The city of Hammond, its mayor and his podcast are no longer involved in a lawsuit filed by the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority’s former president and CEO after a federal judge dismissed them from it last week.
U.S. District Judge Damon Leichty, who took over the case from retired Judge Joe Van Bokkelen earlier this year, wrote in a July 31 order that once Van Bokkelen severed the city, Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. and his “Left of Center” podcast from the suit Speros Batistatos filed against the SSCVA in February, the federal question no longer applies. As such, “The court must dismiss an action ‘at any time’ it determines it lacks subject matter jurisdiction,” he wrote.
“When the action contains no claims over which the court has federal question jurisdiction, there is nothing to which supplemental jurisdiction can attach,” despite it having been attached to the original case that does have a federal question, Leichty wrote in the five-page order.
“(S)upplemental jurisdiction may only be invoked when the district court has a hook of original jurisdiction on which to hang it.”
Because the case is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, Batistatos can refile it at the state level, the order reads. As to whether he will, Batistatos deferred comment to his attorney, Sandra Blevins of Indianapolis; Blevins didn’t respond to a request for comment by deadline.
McDermott, however, on Wednesday encouraged Batistatos to file the suit at the state level because he believes the state court will be more sympathetic to his First Amendment rights.
“All along, we didn’t think our part of the suit would go anywhere, but we still filed an anti-SLAPP suit against him,” McDermott said. “I don’t think Speros would be dumb enough to refile, but if he does, the state court is much friendlier to defendants, and we’ll simply refile the anti-SLAPP.
“The fact that this took so long is frustrating, but justice does prevail.”
Anti-SLAPP laws “prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate people who are exercising their First Amendment rights,” according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press’s website.
Batistatos sued the SSCVA in August 2022 – a month after it fired him — alleging it violated the law in the handling of his contract renegotiations due to his age — 58 at the time — as well as misspent federal Payroll Protection Plan funds in violation of the CARES Act, a claim the board disputes, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
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His suit named the SSCVA as well as CVA Board President Andy Qunell and board members Matt Schuffert, Hard Rock Casino general manager; local restaurateur Brent Brashier; Tom Dabertin; and local real estate agent Matt Maloney.
Notices of intent to sue were also sent to McDermott and attorney Kevin Smith for $2.5 million for defamation for their actions around the time Batistatos was relieved of his duties by the board.
In the notice sent to McDermott, Batistatos alleged McDermott conspired and made a backdoor deal with the SSCVA board to dismiss a pending lawsuit against the SSCVA if Payroll Protection Plan funds were given out to aid his and other municipalities. He also said McDermott “stated he would dismiss the lawsuit if Mr. Batistatos were terminated from his position at the SSCVA,” as well as making other “numerous defamatory statements” against Batistatos on McDermott’s podcast with Kevin Smith entitled Left of Center Podcast, according to the document.
In August 2023, Van Bokkelen dismissed claims against Smith and Left of Center Media, LLC, which produces McDermott’s podcast, as well as axed Batistatos’s claim of “tortious interference” with “contractual and business relationships” against McDermott and the city of Hammond. But on June 18, Van Bokkelen filed three motions: one denying the dismissal of Batistatos’s lawsuit and one removing Thomas McDermott in his official capacity as mayor from it, although McDermott as himself and the city of Hammond would remain on the suit, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
The third motion allowed Batistatos to refile his suit against McDermott’s Left of Center Media LLC and Left of Center podcast, court documents said.
The SSCVA, meanwhile, has spent more than $640,000 defending itself against the lawsuit. A Post-Tribune analysis of some of the legal bills the agency turned over through an August 2024 Access to Public Records Request showed it had paid $237,835.80 between 2021 and November to Indianapolis-based Barnes and Thornburg, which is representing the SSCVA as an entity.
That total didn’t include bills from attorney David Westland — who’s representing Qunell, Brashier, Schuffert, Dabertin and Maloney individually — because the agency didn’t turn them over in the APRA request even though the SSCVA board voted in March 2024 to pay their legal bills in Batistatos’s suit regardless of whether they’re still serving on the board.
The bills have only grown from there: According to the organization’s June Appropriations Report, the CVA has so far spent $406,198.48 in legal fees this year after allocating $150,000 total for legal funds in its 2025 budget. Its legal fund as of June had a -$266,198.48 balance, the Post-Tribune previously reported, though Chief Financial Officer Nicole Wolverton expects they’ll be able to transfer funds to cover it before the end of the fiscal year.
The deadline for all discovery in the lawsuit has been set for January 22, 2026, according to the court docket; depositions are ongoing.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.