MARION CO., Ill. - It appears Marion County Coroner Troy Cannon is itching to get the county sued.
Cannon, whom we call a "moroner" as opposed to coroner (a title which has really caught on) has posted seemingly-defaming material to his Facebook page, this time his victim being Salem's Dairy Queen.
Cannon made the below post (with material in text to follow, for those who are mobile-y challenged):
Mr. Moroner opines, "As your local ice cream critic and aficionado, I offer you this...I will never, EVER visit Salem Dairy Queen again. Ever."
Then the entire public thread, which can be viewed here, devolves into many slams against the Salem DQ, with a few people defending them peppered in with the moroner acolytes.
Finally, though, one person with the FULL story - which, if true, is highly comical, actually - comes to the page and explains Mr. Moroner's outrage.
Kayla Krause, who apparently works there at the Salem DQ, says of Cannon, "This publicly paid official came to our store ordered food and ice cream then did not have enough money to pay for his food and ice cream then asked for a discount which was unwarranted (because he already had 10% off his order) and then still did not have enough money and threw a fit about it and then posted these comments on Facebook about our store. Not sure what we did wrong here except ask him to pay for the food and ice cream he ordered."
The comments sort of dried up at that point. And there's a good reason for that.
Technically, a person can't disparage a private business or private person publicly, in Illinois or in any other state, really. "Not recommending" (as the case may be) a business, if privately owned, really can't be done publicly, either. Why? Because it's basically unsubstantiated complaints that have been unaddressed with the people in charge of the business, thus depriving them of the opportunity to rectify the situation. "Bad reviews" that don't allow business owners to defend themselves can actually be litigated in the state of Illinois, under the defamation law. That's usually done in a federal court setting. It takes a lot of money and wherewithal and a very good attorney, but it can and has been done successfully. And the most successful suits are usually pursued against public officials or agencies when they make such a comment in a public manner.
Cannon, it might be noted, attempted to pull out something akin to this law when an OP was filed against him (which you can read about here) a few years ago, but he's as oblivious as he is ignorant: A public official can't necessarily be defamed, except under very strict and narrow circumstances. People have a RIGHT to criticize their public officials, both on the job and off. The public official represents their office at all times. If they behave insanely at any point in time, people can call them on it and state openly that they believe the public official is behaving insanely. Like Marion's moroner does, frequently.
Back in February, Marion County residents were calling for Cannon's resignation. However, under this circumstance, if the owners of DQ opt to sue, the pressure might really be on him. An elected official can't be "terminated," except by decree of the county board under the narrow auspice that he's been convicted of a felony. The moroner here hasn't done anything criminal; a defamation case is civil. So the big outcome is generally money. Which, if Salem DQ's business has been harmed by this nonsense (ESPECIALLY if the assertions of Kayla Kruse are fact), they could certainly use.
And the whole thing could be avoided if Troy Cannon would just try a little common sense and SHUT. UP.
But that's a stretch.
Anyway, if Salem DQ would like the name of a good civil attorney, shoot us a message. We're working on some similar litigation ourselves. Email us at admin@disclosurenewsonline.