On Monday morning, June 15th, Judge Galli of the Josephine County Circuit Court handed John West another defeat in West’s series of lawsuits against local citizens that supported his recall campaign. This was the third court hearing in what turned out to be a complicated series of hearings in West’s defamation lawsuit against Jay Meredith, CPA, a regular contributor to articles in the Grants Pass Tribune.
Meredith’s attorney filed a series of motions and motions to dismiss the case under Oregon’s Anti-SLAPP laws. Oregon’s Anti-SLAPP laws are supposed to protect individuals from frivolous lawsuits (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) intended to chill free speech and petitioning activities.
Judge Galli didn’t even rule on many of the motions filed under the Anti-SLAPP part of the case, but this case did come to a very logical conclusion when yesterday the motion to dismiss the entire case was granted because this specific case wasn’t filed under the correct ORS.
At its heart, John West’s case against Jay Meredith was nearly identical to the case John West filed against Lily Morgan, chief petitioner for the John West Recall Petition. ORS Chapter 260, the Oregon Corrupt Practices Act, establishes laws and remedies for spreading false statements about opponents in an election.
And when there are allegations of spreading false information in an election, the lawsuit must be filed within 30 days of the election date. John West was recalled by Josephine County voters in December 2024 but didn’t file his lawsuit against Jay Meredith until the summer of 2025.
West’s case against Jay Meredith was to try and show false statements had been published in an attempt to recall him from office, making this case squarely under ORS 260. Judge Galli essentially ruled logically that this was not a common law defamation case, as it clearly related to the recall election in December 2024. And West missed his window to be able to sue related to alleged false statements made in the recall election.
Jay Meredith, CPA, a regular contributor to articles in the Grants Pass Tribune, maintains that he has never published a false statement about John West. Meredith, who prides himself on speaking truth, was recently quoted as saying he would put his hand on the Holy Bible and swear he has never published a false statement about John West.
Judge Galli’s ruling to dismiss the case against Jay Meredith was a logical one. After all, if the reportedly multi-millionaire John West sued everyone that worked on his recall campaign, he would have to sue over 100 local citizens for essentially the same reasons.
West did essentially sue the recall campaign by bringing a timely lawsuit against the Chief Petitioner Lily Morgan for the language of the recall petition and alleging the recall petition language had false statements. John West also lost most of the components of the Lily Morgan case at the Josephine County Circuit Court level, and the case is pending appeal in the Oregon Court of Appeals.
After his win in Josephine County Circuit Court, Meredith also commented on how he is sickened by what he has observed by the behavior of John West and a few political allies of John West in the last two years. In Meredith’s opinion, some of those political allies who filed sworn declarations in support of John West in the lawsuit against him made false statements in those sworn declarations.
Meredith believes false statements were made in sworn declarations filed in his case by former Josephine County Commissioner John West, former Josephine County Commissioner Herman Baertschiger, former Josephine County Finance Director Sandy Novak, and current Josephine County Forestry Director Dave Streeter. Meredith believes he can prove some of those statements were false, if it becomes necessary.
In one of the sworn declarations filed in support of Meredith in this case, JJ Scofield stated the following to the court: “While I was at the Grower’s Market last year spring or early summer, West approached me. He told me he intended to hurt me financially. He then said he was going to sue me for lying about him. I stated that I was not impressed by his threats and would get 15 people to all testify that I was telling the truth. He said it didn’t matter as I would spend so much on attorneys, I’d end up homeless. In my opinion West has followed up on that threat. He has sued anyone he blames for his recall ballot measure loss.”
There are several lawsuits still outstanding filed by John West related to his recall from office in December 2024. John West lost his recall election by a large margin, and as most know West is now running for Josephine County commissioner again this year.
Josephine County voters will see John West on their ballots again in November this year. Remember one thing, despite West’s flurry of lawsuits, as of the date of this publication no court of law has definitively proven any false statements were published about West in relation to his 2024 recall from the office of Josephine County Commissioner.