David Sorensen seems desperate not to answer questions about who in the Charlie Geren campaign – including Geren himself – knew about his alleged attack on Bo French’s family.
Fort Worth businessman Bo French, who is challenging State Rep. Charlie Geren (R–Fort Worth) again in the March 6th Republican Primary, filed suit in December against David Sorensen, a Democrat political operative who was employed by Geren during his 2016 re-election campaign against French.
French’s lawsuit alleges that Sorensen made a phony phone call to child protective services, accusing French of child abuse, as part of a desperate political attack in the waning days of the 2016 primary campaign.
French was ultimately cleared of the charges as there was no evidence to substantiate them. Nonetheless, his family was subjected to months of stressful and intensive investigation and incurred thousands of dollars in legal fees.
Since answering the lawsuit, Sorensen has sought repeatedly to stall depositions and discovery requests designed to uncover who – including Geren himself – knew about the phone call to CPS.
The latest development in the lawsuit sees lawyers connected to the Tarrant County Democratic Party coming to Sorensen’s and Geren’s rescue.
Sorensen was scheduled to have his deposition taken by French’s attorneys on February 22nd. The attorneys would have been entitled to ask Sorensen about the call, and who on the Geren campaign knew about it.
However, on Friday, attorney Stephen C. Maxwell of Bailey & Galyen joined the lawsuit on Sorensen’s behalf, filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit asserting it violates Sorensen’s First Amendment right to anonymously accuse another person of child abuse.
Maxwell is a three-term chairman of the Tarrant County Democratic Party. Until now, Sorensen had been represented in the lawsuit by lesser-known attorneys.
For almost a decade, Geren has led a coalition of Democrats and a minority of Republicans who have controlled the Texas House and obstructed many conservative reforms. By filing the motion to dismiss, Maxwell may be returning the favor to Geren in an effort to prevent Sorensen from answering questions about who knew what and when until after voters go to the polls on March 6th.
Geren already drew additional scrutiny on himself in December after he denied, unbelievably, that he knew nothing more about the French-Sorensen lawsuit than what he had read in the newspaper. When Geren made that denial, battles over pre-suit discovery had been ongoing for months, becoming the talk of the town in Fort Worth.
Unless French’s attorneys are able to get a court to grant a special order allowing them to proceed with the deposition, voters in Fort Worth will likely have to go to the polls and guess at whether Geren knew about the attack on French’s family.
Will they believe Geren’s denial that he learned about the lawsuit in the newspaper? Or will they see all of the obstruction tactics by Sorensen and the Democrats as evidence that Geren has something to hide?
We’ll find out when the polls close on March 6th.
