The Iowa Court of Appeals has waded into a “he-said” incident at a Davenport City Council meeting back in July of 2000. Niky Bowles was testifying before the Davenport City Council about a zoning request, and asked that Alderman Robert McGivern abstain from voting on the issue because, she said, he was biased against her and had called her a “crazy woman.” McGivern replied, saying he had called her a “freaking crazy woman.” Bowles accused her alderman of slander. The Alderman said he was merely sharing his opinion publicly with “rhetorical hyperbole.” A district court agreed, calling the “freaking crazy woman” statement name-calling that could not be the basis of a slander lawsuit. The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled that as offensive as the “freaking crazy woman” statement had been to Bowles, there’s no basis for a lawsuit.
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