Combative lawyer Michael Fletcher has filed a defamation lawsuit against Sharon Sanders Brooks, the woman he hopes to replace on the Kansas City, Missouri, City Council.
Fletcher, an enthusiastic filer of discrimination lawsuits before his license was suspended, says Sanders Brooks falsely accused him of assaulting and threatening her after the two interacted on Election Day.
Fletcher says he was merely "advising" Sanders Brooks that it was improper for her "to attempt to pay poll workers to stop obtaining signatures in support of city council candidates." The "candidates" presumably include Fletcher, who wants to represent the Third District on the council, a job Sanders Brooks has held since 2007.
In his lawsuit, Fletcher indicates that Sanders Brooks filed a police report and communicated to state Rep. Kiki Curls her belief that Fletcher threatened and assaulted her.
Fletcher was suspended from practicing law before the U.S. District Court in Kansas City for three years. He had filed a spate of racial discrimination cases against Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies. The District Court determined that his petitions "contained inaccurate and misleading allegations based on race-baiting questions Fletcher asked of witnesses during their depositions," according to a 2005 Kansas City Star story about his failed appeal of the suspension.
Fletcher accused two federal judges and two lawyers of defamation, libel, slander and infliction of emotional distress around the time a federal appeals court upheld his suspension. Fletcher dropped the suit 11 days later, according to the Star's archives.
The State of Missouri suspended Fletcher's license in 2006.
Fletcher describes himself as a public relations consultant on his website.
Sanders Brooks' office referred questions to City Attorney Galen Beaufort, who did not immediately return a phone call.
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