A Springfield City Councilor is accusing her former employer and a candidate running against her of defamation and a conspiracy – one she claims led to her termination.
Surrounded by supporters in front of the Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse Wednesday morning, Ward 1 Councilor Maria Perez made her case to the press after her attorney filed a lawsuit against the New North Citizens’ Council.
“They attempted to attack my dignity and pride, of our Latino community,” she said. “My only fault has been advocating for the rights of my community. Enough is enough. The people, united, will never be defeated.”
A longtime activist and advocate for Springfield’s Hispanic and Latino residents and others, Perez worked for four decades with the NNCC – a nonprofit that provides a number of community and family services for the city’s North End neighborhoods.
Perez had been the group’s Chief of Housing Programs until she was terminated in July – a move that’s at the center of the complaint filed, which accuses the organization and various members of wrongful termination, civil conspiracy and more.
“According to her termination letter, Councilor Perez was terminated as a result of a directly-targeted forensic audit of her work computer, which allegedly contained political and personal content,” said her attorney, Jeffrey Morneau. “Councilor Perez was never provided with any of the alleged evidence. She was given no opportunity to review the evidence or even respond to the allegations prior to her termination…”
Among others, the lawsuit names NNCC Executive Director Maria Ligus as well as Joesiah Gonzalez, a now-former member of the group’s board, and goes as far as to accuse the two of working to undermine Perez, claiming Ligus terminated her “at the request of Mr. Gonzalez in an attempt to help Mr. Gonzalez’s political campaign against Plaintiff.”
The complaint alleges that “in exchange, Ms. Ligus wanted Mr. Gonzalez to help secure Board approval for her requested employment contract with significantly increased compensation.”
The lawsuit also focuses on a July 26 press release from the NNCC that announced Perez’s termination.
The release said the organization would be reaching out to a state ethics commission and that the NNCC “strongly condemns the embezzlement of federal funds and the misuse of 501(c)(3) resources for political purposes.”
“Mr. Gonzalez and Ms. Ligus escalated their actions by drafting, approving and issuing a press release that falsely targeted, without any factual basis whatsoever, that Ms. Perez had embezzled federal funds and misused NNCC resources. This was a calculated attack,” Morneau said. “Mr. Gonzalez and Ms. Ligus knew that these embezzlement allegations were false, yet they issued the defamatory press release … but intentionally failed to refute the allegations for several days, allowing these false claims to linger…”
On Friday, Aug. 1, Ligus sent out a “corrective press release,” stating the previous one was sent without approval from executive leadership or formal authorization from the board, and that it contained “certain inaccuracies.”
The updated release said Perez’s termination was “unrelated to any allegations or findings related to the use of federal funds.”
A day before, Gonzalez announced on Facebook he had resigned from the board to "eliminate public confusion" regarding Perez's termination. He also added that he “supported the press release sent out” in July.
The complaint describes Gonzalez as playing a key role in the press release’s creation. It claims that on July 26, he contacted the NNCC’s clerk, Efrain Vasquez Jr., “indicating that the Board had to send out a press release on the termination of Ms. Perez as soon as possible.”
The suit alleges Gonzalez traveled to the clerk’s home and used Vasquez’s computer to draft the press release while “consulting with Ms. Ligus, Mr. Vasquez,” and another defendant named in the lawsuit – Juana Girona.
“He can try to distance himself all he wants - we know, for a fact, that he was intimately involved in the drafting, the issuing, the preparing and the sending out of that press release accusing Ms. Perez of embezzling federal funds. We know that for sure,” Morneau told WAMC. “There are multiple witnesses, and there will be … electronic forensic evidence that will come out to prove that if he doesn't come clean himself and just admit to what he did.”
WAMC has reached out to Gonzalez for comment, as well as Ligus and other members of the NNCC. Executive Director Ligus responded by email Wednesday afternoon, stating she was unable to comment.
The complaint includes a copy of Perez’s termination letter, signed by Ligus, which makes no mention of embezzlement.
In it, Ligus cites a forensic audit of Perez’s NNCC computer that found an “immense amount of political documents and files,” including documents relating to the “Woman of the Vanguard,” a women’s advocacy group Perez helped create nearly two decades ago.
Ligus cited NNCC policies regarding partisan political activities for the termination. Perez’s attorney claims that policy can be traced back to a 2017 personal policies and practices manual, and that the councilor does not recall receiving or signing such a manual.
The lawsuit also contains accusations of assault and battery relating to Perez being escorted out of the NNCC the day of her firing.
Morneau says a separate suit is likely to soon be filed on behalf of Perez’s colleague, Ivelisse Gonzalez, who the Springfield Republican newspaper reports was terminated the same day as Perez, on similar grounds.
