Seed to Table, the market owned by Alfie Oakes in North Naples, Fla. (Photo: Author)
Oct. 24, 2023 by David Silverberg
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by farmer and grocer Francis Alfred “Alfie” Oakes III against the School Board of Lee County and its members based on its 2020 termination of a contract with his business.
The judgment was handed down on Monday, Oct. 16. It included previously unreported details of the circumstances and decisionmaking leading to the Board’s decision.
The suit was the result of termination of a food supply contract by the Lee School Board on June 11, 2020 following a Facebook posting by Oakes that characterized the COVID-19 pandemic as a “hoax” and denounced George Floyd for his criminal past.
Oakes argued in court that termination of the contract violated his First Amendment rights, violated Oakes Farms’ contract with the school district and violated Florida’s Sunshine Law provisions. He sued the district, the superintendent, the district’s chief procurement officer and the individual members of the school board.
The judge, John Badalamenti of the US District Court, disagreed: “The Court holds that the School District’s termination of Oaks Farms’ food service contract after Mr. Oakes’s June 6, 2020 public speech via his Facebook post on a matter of public concern was not a violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the judgment stated.
“Further, as to all individual defendants, they are entitled to qualified immunity and are therefore dismissed from this case with prejudice. Having fully resolved all federal questions pleaded in the operative complaint, the Court dismisses the remaining counts––all Florida state law claims––without prejudice. Should they so choose, Plaintiffs may file such claims in Florida state court.”
(The full, 47-page judgment is available for download at the end of this article.)
Dismissing the federal counts “with prejudice” means they cannot be appealed any further. An entirely new lawsuit in state court can be initiated for the remaining counts covered by state law.
Oakes did not respond to a phone call or e-mail requesting comment on his reaction to the ruling.
The historical narrative
The lawsuit proceeded from a contract that Oakes’ business, Oakes Farms Food & Distribution Services, LLC, had with the School District of Lee County to provide food to the district’s students.
Originally signed in 2018 as a three-year contract with one-year renewal options, it was worth $4.9 million, with the options bringing its total value to $6 million. The contract was renewed on June 2, 2020.
When Minneapolis resident George Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020 while being arrested, protests broke out throughout the country.
On June 6, 2020, Oakes published a 758-word statement (no longer posted) on Facebook in which he stated “The COVID19 hoax did not work to bring down our great President and now this . . .” and dismissed Floyd as “disgraceful career criminal, thief, drug addict, drug dealer and ex-con who served 5 yrs in prison for armed robbery on a pregnant woman, and spent his last days passing around fake 20’s to store owners in Minnesota.”
The post deplored modern culture. “Now the media, Hollywood and many of our disgraceful politicians want you to be outraged that this career criminal drug abusing thug suffered the consequences of a lifetime of bad choices. Unfortunately the liberal mindset that has been instilled in so many of our young generation has taught them to take no personal responsibility for their actions.” He called protesters “lost souls without any direction or sense of purpose are so easily manipulated to blame others for their lack of self worth.” (The full text of the post is in the judgment.)
The post created an uproar, with 1,400 views the day after posting, 3,000 comments and 877 shares. It led to an online petition calling for a termination of the Oakes Farm contract that was signed by over 17,000 people. Demonstrations were held at the school board building, at Oakes’ Seed to Table grocery store and school board members were inundated with an avalanche of protesting e-mails and phone calls.
On June 11 the board decided to terminate the contract and selected a new vendor, US Foods.
The narrative in the judgment reveals that Oakes’ denunciation of COVID as a “hoax” was a major factor in the Board’s decision to sever ties.
“Well here we are . . .” he wrote of the pandemic. “In the past 3 months I have watched not only OUR country’s economy but the entire world economy brought to ruins for no other reason than multitudes of men and women have allowed themselves to be controlled by deceit and fear. The corrupt world powers and their brainwashing arms of the media have proven the ability to program the masses.”
At the time Lee County public schools were dealing with a severe outbreak of the virus and had even changed food distribution for students from cafeterias to remote locations to avoid contamination.
Oakes’ dismissal of COVID as a “hoax,” his refusal to take any protective measures for the handling, processing and packaging of his produce as well as his defiance of protective measures for his employees alarmed the Board, the superintendent and the chief procurement officer.
When Frederick Ross, the Lee County Public Schools chief procurement officer, called Oakes Farms to check on its COVID protocols, he was sent a sheet of COVID protocols from Marjon Foods, which an Oakes Farms executive claimed as a subsidiary.
As the narrative in the judgment put it: “Mr. Ross explained, ‘[I]n my experience as a procurement professional, when a vendor sends you their protocol, they send it on their documentation, on their letterhead. It has their information in it and within it, and that wasn’t the case here.’ …And Superintendent [Gregory] Adkins testified that he viewed ‘this document on the letterhead of a completely different company, coupled without any representation or assurance that Oakes Farms was following any safety requirements, to be a completely insufficient assurance that Oakes Farms was taking necessary precautions to protect the health, safety, and welfare of our approximately 95,000 students.’”
The Pickering standard
Throughout his judgment Judge Badalamenti applied a standard from a 1968 case, Pickering v. Board. of Education of Township High School District in Will County, Ill., which held that government contractors and employees do not have unlimited free speech if their statements on matters of public concern interfere with the efficient operation of government.
“Here, Plaintiffs argue that the Pickering test does not apply to the facts of this case because Mr. Oakes was not an employee of the School District, and Oakes Farms did not engage in any speech,” wrote the judge. “This argument is misguided because it is well-established that the Pickering test applies to individuals, like Mr. Oakes, who own and operate businesses that contract with the government.”
Also, the judge ruled that Oakes failed to show that his First Amendment rights outweighed the interests of the school board. Oakes’ post “undermined the School District’s ‘desire to ensure the safety of the food supply’” and “contradicted the messages of inclusion and anti-racism that the School District was promoting to its students.”
Lastly, stated the judge, the post “caused protests outside of schools in the district as well as threats to School Board members, which caused School Board members to fear for their safety.”
Ultimately, “After carefully weighing these factors, the Court finds that the School District’s stated interests outweigh Plaintiff’s First Amendment interests. Mr. Oakes’s Facebook post caused the School District to be concerned that the health of its students was not being appropriately minded; it disrupted the School District’s operations as a result of numerous public complaints, numerous requests for comments related to Mr. Oakes’s post from reporters, and a security concern for one of its school board members; and it undermined the school’s mission by contradicting the school’s efforts to promote an inclusive environment cognizant of the fact that many in the Lee County School District community might be upset by the death of George Floyd.”
Both Oakes and the school district requested summary judgments, which are final, decisive decisions in the case. The judge ruled against Oakes, ruled for the school district and dismissed the suits against the individuals associated with the school district, handing the defendants a decisive victory.
To read and download the entire 47-page judgment in PDF, click here.
Liberty lives in light
© 2023 by David Silverberg