“Anger, dismay and humiliation,” are the emotions of Franklin leaders as they face a lawsuit from local restaurant owner Miriam Kovacs, said city attorney Paul Fitzgerald.

Kovacs accuses the city of failing to protect her from antisemitic threats and vandalism.

On Thursday, Fitzgerald rejected “in its entirety” a settlement that she proposed, asking for reform.

Fitzgerald said she’s defamed city leaders, portraying them as racist and biased, he wrote.

For her part, Kovacs is worried about the vitality of her restaurant, the Broken Spoon, which sits on Central Street. She’s been closed for the last few months, only offering catering. She fears that her landlord will raise the rent at the suggestion of the city, and price her out of downtown.

She is anxious about her personal safety, as threatening Facebook comments continue to populate Franklin groups.

And she is angry that the City of Franklin continues to portray her as an “irrational enemy.”

“I’m literally just asking people to do their jobs,” she said.

The offer to settle the suit asked the city to cover her legal fees – which totaled $7,000 at the time – and instate reforms within the Franklin Police Department.

“Anti-semitism and racism are both ugly stains on the fabric of our modern American society and we all should be working to root them out and eradicate them,” Fitzgerald wrote in an email to Kovacs’ lawyer, Michael Lewis. “However, placing the blame for the rise of this unwelcome phenomena on a small New Hampshire Police Department or the leadership of the City is simply inappropriate.”

Now, Kovacs has no choice but to proceed with a trial, she said.

Long history

To understand Franklin’s response to attacks on Kovacs from NSC-131, a white supremacist group, starts with online reviews of her restaurant, the Broken Spoon, in 2022.

Two summers ago, after a group of white nationalists had staged a demonstration in Kittery, Maine, Kovacs posted in support of a local baker who was staging a counter-protest. Then she saw one-star reviews for the Broken Spoon on Google that referenced individuals from Nazi Germany, like Rudolf Hess.

In response to the attacks, the Franklin Police Department opened an investigation into the incident. Kovacs called on city leaders to condemn white supremacy and she created “easy-activism packets” with pre-written letters to city leaders asking them to take a stand on the matter.

The city then adopted a hate and intolerance resolution and formed a task force.

Kovacs said she had to prompt a response from city leaders with her letters. She turned to community members and local churches for support and to put public pressure on local government.

“That’s what caused them to take action, not their goodwill and intellect,” she said. “There was public pressure.”

She also participated in a forum organized by the U.S. and New Hampshire Attorney General’s offices, which discussed hate crimes. She spoke about her experience with the Franklin Police Department, where she criticized their response to her situation.

A week later, Franklin Police Chief David Goldstein, took to Facebook to publicly call out Kovacs, in a post that has since been deleted.

To Kovacs, that was clear retaliation by a city leader.

Yet, Goldstein said in an interview with the Monitor, that Kovacs had already publicized the dispute with media interviews. Therefore, he did not regret defending his department.

In August, Kovacs said that city officials – including Mayor Jo Brown,  City Manager Judie Milner and Goldstein – conspired to violate her First Amendment rights, retaliating against her after she sought protection following attacks from white supremacist groups.

The suit names City of Franklin, as well as Brown, Milner, Goldstein, Police Sgt. Daniel Bell, current City Councilors Jay Chandler, Valerie Blake and Vincent Ribas, and former Councilor April Bunker as defendants.

On to court

On the door to Kovacs’ restaurant, a small paper sign has big, black, bold text: “The Broken Spoon is temporarily closed.”

However, it doesn’t feel temporary anymore.

After a woman in California was murdered this summer for hanging a pride flag outside her storefront, Kovacs closed her doors. That was in August and she has not reopened.

“I’ve been unable to open my business to the public. I have had to pivot my entire operation, which is challenging because I don’t feel safe. I have no one to report anything to,” she said.

Now, she is doing catering and trying to think about how she can rearrange the Broken Spoon’s interior to host events.

In an ideal world, she’d love to create a more open kitchen to host chef’s table-style events. But in reality, with her income squeezed by her restaurant’s closure and now mounting legal bills, money is tight.

“It’s so hard when money is such a stressor,” she said.

And her legal fees will only grow as the lawsuit heads to court.

Kovacs hoped that with her settlement agreement, the city would have at least acknowledged harm caused.

“If they’re so unclear as to why we came up with these options to have an adult discussion about it to say, listen, we were unaware of the harm we have caused and continue to cause we are willing to work on restoring your trust,” she said.

Instead, the rejection said Kovacs failed to acknowledge how her attacks would be received by Goldstein, who has faced antisemitism as a Jewish-American, or by Brown, who is a veteran.

“If I sound passionate in my defense of these employees, it is because I have known several of them for decades and am aware of both their personal character and dedication to the city,” wrote Fitzgerald.

“I will provide a more detailed response both in our answer and other documents to be filed in the near future,” he said.

Kovacs hopes with a change in city leadership, with Brown voted out of office in the recent October election, that the response from the city will improve. In January, Desiree McLaughlin, a local business owner, will be sworn in as mayor.

“We’ll have a mayor who is overseeing what people are doing,” said Kovacs. “Should someone have a complaint about the police department, it’s no longer behind these closed doors, this little clique that all bands together.”