The "Boardman Oregon Community Info Page" from Sept. 6, 2023, shows a post from Dillon Spencer, of Boardman, of a police report from 2019 involving an accusation of a possible sex crime against Jonathan Tallman, who now is suing Spencer and five more Boardman residents for defamation, claiming they are making false claims that he is a child sexual predator.

BOARDMAN — Boardman business owner and mayoral candidate Jonathan Tallman is suing six local residents for claims they made on public Facebook pages that he is a child molester and sexual predator.

Tallman in the lawsuits seeks $200,000 from each defendant, denies the accusations and asserts they have cost him personally and damaged his coffee shop, The Farmer’s Cup.

Attorney Daniel P. Larsen of the business law firm Buchalter, with offices in several West Coast cities, including Portland, Seattle and Sacramento, California, filed the defamation and false light pleadings Sept. 18 in Morrow County Circuit Court.

The defendants are Dianna Nunez Devine, Frankie Nunez Lezamo, Michaela Miller, Dillon Spencer, Faith Spencer and Sandy Toms.

In the lawsuit, Tallman states Toms is the mayor of Boardman. Paul Keefer, however, is Boardman’s mayor.

Tallman is suing them individually, with the exception of Nunez Devine and Nunez Lezamo, who are co-defendants.

“For reasons unknown, a group of Boardman residents have made it their personal mission to destroy Mr. Tallman’s reputation,” the pleadings assert. “The most recent string of offenses began when Mr. Tallman volunteered to coach a local youth soccer team that was in desperate need of volunteers. Mayor Toms and others began sharing four-year-old police reports about Mr. Tallman and accusing him of being, (among other things) a felon, a pedophile, and a sexual predator.”

Nonetheless, because of the “allegations, rumors, and information posted online,” the lawsuits state, the Columbia Youth Soccer Club reported Tallman to the U.S. Center for SafeSport. The center now is investigating Tallman, the pleading state, and he has been suspended from participating in the Oregon Youth Soccer Association and its affiliated member clubs until that investigation concludes.

Tallman also claims The Farmer’s Cup has experienced a decrease in business and a contractor refuses to continue doing business with him based on the rumors from a defendant.

Each lawsuit makes specific claimsTallman asserts Toms on her reelection Facebook page described him “is an x feline (sic) and people need to know that and a sexual predator.”

Toms on Facebook, according to the pleading, also stated Tallman is a “child molester” who “continues to speak when he has no place to speak. He is a criminal and disgusting.”

Toms said she made the post, and “x feline” should have been “ex-felon,” but she contended Tallman is interpreting the post is about him.

“I never said it was him,” Toms said.

Beyond that, she said she would not comment.

The lawsuit against Frankie Nunez Lezamo and Dianna Nunez Devine claims they have for years “been spreading lies about Mr. Tallman.”

Nunez Devine on Facebook called Tallman “a shameless child molester” in a post that was public. Nunez Lezamo on Aug. 23 posted a portion of a police report from Aug. 5, 2019, to the Facebook group entitled, “Uncensored Boardman community” group.

The report suggests Tallman was the subject of a criminal investigation for touching a young female employee’s shoulders and backside, throwing ice down her shirt and telling her she “looked pretty.”

According to the lawsuit, police investigated “allegations of impropriety” against Tallman but concluded the allegations were unfounded: “Mr. Tallman was never prosecuted for, much less convicted of, child molestation or any other type of sex crime.”

The lawsuit against Faith Spencer, for example, states she accused Tallman on the Facebook page “the New Boardman community” of molesting children.

Dillon Spencer on the Facebook group “Boardman Oregon Community Info Page” made the same accusation, according to the lawsuit against him. Tallman posted to the page about stealing signs for his mayoral campaign. “It sounds like someone in the community doesn’t want a child molester as their mayor,” Dillon Spencer responded. “Was it one of your victims that took the signs? Or someone that knows the truth about your attraction to minors?”

Dillon Spencer on Sept. 6 also posted the police report.

Tallman also accuses Michaela Miller of sharing Nunez Lezamo’s post of the report on Aug. 26. But she added a long post that implies she was the victim in the 2019 investigation into Tallman.

“Publicly announcing this is one of the most terrifying things I have ever posted,” according to the post. “Putting myself in a position to be called names, accused of being a liar, and for my name to be talked amongst the people of Boardman. But it is my goal that the city will start to see this man as a predator and use my story to protect others.”

Defendants don’t cease and desistTallman in the lawsuits states he sent cease-and-desist letters to the defendants, and each ignored the letters and have refused to remove posts. Nunez Lezamo, according to the lawsuit, even posted a picture on Sept. 14 of gallows and a noose with the caption, “I support the public hanging of pedophiles and sexual predators.”

That post is on Nunez Lezamo’s personal Facebook page, according to the lawsuit, which is open to the public.

The lawsuits are for defamation as well as showing Tallman in a false light.

“The false light in which Mr. Tallman has been placed would be highly offensive to a reasonable person,” according to the lawsuits.

The actions of the defendants, per the lawsuits, harmed Tallman’s business and reputation and caused him extreme emotional distress.

In addition to the minimum of $200,000 each for damages, Tallman is seeking compensation for the cost of the legal action and is asking the court for injunctive relief to remove false statements and prevent publication of false and defamatory statements and for other relief as the court deems proper.

The court awaits responses from the defendants.