On August 4th, Dominic “Nick” Swayne filed another motion in Idaho’s First District Court against his employer, North Idaho College, seeking $154,063.74 in attorney fees and costs.
Swayne’s lawsuit against NIC began in December of 2022 after the board placed him on paid administrative leave, with Tara Malek of Smith + Malek as his lead attorney. There were several subsequent filings on both sides until May of 2023 when Swayne filed for a summary judgment and North Idaho College ceased fighting the lawsuit. These events led to the final resolution of Swayne’s legal battle against NIC and Judge Meyer issued the judgment for the plaintiff and closed the case just two weeks ago on July 21, 2023.
Anyone who followed the litigation can recall how frustrating and confusing this situation was for the community. Those who supported the board’s position were more concerned with the college retaining their accreditation, than they were with whether or not a newly hired president of the college was paid to stay home during the ongoing court proceedings. Those who supported Swayne demanded his immediate return at every opportunity, which included contentious interactions with the board. Staff and faculty became well known for their scorching rhetoric against three of the trustees during board meetings. Partisan groups formed that further conflated the issues surrounding accreditation with those concerning the lawsuit.
In Tara Malek’s memorandum in support of the motion for plaintiff’s attorney fees and costs she claims the case was undesirable. Her explanation went on to say, “This was a highly politicized case that was often in the news and public spotlight. Political extremists made threats to Dr. Swayne and his wife throughout the course of this case. Blog posts were posted online calling for people to show up to the Board’s public hearings and voice public comment opposing Dr. Swayne’s reappointment. At the end of at least one of the hearings, one of Dr. Swayne’s attorneys had to be escorted to her car by police escort because of the hostile nature of the crowds opposing Dr. Swayne.”
By Malek’s statement, it appears she views the community who believes Swayne’s position as president harmful to the wellbeing of North Idaho College as “political extremists”. It wasn’t long ago that Malek asked this same community for their support in her bid for the republican nomination in Idaho’s legislative district 4 senate race. Malek lost to Ben Toews.
The community at large was pleased to see both the accreditation process favorably resolved and the drama of the lawsuit finally put to rest. How they respond to Malek’s derogatory view of community members and Swayne’s demand for over $150,000 dollars will soon be known. Readers can look up documents associated with Swayne’s lawsuit by referencing case number CV28-22-7712.
Read the court filing:
