A Denver District Court judge has dismissed the remaining claims in a defamation lawsuit filed by former school board member Auon’tai Anderson against people who made unsubstantiated sexual assault claims against him.
The dismissal, in a court order filed June 5, concludes Anderson’s defamation lawsuit, which was filed in the wake of a 2021 investigation into his conduct while he was an elected member of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education.
Anderson had been accused in an April 2021 post on Black Lives Matter 5280’s Instagram account of sexually assaulting a woman. The school board hired an independent firm to investigate the claim against Anderson.
Mary-Katherine Brooks Fleming, a Denver Public Schools parent and community activist, followed with more allegations against him. Brooks Fleming testified before a state Senate committee in May 2021 that a predator was targeting DPS students.
She did not name Anderson in her testimony, but the school district later issued a statement saying she had been referring to him. She also posted claims about him on social media. The school board asked for the investigation to be expanded.
Ultimately, the independent firm’s investigation found that the claims by Black Lives Matter 5280 and Brooks Fleming could not be substantiated. However, the firm determined that Anderson had flirted on social media with a 16-year-old and had made intimidating posts. The school board censured him over those findings.
Once the investigation ended, Anderson filed a defamation lawsuit against BLM5280 and four of its members individually as well as Brooks Fleming and Jeeva Sinthilnathan, a Parker activist who made allegations against Anderson on her Facebook page.
A judge already had dismissed the claims against BLM5280 and its members, but an appeals court ruled that a portion of Anderson’s claims against Brooks Fleming and all of his claims against Sinthilnathan could be considered in district court.
However, Judge David Goldberg dismissed the remaining claims “for failure to prosecute” upon the request of lawyers representing Brooks Fleming and Sinthilnathan.
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On Tuesday, Anderson, who did not run for re-election, told The Denver Post that he was relieved the court cases were over. Anderson also said he still owes BLM5280 money after he was ordered by the courts to pay its attorney’s fees incurred in the lawsuits and his lawyer continues to negotiate that amount.
“I’m grateful to close this difficult chapter, and people in the community can move on,” he said.
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