OXFORD, Mich. – Oxford school officials are accusing attorney Geoffrey Fieger of wrongly naming someone who they say doesn’t even work at Oxford High School anymore in his lawsuit centered around the deadly school shooting.
Motion: Former high school worker has received death threats
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In a court motion filed Tuesday (Dec. 14), Oxford Community Schools claims former high school dean of students Ryan Moore should be dismissed from Fieger’s case.
“In a hurry to be on the news, Geoffrey Fieger filed a lawsuit against Oxford Schools and numerous employees without conducting the due diligence required by our Rules of Professional Responsibility,” the motion says. “While his pleading is full of lies and misrepresentations, one is particularly appalling and must be dealt with immediately.”
According to the motion, Fieger named Moore as the current high school dean of students, but Moore hasn’t worked at the high school for more than a year, district officials claim.
The motion says Feiger accused Moore of being aware that the shooter posed a threat to students, but did nothing. Fieger is accused of alleging that Moore made students less safe with his actions.
“Had Mr. Fieger been less concerned about being on the news and more concerned about the facts, he would have been able to easily confirm that Mr. Moore had not even worked in the high school for more than one year,” the motion says. “At the risk of being redundant: Mr. Moore was not the high school dean of students, as alleged by Mr. Fieger. He worked in an entirely different building.”
The motion goes on to call Fieger’s legal filings “sloppy” and claims that Moore has received death threats. It says the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office is investigating more than a dozen new threats against school administrators in Oxford since the lawsuit was filed.
Moore had reinforced doors installed on his home and pulled his children out of school in order to protect his family, according to the motion.
‘Doubling down’
District officials said they sent a letter to Fieger after Moore was named in the lawsuit. In the letter, Fieger was informed that Moore was no longer the dean of students and has not been employed there for more than a year, officials said.
The letter demanded a retraction and public apology from Fieger, according to the motion.
“In response, Mr. Fieger refused to fix the problem he created,” the motion says. “In fact, he doubled down.”
Fieger filed a motion accusing Moore of destroying evidence, alleging that Moore had made his LinkedIn account private, district officials said.
The motion claims Moore, “someone who should not have been sued in the first place,” made the account private to prevent physical harm to himself and his family.
“The court needs to stop this misconduct before it gets worse,” the motion says. “The court needs to stop it before someone is physically injured or killed because of Mr. Fieger’s reckless and false statements.”
Legal arguments
The district’s motion ends with two legal arguments. The first is that Moore should be dismissed from Fieger’s lawsuit.
“There is no dispute that Mr. Moore was not the high school dean of students, as alleged in the complaint,” the motion says.
The second argument is that Fieger should be sanctioned under the court’s inherent authority. Here, the motion suggests Fieger litigated “in bad faith.”
“There is no dispute that Mr. Fieger sued someone entirely unconnected to this event,” the motion says. “He was given notice of this fact and an opportunity to fix it. He refused. Because of his bad faith, a public school employee has been pictured on the news and received death threats. That is unconscionable and morally wrong.”
The motion accuses Fieger of filing a “frivolous motion” accusing Moore of hiding his social media, calling it an attempt to draw attention away from a mistake.
“This court should immediately dismiss Mr. Moore from this lawsuit. It should also impose significant sanctions against Mr. Fieger for his unconscionable and reckless misconduct,” the motion concludes.
You can see the full motion document below.
