Judge reverses order halting Jenkins' efforts to depose Fine in School Board lawsuit
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated whose lawyers have to confer on discovery by Jan. 5. The judge's order requires attorneys for Jennifer Jenkins and Matt Susin to confer. Randy Fine is named as a witness, not a party, in the suit.
In a pair of rapid-fire rulings this week, a Brevard County judge first halted then reversed a decision that temporarily barred School Board member Jennifer Jenkins from trying to force State Rep. Randy Fine to testify in her ongoing lawsuit against School Board member Matt Susin.
Circuit Judge Michelle Naberhaus on Friday lifted a stay on all discovery in the public records suit against Susin, including Jenkins' efforts to depose Fine. The decision followed on the heels of a Thursday order that put a stop to the efforts until problems with Jenkins’ complaint in the suit could be fixed.
Naberhaus noted that a problem with the court’s online system prevented her from seeing a fourth amended complaint to resolve the issues had been submitted four days before the Thursday ruling. Two prior versions of the complaint in the case had been previously dismissed.
The orders come days after video of Fine apparently hiding behind the desk of his Palm Bay office, in what critics said was an effort to avoid a subpoena to testify, surfaced on social media. The video was taken in October by a private investigator hired by Jenkins' attorney to serve Fine with papers in the case.
Fine has denied evading a subpoena and said the video showed him following office safety protocols after recent death threats when the man tried to enter the office before identifying himself.
More: Video showing Randy Fine hiding behind desk is latest in bizarre feud with Jennifer Jenkins
He has questioned the legitimacy of both the order to testify filed by Jenkins' attorney and the efforts to serve him.
While the ruling keeps the door open for further efforts, Naberhaus did not allow Jenkins and her lawyer, Brevard attorney Jessica Travis, to depose Fine on Friday, the last day before he gained privilege under Florida law allowing state legislators to put off legal action close to session.
Instead, attorneys for Jenkins and Susin have until Jan. 5 to confer on whether the deposition and all other discovery efforts in the case are even necessary.
Jenkins, in a statement, said she was pleased with the ruling.
"The court's prior ruling created an appearance that the case was not active and depositions intended to go outside the scope, when the defendants have never raised such a claim to the court. Fine is a relevant third party to the records requested," Jenkins wrote.
She accused Fine of using legal tactics to avoid being deposed in the case, which she emphasized was about Susin, "not about Randy Fine."
"It is no surprise that ... we find ourselves here with the man who hides behind the confines of his office, literally," she wrote about Fine. "These antics continue to justify the motivation of this suit, that accountability and transparency from our elected officials is an expectation, not a request."
In her original order Thursday, Naberhaus wrote that problems with the prior complaint in the case created “a legitimate issue as to the permissibility, breadth and scope of discovery." She clarified in the Friday ruling that this applied to all discovery and attempted or outstanding depositions in the case.
"[T]he Court does not feel it appropriate to force Rep. Fine to testify without the permissible scope and parameters of the deposition being put into place,” she wrote.
Jenkins has accused Fine of colluding with Susin to amplify ultimately unfounded rumors that a transgender student sexually assaulted a classmate in a bathroom last summer at Johnson Middle School in Melbourne. She is suing Susin for text messages and call logs she says will prove the two worked together, which Susin and Fine have both denied.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office closed a similar complaint at Space Coast Jr./Sr. High School in Port St. John due to lack of evidence.
More: A look at the ongoing feud between State Rep. Randy Fine, School Board member Jennifer Jenkins
In his own statement Friday, Fine said, "I appreciate Judge Naberhaus stripping Jennifer Jenkins of the right to unilaterally issue subpoenas on whatever paranoid delusion pops into her head at any given moment."
"Should the Judge believe I have any evidence to offer in Jenkins' twice-dismissed frivolous lawsuit against the taxpayers of Brevard County over Matt Susin's cell phone bill, I will be happy to answer those questions when I return from Session in late March or April," he wrote.
"In the meantime, I will be asking how it is appropriate for a school board member to sue their own school board and divert hundreds of thousands of dollars from the classroom to pay for legal bills. That is definitely worthy of a deposition."
Fine previously accused Jenkins of wasting "hundreds of thousands" of taxpayer dollars on court battles against him in a prior statement Thursday. He clarified that was his own estimate based on the amount of legal action, including prior civil cases brought by Jenkins, but produced no evidence to back up the claim.
Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or [email protected]. Follow him on X: @EricRogersFT.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Judge: Lawyers get until Jan. 5 to confer on Fine testifying in Susin suit
