Journalist appeals dismissal of lawsuit against San Diego city attorney to 9th Circuit

NBC 7 journalist Dorian Hargrove is appealing a federal judge’s decision last month to dismiss his lawsuit against the city of San Diego.

Hargrove’s lawyers filed an appeal Thursday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over the U.S. District Court in San Diego.

The two-page filing does not explain why the case should be reconsidered.

Hargrove sued City Attorney Mara Elliott and her top lieutenant, Assistant City Attorney John Hemmerling, in August saying they violated his free-speech rights last year, but Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo dismissed the case last month.

Bencivengo rejected the claim that Hargrove was denied his ability to work as a journalist after Elliott’s office publicly criticized him for a story that was later partially retracted by NBC 7 in 2020.

A producer for the San Diego NBC affiliate, Hargrove was among the highest-profile reporters covering the city’s lease-to-own purchase of the former Sempra Energy headquarters at 101 Ash St.

The 19-story high rise has been unsafe to occupy for years, even though the city has invested more than $60 million on lease payments, upgrades and maintenance since city officials and Elliott’s office approved the “as-is” acquisition in 2016.

The lease is now mired in civil litigation and is the subject of a criminal investigation opened last year by District Attorney Summer Stephan.

Hargrove was one of two NBC 7 reporters whose bylines appeared on a September 2020 story that implied Elliott had impeded an outside review of the transaction by preventing a law firm’s investigators from speaking to former City Council member Todd Gloria, who made the initial motion to approve the deal in 2016.

Both Elliott and Gloria denied the assertion.

The NBC report, published two months before the election in which Elliott was seeking re-election and Gloria was running for mayor, was based on a footnote in a confidential report.

City officials and the authors of the confidential report said the footnote was fabricated. Elliott criticized NBC 7 and Hargrove in particular.

The news outlet later retracted the portion of the story that was based on “Fabricated Footnote 15” and announced it had suspended Hargrove.

Hargrove alleged in his lawsuit that he was publicly disciplined by NBC 7 at the request of Elliott or someone else in her office.

A decision by the federal appeals court is likely to take months.