Former Franklin mayor Jo Brown was fined by a judge Friday for using a private email account for official city business after she did not produce all requested documents in an ongoing lawsuit filed by a business owner against the city. 

Miriam Kovacs, owner of the Broken Spoon, filed a lawsuit in 2023 accusing city staff and the police department of failing to protect her after she was targeted by a neo-Nazi organization the summer prior and violated her right to free speech by retaliating against her after she publicly criticized the city’s response. The lawsuit names Brown, as well as Police Chief David Goldstein, City Manager Judie Milner, and other city council and police staff specifically. 

The city of Franklin was required to produce all documents related to Kovcas, her partner Mark Faro, the Broken Spoon and the neo-Nazi group, NCS-131. Documents included emails, text messages, among other notes and forms of communication.

Attorney James Soucy who is representing Franklin said the request produced approximately 10,500 documents. 

Kovacs and her lawyer, Cassandra Moran, compared those documents to one she obtained through prior records requests she had filed with the city. They noted that at least 27 emails from Brown’s personal server were missing from the compilation. Documents from the court case only produced five emails from Brown's personal address. 

“We can’t say for sure what else there is,” said Moran. “We don’t have access to it. But there are a lot more than five that the former mayor asserts that she does have.” 

At the end of Brown’s term as mayor – which concluded in January after losing a re-election campaign – she forwarded all emails from her personal account to her city email. She then deleted the emails from her personal account, Soucy said. 

Superior court rules, however, state that all parties are required to preserve access to relevant information once they have been named in a lawsuit. By deleting the emails, Brown violated this rule. 

Merrimack Superior Court Judge Martin Honigberg agreed with Kovacs’ complaint that Brown created an unnecessary burden to identify what was missing. 

Brown will have to pay a fine to Kovacs’ legal counsel, repaying the time and effort to contest the documents provided. 

“Because the mayor chose to delete those emails and ‘preserve’ them outside of the way they should have been preserved, she created work,” said Honigberg. “She created work that didn’t need to be done.” 

Kovacs has 30 days to file an affidavit with a calculation of the repayment costs. 

The use of private email servers for city business is not a practice isolated in Franklin. For example, the city of Concord’s website lists a personal email address for Mayor Byron Champlin. 

Kovacs lawyers also filed a motion to compel Soucy to provide any remaining documents in a timely manner – as a matter to accelerate the case forward. 

Moran accused the city of stalling the case. In March, a request for records was sent to all defendants with a deadline of April 20. Moran said she received a batch of 100 documents in June. 

With six defendants and the city of Franklin at large, Moran said this production was not sufficient. 

Kovacs has not been able to take any further steps in the case – like depositions with each defendant –  until documents are produced. 

“My client is continuing to experience the violation of her constitutional right, as alleged in the complaint because we can’t resolve this matter,” said Moran. 

In December, the city of Franklin rejected a settlement offer from Kovacs, which asked the city to cover $7,000 in legal fees and make internal reforms to the city’s police department. That rejection sent the lawsuit to trial. 

Both parties will now have to agree on a timeline for the case. Honinberg suggested a trial could be scheduled in early 2025.