Environmental lawyer Meg Sheehan spent a lot of time and money trying to identify the person who created “Meg Costs Us Millions,” a Facebook page where she was ridiculed by anonymous critics.
Unnamed posters called her “old crone” and “the second coming of Cruella De Vil.” They photoshopped her “attractive face to make her unattractive and unappealing… by adding a bulbous clown’s nose, or a witch’s features, according to the $20 million federal lawsuit Sheehan filed in September 2024.
In the 117-page suit, Sheehan claimed that multiple defendants, including Plymouth and Carver town officials and powerful business leaders, demeaned and ridiculed her because she exposed the “shadow industry” of sand mining in Southeastern Massachusetts.
At the time, she didn’t know the identity of the people behind the online attacks.
But several months after bringing her case, Sheehan said, she traced Meg Costs Us Millions to an in-house lawyer for A.D. Makepeace, the developer and mega cranberry grower, and frequent target of Sheehan’s battle against what she calls illegal sand mining.
Makepeace officials, however, didn’t acknowledge that Sheehan was right, that its in-house lawyer was the source of Meg Costs Us Millions — until now.
In a fiery new court filing — and in a new twist — Makepeace not only admits the lawyer, Michael McVeigh, created the page but the company defends his actions.
Makepeace and excavation contractor SLT Construction Corp., two defendants in Sheehan’s suit, are using what they call their online “counteroffensive” to support a new motion to dismiss key pieces of her lawsuit.
Under a state law called Anti-SLAPP, (which stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) private defendants (not public officials) are protected from lawsuits that aim to silence criticism or suppress speech in areas of public interest.
That’s called “petitioning,” and it’s protected by law.
Sheehan declined comment on the new filings but in an email said that corporations are increasingly using anti-SLAPP laws “to silence environmental advocates.”
(In fact, defendants in a different case brought by Sheehan on behalf of citizens seeking to halt development of a business park on Hedges Pond Road are also invoking anti-SLAPP laws.)
Lawyers for Makepeace and SLT argue that Meg Costs Us Millions, and other online posts, which started appearing in 2023, are examples of “petitioning” that should be shielded from litigation.
“These (Meg Costs Us Millions) posts did not come out of nowhere,” wrote lawyers for Makepeace, McVeigh, and SLT. “They arose in response to (Sheehan’s) campaign … aimed at blocking permits and regulatory approvals and stopping the companies’ work.”
“While some of the postings and comments were distasteful,” the lawyers said, “they were all made to counter (Sheehan’s) statements and garner public opinion against her positions.”
The lawyers, Geoffrey Raux, Edward Cooley and Michael Paris, described the title of the webpage as accurate — at least as far as Makepeace is concerned.
In an affidavit, Makepeace CEO James Kane said his company has spent $4 million defending itself against Sheehan’s legal maneuvers.
Sheehan has pursued at least 15 different actions against Makepeace alone, the filing says. SLT’s Opachinski said his company has spent $150,000 opposing her various claims.
The idea for Meg Costs Us Millions allegedly stemmed from a January 2023 Plymouth Zoning Board of Appeals hearing where chair Michael Main lambasted Sheehan for appealing the town’s refusal to act against a company she accused of excessive sand mining.
“Every time you pull one of these stunts,” Main was quoted as saying. “I’ve been here for 18 years, and I have seen five of these from you and they have all been denied, all gone away, but all still cost this town a ton of money. And now we’re talking about millions and millions of dollars on your frivolous lawsuits. I’ve had it. This one’s not going any further.”
In her suit, Sheehan called Main’s suggestion that her litigation was costing the town millions “patently untrue,” claiming that Plymouth’s legal fees “would be measured in thousands, or tens of thousands, but not even remotely approaching one million dollars, much less millions and millions of dollars.”
Nevertheless, she wrote in her suit, “the seed that Main planted rapidly grew into ‘Meg Costs Us Millions,’ the massive online campaign of ridicule, harassment, and demoralization.”
Plymouth officials said they cannot determine how much the cases have cost the town because its lawyers
are hired and paid by its insurance companies.
In a 77-page May 7 decision, US District Court Judge Allison Burroughs dismissed many of Sheehan’s claims against the companies and the towns, including charges they violated her due process rights and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.
In their Aug. 25 filing, Makepeace and SLT asked Burroughs to toss most of the remaining claims against them — including allegations of defamation, civil rights violations, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In an affidavit opposing their motion, Sheehan – who is also a co-founder and board member of the nonprofit Community Land & Water Coalition -described the emotional toll the defendants’ alleged abuse has taken on her.
She sued because she “could no longer tolerate the way I was being treated, Sheehan wrote.
“It was affecting virtually every aspect of my life, and it was a constant drumbeat of taunts and lies and efforts to bully me. I had honestly become afraid for my physical and emotional well-being, and even for my life.”
Sheehan said she paid $10,000 to “unmask” the creator of Meg Costs Us Millions and doled another $150,000 as a retainer to her lawyers.
“These out-of-pocket expenses are in addition to the very real emotional distress with which I have been living… and without regard to the damage done to my reputation,” she wrote in her Aug. 25 affidavit.
In a separate response to the special motion to dismiss, Sheehan’s lawyers, Joan Lukey and Justin Wolosz, wrote that the companies’ actions did not constitute petitioning and are not shielded from litigation.
Sheehan filed suit not to oppose the companies’ permits or approvals, her lawyers argued, but to challenge the conduct “carried out by defendants on social media.”
“The gist of Sheehan’s complaint against the Makepeace defendants including McVeigh is that they anonymously defamed her, humiliated her, and caused her tremendous emotional distress through Meg Costs Us Millions,” they wrote.
Opachinski, Sheehan’s lawyers wrote, exacerbated the situation by commenting online and reposting hate-filled comments from Meg Costs Us Millions, using his own name.
Sheehan’s lawyers said that filing the special motion to dismiss triggered an automatic halt in discovery — needlessly delaying the case.
The litigation would have moved a lot quicker, her lawyers wrote, had McVeigh months ago admitted his role in creating Meg Costs Us Millions.
Instead, Sheehan alleged, he tried to delete the webpage and other potentially incriminating evidence.
In June, Sheehan filed a shorter, amended complaint, incorporating the claims that were not dismissed by the judge.
Even if the judge endorses their special motion to dismiss and throws out most claims, Makepeace and SLT would still face charges they conspired with the towns to violate Sheehan’s rights.
Plymouth and Carver also remain in the case — accused of violating Sheehan’s rights — as do ZBA chair Main and Betty Cavacco, former chair of the Plymouth Select Board and now a member of the Community Preservation Committee. In addition to allegedly violating Sheehan’s rights, Main and Cavacco are accused of defamation.
Other remaining defendants include Carver’s town moderator, Alan Germain, and Stephen Gray, chair of Carver’s Zoning Board of Appeals. Both are accused of violating Sheehan’s rights.
Sheehan alleges both men bullied and mistreated her at public meetings, cutting her off repeatedly and preventing her from speaking.
Germain’s behavior has been “untethered to any form of civility, or even basic human decency,” the suit says.
All the defendants have denied Sheehan’s claims.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.