Rapid City hoteliers at center of protests file defamation suit against NDN Collective
Grand Gateway owners allege forgery, death threats and harassment on part of West River advocacy group
The ownership group behind the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City has filed a six-count federal lawsuit accusing NDN Collective, a nonprofit Native American advocacy group, with defamation, forgery and injurious falsehood over a racially insensitive Facebook post.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Rapid City this month, claims that NDN Collective orchestrated a “campaign of falsehoods” aimed at damaging Retsel Corp., the owner and operator of the Grand Gateway Hotel.
“This civil RICO action has documented and will seek to prove a coordinated campaign of business interference, public defamation and personal harm to a generational family hotel business that has subsequently become a national target of ongoing legal harassment and business interference for political purposes,” Retsel attorney John Pierce said in a statement.
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