October 30, 2009 – At Marina City, the residential property manager’s warning to condominium owners about “defamatory Internet publications” appears to refer to Marina City Online. Although the source of the publications is not identified in an October 21 memo to owners, available online at a Draper & Kramer web site, the memo includes a link to an October 16 letter to Marina City Online from an attorney for the condo association.

In the letter, received by MCO editor Steven Dahlman on October 21, MTCA attorney Daniel Meyer called “factually incorrect and intentionally misleading” an article from October 3 about how convicted money launderer Gary Kimmel lost possession of his condo units at Marina City to Marina Towers Condominium Association. The article was based on study of the actual case file available to the public from the Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court.

According to court documents, Kimmel was sent a “30 day demand” letter on February 21 for past due assessments and related charges. However, MTCA did not file a lawsuit against him until 12 weeks later, which MCO reported in the article. While not disputing the timeline, Meyer believed that the mere mention of the time span suggested Kimmel “received favorable treatment” from the condo association. He went on to detail events not available from the case file.

MCO agreed with Meyer, that the timeline itself did not tell the whole story, and while Meyer wanted the October 3 story updated, MCO believed the new information warranted an entirely new article. Meyer provided further information based on questions from MCO editor Dahlman, and a new article was published on October 23.

(Above) MTCA office at Marina City in December 2007.

On October 29, a unit owner at Marina City alerted Marina City Online to the memo from the residential property manager, David Gantt, on the Draper & Kramer web site. In the memo, Gantt accuses MCO of “a deliberate attempt to mislead the public,” presumably referring to the October 3 article about Kimmel, and called the article “deliberate, libelous, and therefore defamatory and, more important to each unit owner, harmful to the re-sale values and/or rental potential of the condominium units.”

Calling the article “egregious,” Gantt said, “the offending website was asked to restate the article with corrections as set forth in a letter from the Association’s counsel.”

He then assures unit owners that “we will make every attempt possible to recoup the legal fees and any other associated costs to the association caused by this individual as we defend our unit values against such irresponsible statements.”

Gantt did not respond to an email on October 29 from MCO asking which stories contained erroneous information. MCO editor Dahlman has repeatedly asked Gantt and the condo association to alert him directly to any corrections or clarifications they wish to make. On October 28, oblivious to the memo, MCO invited Gantt to write a guest editorial, promoting his office as an authoritative source of information on the condo association, or any other subjects he wished to address, but there was no response.

In late September, Gantt did assist MCO with its coverage of the historic project to repair Marina City’s generous concrete along the exterior of both residential towers.

 Related stories:

• Court documents show how Kimmel lost Marina Towers units
• Kimmel did not get favorable treatment, says condo association