Ousted Placer executive asks The Sacramento Bee to remove story about his firing from site

A law firm that says it represents fired Placer County Chief Executive Officer Todd Leopold is asking The Sacramento Bee to remove a story about his firing from the internet, citing “potential inaccuracies” and “ongoing negative impacts” the story may create.

Lambert Worldwide, a New York City-based business law firm, made what it refers to as a “courtesy request” in a July 1 email to The Bee asking that the URL to a June 24 story about Leopold’s firing be removed from the web.

“While we support free speech rights we do have some concerns about the content contained at this URL,” the email from the firm’s managing director, John Lambert, read. “Specifically, additional facts and/or context, of which you may be unaware, may ... change the nature of the story or result in potential inaccuracies.

“Furthermore, there are ongoing negative impacts as a result of the above URL and the ease with which it is discoverable via simple internet search engines. We are happy to provide details related to the above.

“However, due to the sensitive nature of some information we are only able to do so if you agree to keep any information disclosed strictly off the record.”

The Bee declined to remove the story or to accept information off the record, and requested an on-the-record interview with Leopold or Lambert officials who could provide more information.

A Lambert representative wrote in a Tuesday email that Leopold would not respond to a request for comment.

“I did follow up with our client on your request,” Lambert paralegal Oanh Nguyen wrote. “I’ll get back to you as soon as he has responded. At the moment, our client does not wish for any updates.”

Leopold has not responded to requests for comment since a March 19 accident in Rocklin during which he struck 18-year-old pedestrian Anthony Williams, who Rocklin police determined was walking in a roadway in the dark.

A police report on the collision reviewed by The Bee determined Williams caused the crash and was walking in the middle of the road at night wearing dark clothing when Leopold’s Jeep struck him. Leopold remained at the scene and waved oncoming cars away from Williams as bystanders attempted to provide medical help.

The incident remains under review by the Placer County District Attorney’s Office, and Leopold faces two wrongful death lawsuits filed by Williams’ relatives.

Leopold was fired last month by the Placer County Board of Supervisors over a workplace discrimination and harassment complaint unrelated to the collision that killed Williams, officials said. Placer County officials denied a Public Records Act request regarding the complaint or terms of any possible agreements between the county and Leopold, citing personnel confidentiality.

The story regarding his firing is the focus of Lambert’s request.

“Please be advised that this letter does not constitute a notice of intent to take legal action,” Lambert wrote. “Though the undersigned is an attorney, we have been engaged as negotiators and facilitators.

“It is no secret that the Internet and technology have made it so that even the most mundane of items live forever. This obviously can have lasting impacts on the subjects of such articles. Therefore, we would like to request that the article in question be removed from your website.

“Alternatively, we are open to compromise ... such as de-indexing the article or, perhaps, removing ... Todd Leopold name from the article.”

Despite referencing “potential inaccuracies,” neither the law firm nor Leopold has requested a correction or identified any errors in the article, which outlined a Board of Supervisors meeting June 24 in which Leopold was given a 30-day notice of dismissal and included the statement county officials made explaining why he was terminated.

Efforts by individuals to have negative postings scrubbed from the internet are not unusual, and many firms have cropped up on the internet offering digital reputation repair services that seek to have offending posts removed or pushed lower in search engine results.

The most prominent example in the Sacramento region in recent years was a 2016 effort by then-UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi to repair her reputation after the 2011 pepper spraying of protesting students by campus police.

A Bee investigation found Katehi had repeatedly exhorted aides to “Get me off the Google” after the pepper spray incident spawned worldwide negative posts about her.

UC Davis eventually hired three firms that were paid $407,000 to repair her online reputation and that of UC Davis. That effort included a focus on who was editing the Davis LocalWiki page on Katehi, approval of plans for a LindaKatehi.com site and the monitoring of online posts by journalists.

Katehi resigned under pressure in August 2016 after seven years of leading the university.