just couldn’t accept the Appellate Court’s decision. In desperation, the city attorney decided to spend even more of the people’s money, and now accusing Coulter of stalking, something that was not entered into the trial. The city attorney lobbied Judge Babineau at length to allow the City to send the decision back to the Appeals Court to be heard again. Sending a case back to the Appeals Court is virtually unheard of. Not a good idea!
Judge Babineau vacates her ruling
It took another week for Judge Babineau to think about all this. Finally, on Friday, May 24, 2024, she did the only right thing and vacated her previous ruling. Matthew Coulter had not violated the restraining orders. Judge Babineau was visibly ‘not happy’ to have her ruling overturned and verbally defended her decision.
Attorney for Grass Valley verbally thrashes Coulter after his public comment
Now, fast forward to the May 28, 2024, Grass Valley City Council meeting. City Attorney, Michael Colantuano, in a four-minute sour-grapes tirade, chastised Matthew Coulter following his phoned-in public comment. During the verbal thrashing, he continued to accuse Coulter of ‘stalking’ city council women and employees even though there was zero mention of stalking in the court trial.
Alluding to the September 1, 2022 incident where Sierra Foothills Construction workers, Mark Olsen and Marc Nelson attacked, beat, and kicked Coulter (all caught on city mast cam video), Colantuano had this to say:
Your inappropriate behavior has gotten you hurt. You’ve gone to the emergency room. Sorry to have to joke about it, but for contempt of construction workers. They are not folks who are used to resolving their disputes with the kind of language I am using now. But you did get in their face. And there were consequences for you.
Not joking here, I guess construction workers are not able to use language and have to settle their disputes by attacking, beating, and kicking. Grass Valley police, even with video evidence, never arrested Olsen and Nelson. Instead, they charged Coulter.
Mr. Colantuano’s final statement during the city council meeting was, “So, we’ll keep looking for ways to help you, my friend, and we’ll keep looking for ways to protect people on our team who are rightfully frightened by your behavior. And if that requires us to spend $170,000 or more of the city’s General Fund money, as it has to date, not park money, unfortunately, that is necessary.”
Does the public have anything to say regarding the City of Grass Valley spending over $100,000 of General Fund resources to ‘judicially stalk’ Matthew Coulter?
While Mr. Colantuano alluded to Matthew Coulter’s mental health challenges in his diatribe, it seems as if the City has its mental health challenges with its obsession of prosecuting Coulter at every opportunity.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again with poor results.
The trial for the September 1, 2022 incident is scheduled for this July. Coulter has pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the now ‘misdemeanor’ battery charge for which he wrongly spent a month in jail. We’ll see what happens when the jury watches that mast cam video footage of Mark Olsen and Marc Nelson attacking, beating, and kicking Matthew Coulter.
