Data center developer and activists appear in court for civil lawsuit hearing

EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA) - Sebastian Rucci, the developer behind a planned data center in the City of Imperial, is suing several local activists. The parties appeared for a hearing at the courthouse in El Centro Thursday.

Rucci filed a civil defamation lawsuit in April against Mt. Signal Media's Jake Tison, Jose Luis Olmeda Velez, the executive director of Comite Civico del Valle, and also against Comite Civico del Valle, a local nonprofit.

According to the complaint, Rucci and his company, Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing, allege that statements Tison and others made were false and defamatory. He also alleges harassment.

Comite Civico says this lawsuit is an attempt to silence critics of the data center, and their attorney, Beverly Grossman Palmer, says the claims don't have any merit.

"We are looking forward to coming back and presenting our anti-SLAPP case to the court and having a ruling that this case was meritless and deserves to be immediately dismissed," Grossman Palmer told KYMA outside the courthouse.

The hearing has been continued to July 16, with a separate hearing set for August 16.

Outside the courthouse, Rucci said with these types of cases, you never know how hearings are going to go.

"When you go to court, you have ideas, but you don't know how things are gonna turn out, so you go forward. The judge is an amazing judge; the courtroom's been great," Rucci told our reporter.

"Defamation is defamation, and threats and violence...those aren't acceptable," he added.

This is one of several lawsuits surrounding the data center.