Lincoln v. Pekary CA1/1

BACKGROUND

Webster Lincoln’s mother and grandmother, Niambi and Katherine, both served on the board of the Palo Alto Park Mutual Water Company.

We refer to the respondents individually by their first names for

clarity, and collectively as the “Lincoln family members.”

1 Webster, employed as a data scientist for Genentech, has never served on the board. During Webster’s campaign for East Palo Alto City Council in 2020, Pekary made two social media postings about Webster and the Lincoln family members. One was made on the Nextdoor social media site and said: “Don’t Vote Webster Lincoln for EPA City Council. . . . Whoever you vote for city council, don’t vote for Webster Lincoln. His mother Niambi Lincoln and other family members have been running the Palo Alto Park Mutual Water Company, which is widely known to be a corrupt organization that has preyed upon many people and stolen community funds for many years. Don’t let this family get more power to hurt this community.” (Boldface omitted.) The post included a link to an online newspaper article about the water company and the Lincoln family members on the board, entitled “Troubled Water[:] Local water company faces…