Lawsuit Threat Delays Wilmette Movie Premiere

WILMETTE, IL — A threatened lawsuit postponed the premiere of a crowd-funded documentary about the controversy over New Trier High School's recent day of racial civil rights seminars last week. Both sides, the movie's director and those who sought to stop its screening, have accused the other of receiving outside money and influence.

Paul Traynor, of Wilmette, raised more than $15,000 via Kickstarter to produce a film called "New Trier: Tip of the Spear." He rented the Wilmette Theatre and had a premiere scheduled for last Wednesday until he received a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer representing some of the documentary's subjects.

After having a lawyer specializing in frivolous defamation claims review a final cut, Traynor said the movie will be shown Sunday, April 2, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., despite the threats.

"Enough is enough!" said the March 21 letter from Sperling and Slater Attorney Adam Merrill. "This has gone too far. You have gone too far."

Merrill represents several members of the Parents of New Trier group, which has sought to have more conservative voices added to the Seminar Day curriculum at New Trier High School to balance out content it perceives as radically leftist. The letter, dated Tuesday, March 21, also said Traynor had violated the publicity and privacy rights of his clients.

"In addition to being mean-spirited and just plain wrong, your conduct has already injured the reputation of my clients (and others)," Merrill wrote.

All four people named on the letter it was not their idea to send it. Three said they were asked to sign on last weekend ahead of the planned Wednesday screening.

Jasmine Hauser is one of the Parents of New Trier included on the letter. She described Traynor's trailer as "bizarre." She said group of parents and students submitted a simple request to the administration and school board to "add some more diverse speakers to a very biased and one-sided seminar day."

"How Mr. Traynor took that fact and concocted the strange scenario he presents in the trailer is beyond me," Hauser said. Although she said the letter was not her idea, she did not remember from where or when she heard about it. Traynor has "absolutely" already defamed her or portrayed her in a false light, but she said she did not know if the group will still pursue legal action regardless of whether he decides to screen his movie.

» MORE: NTHS Seminar Day Draws Ire From Right

"I think he's trying to make an expose out of something that doesn't exist," said Denise Dellva, another of Merrill's clients named on the cease-and-desist letter. She said she was not a litigious person, but her biggest concern was being called a racist, which she said Traynor has done via a series of podcasts and a video trailer for his project. Merrill's letter also cites the podcasts as defamatory.

"I would like to see him take down the podcasts where he's using my name, and I would also like him to issue an apology." She also said Traynor had been linking her with groups she had never heard of (like "the Policy Circle") and noted Traynor had solicited money for his Kickstarter from outside the township.

"Everything that he's accusing our group of doing is what he's doing," she said.

Traynor said he has been working to legally clear the final cut of his documentary with specialist attorneys in order to reschedule the premiere ahead of the upcoming April 4 election.

"After months of lamenting that everyone was trying to censor them, they lawyered up and came after me for expressing my views." Traynor said.

"It’s never been the Parents of New Trier we were worried about. In my opinion they’re small potatoes, and a distraction from what’s really going on in New Trier Township," Traynor said. "It’s the well-coordinated political activists and the dark money that fuels them that we need to be concerned about."

One of those activists he has linked to the controversy over the 2017 Seminar Day at NTHS is conservative media personality Dan Proft, WIND 560-AM morning host and chair of Liberty Principles PAC.

Proft said he had nothing to do with the cease-and-desist letter. He became involved because several parents of NTHS students who he happened to already know sent him information about the school's program, he said. Traynor appeared as a guest on Proft's Feb. 28 radio broadcast.

"I'm happy to have him talk as much as he wants to talk," Proft said. "If he wants to air a documentary, if he wants to skywrite it, if he wants to shout it from the rooftop, if he wants to run naked down Green Bay Road, I don't care."

"This is all a misdirection play. Here's what actually happened: A group of parents raised this issue of the curriculum for that seminar day," Proft explained. "I talked about it on my show, so we amplified the issue."

After that, it took on a life of its own, "because of talking about it and looking into New Trier and writing fact-based stories, off of public information, at the newspapers that I own, like North Cook News."

"That's it," he said. "There's no PAC money. There's no 'dark money' except maybe from Stand For Children, on their side, not on my side."

Proft referred to the involvement the national education advocacy nonprofit in fundraising and organizing for the campaign in support of the NTHS's Seminar Day program. Parents of New Trier accused the group of partisan solicitation and asked it to remove contact information it gathered through the campaign.

Stand For Children's Illinois director, Mimi Rodman, helped coordinate an "I Support Seminar Day" petition, which was theatrically presented to the board in the form of a large, banner-sized display during its Feb. 20 meeting to a supportive crowd—described as "unfortunate" and "disrespectful" by board member John Myefski.

Rodman said she and eight other New Trier parent volunteers created the petition without any outside involvement. The nonprofit group's 501(c)4 merely provided the tools, and $490 in remaining contributions are being "directed to helping under-served communities in Chicago," she said.

“The group who created the petition came together specifically around Seminar Day, and that has remained the extent of our efforts. The email addresses were removed weeks ago from the Stand system,” Rodman said.

»MORE: Feb. 20 New Trier Board Meeting: As It Happened

Darrell Butler is another of the Parents of New Trier named in the in cease-and-desist letter. He said his group believes Stand For Children was utilized in an "inappropriate way" by the "I Support Seminar Day" organizers and "masked" its involvement from contributors.

Butler attended last Wednesday's aborted premiere of "New Trier: Tip of the Spear," which turned into a discussion with the audience about the ideas that were to be presented in the documentary. He said he had a civil and frank exchange with Traynor and offered to pre-screen the video for approval. Butler described Traynor's ideas as "a bit misguided in trying to connect the dots."

"If he wants to expose dark money, which he was talking about, if he wants to talk about issues, have at it, we're all for freedom of speech," he said. "Just don't invade my privacy, just don't defame me. Period. Pretty simple."

Traynor's attorney responded to Merrill's cease-and-desist letter Tuesday warning that any such lawsuit would be met with a counter-claim for malicious prosecution under Illinois' anti-SLAPP law, which targets frivolous lawsuits aimed at curtailing speech.

"Perhaps your clients should avail themselves of their own First Amendment rights and make a film of their own," the letter said.

Top photo: Paul Traynor (From "New Trier: Tip of the Spear")