Mazzeo, Clairmont to settle suit $140K payment to end 2020 defamation claim

The Berkshire Eagle

PITTSFIELD - A settlement has been reached in the defamation suit filed by Barry Clairmont against Melissa Mazzeo.

Under the terms of a deal agreed upon just weeks before the lawsuit's Oct. 23 trial date, Clairmont is to be awarded $140,000, which will be paid by Mazzeo's insurance company, Nationwide Insurance.

Clairmont filed the suit in September 2020, nearly a year after Mazzeo, who lost the 2019 mayoral election to Linda Tyer, issued a press release alleging that Clairmont had "unauthorized direct access" to ballots in City Hall during absentee voting. Clairmont is married to Tyer.

Clairmont said Tuesday that the settlement was an important step toward repairing trust in the city's elections, and repairing damage to his character. He also said that the false claims have harmed his credibility as a certified public accountant, and hurt him personally.

"This is a start toward clearing my reputation and the reputations of the poll workers and the [city's election workers] - that there is integrity in elections in Pittsfield, and that people can count on a secure, safe election process," he told The Eagle.

Mazzeo's claim stemmed from Clairmont's presence in the office of City Clerk Michele Benjamin, where he was seen behind a swinging door separating that office from the public while absentee ballots were cast. It was part of Mazzeo's bid for a recount in the race, which did not overturn the results.

Distancing herself from the decision to settle the lawsuit, Mazzeo told The Eagle that she wanted it to go to court, but was advised by the attorneys provided by her insurance company not to proceed.

"I wouldn't have given 5 cents for it," Mazzeo said. "But, it's not my call. It's not my money."

Doubling down on the language she used, she said nothing was inaccurate in her press release. Clairmont was in the office when ballots were being submitted, she said, and thus he had "unauthorized direct access" to them because he could theoretically reach across a desk and touch them.

She never said he actually tampered with them, but felt it was inappropriate for him to be back there at all.

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"What we're saying is in broad daylight, while people are there voting, he has the audacity to kind of walk in the middle of all that, walk through people voting, and walk through a door which is really to keep the public separated from that office," she said. "It brings to question, does this happen often?"

Mazzeo claimed that Clairmont, a former city councilor who served as Tyer's campaign manager, did not have business being there as a private citizen, as he was not working in City Hall at the time.

WHAT LED TO THIS

In depositions conducted in late 2021, which Clairmont shared with The Eagle, a number of key people in the dispute gave their version of events.

Mazzeo's claim was based on the account of an eyewitness at the city's Registrar of Voters office named Debbie Courtney, who texted Mazzeo on Oct. 28, 2019, who was casting her absentee ballot.

Courtney, who worked in the city's department of community development and was an employee at City Hall, testified in her deposition that she "saw Barry coming out of the Registrar of Voters office … I looked up, and he was leaving the office through the gate."

In her own deposition, Mazzeo testified that Courtney was the sole source of information she had for Clairmont's presence behind the counter.

Mazzeo would go on to say in the deposition that Courtney did not say that Clairmont handled ballots, and said that "all [Courtney] said was that he was in the office near the ballots … and she made a statement that, I almost want to go back and ask for my ballot to see if it's still there."

Mazzeo said she took Courtney at her word.

"[Courtney] didn't say [Clairmont] was talking to voters," Mazzeo said under oath in the deposition. "She didn't say anything. She just said he was there in the back office."

That led Mazzeo to issue the press release, including the claim that "an individual closely related to the Tyer Campaign had unauthorized direct access to ballots inside City Hall." That was listed alongside other concerns about mishandling of the election as the campaign called for a recount of ballots.

Mazzeo sent that list of concerns to the office of the Massachusetts Secretary of State, which in turn reached out to Benjamin for an explanation. Benjamin provided an exhaustive response to the state office, explaining how ballots had been secured for the election. The Secretary of State's Office did not find wrongdoing.

Mazzeo later named Clairmont as the individual in interviews with WAMC radio and The Eagle.

Clairmont denied the claim, as did the city clerk's office. Clairmont explained that he was going to the office to pick up an absentee ballot report that he had requested.

Benjamin said in a press release from her office that she "emphatically reject[s] Ms. Mazzeo's ungrounded allegations which impugn the integrity, honesty and character of this office, the Board of Registrars and of each and every resident who worked more than 22 hours as election workers for the election and the recount."

After the press release was issued, a number of news articles were published about Mazzeo's claims, prompting Clairmont to serve Mazzeo with a cease and desist letter to stop repeating the claims. Per the cease and desist letter, Clairmont demanded a public retraction within five days of its receipt, on Dec. 6, 2019.

"Absent your issuance of the demanded public retraction within the next five days, Mr. Clairmont will assume that you intend to continue with your malicious smear campaign against him," the letter reads.

That was the pretext for the defamation suit that was filed less than a year later in Berkshire Superior Court.

In February 2023, attorneys for Mazzeo moved to get the case thrown out on lack of merit; attorneys for Clairmont wanted the case heard before a jury.

The trial was set to begin on Oct. 23, but the settlement averted it.

Matt Martinez can be reached at [email protected].

Distancing herself from the decision to settle the lawsuit, Mazzeo told The Eagle that she wanted it to go to court, but was advised by the attorneys provided by her insurance company not to proceed.