Leicester Attorney And Elected Official Suing The Police For Pulling Him Over For Driving With Suspended License Is Also Suing Citizens For Commenting On His Facebook Page
This is Mike Shivick, an attorney from Leicester (town with a Walmart adjacent to the west of Worcester).
He’s a very important person and a man of many skills who once appeared on a town YouTube video showing citizens how to carve a pumpkin.
The local celebrity was featured in a clickbait publication called Go Local Worcester in 2013 as one of Worcester’s most eligible bachelors, which seems like more of an insult than a compliment.
His primary expertise as an attorney is representing deadbeat tenants and published videos on YouTube explaining to clients how to beat your landlord in court, and how to sue your landlord for slip and falls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dAOsJpjVII
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_dU8YTRnak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v69pMIeXeDQ
Attorneys like this are the reason it’s so hard for landlords to pay their mortgage and collect rent from degenerates.
Mr. Shivick’s law offices are listed at 999 Stafford Street in the Rochdale village of Leicester, but on his website he only lists a P.O. Box.
Perhaps that is because the property at 999 Stafford Street belongs to his mother Margaret Shivick, with whom this 39 year old man lives.
He is active in town politics and is generally a pain in the ass who filed things like open meeting complaints with the AG’s office that end up going nowhere.
In 2016 he was elected to the Board of Selectmen in Leicester, defeating his opponent by over a 2 to 1 margin. He resigned a year into his three year term, but then decided to run again in 2019 and was defeated by a similar margin. He didn’t handle the loss well.
However, as a consolation prize he was elected to the much coveted Moose Hill Water Commission (whatever that is) as he ran unopposed. Since then the Quinsig Community College grad has been using his Selectmen page to bash the man who beat him while taking shots at his family and presenting himself as one of the only educated people in a town full of drunken blue collar hillbillies.
Not everyone in town is as skilled in the art of slip and falls or pumpkin carving.
Shivick is an outspoken critic of the police and recently left this comment under a post on the Charlton PD Facebook page.
After being pulled over by the police he unleashed a rant on his personal Facebook page, accusing the police of lying in court, calling them “uneducated morons out playing military man in public,” and stating, “f*** every cop on earth, their family, and anyone who supports them – f*** you pig.”
Reminder, he is an elected official in town and used to oversee the police department as a member of the BOS.
Evidently there is water beef in Leicester that revolves around a junkyard and beavers pooping in the water supply. The details aren’t really important. What is notable is that Shivick is in charge of the water supply and people in town aren’t happy about what he’s doing, so they’ve voiced their displeasure on his Moose Hill Water Commission Facebook page. He has engaged with these people, speaking to them in a rude and condescending manner, and now he’s suing two of them. Filing frivolous lawsuits is kind of his thing at this point. He’s also threatened to sue the owner of Eller’s restaurant, and currently is suing the Town of Leicester and the Police Department for $5.5 million.
Attorney Shivick appears to be unwell, based on the lawsuits he has filed and the threatening letters he has sent. This letter demanding $90K was sent to Jeff Eller, the owner of Eller’s restaurant, claiming that Eller subjected him to years of defamation and harassment for disagreeing with him over politics on Facebook, and culminated in “unwanted touching” (touching him on the shoulder which he called battery and assault) at a charity event.
He was upset with the police for not filing charges against Mr. Eller for this non-event.
He frequently uses his position as a lawyer to bully people into silence, knowing that they will be burdened with lawyer fees while he faces no repercussions. When the lawsuits are eventually dismissed the costs to him will be minimal, and since Massachusetts does not have anti-SLAPP laws like California and other states do, he will not have to pay the defendant’s legal bills. Therefore there is no risk for him, and innocent people must pay out of pocket for voicing their opinions on matters of public concern.
What makes his threats more egregious is that he is a public official. The landmark 1964 SCOTUS decision New York Times vs. Sullivan makes it especially hard for public officials like him to sue citizens for defamation by forcing them to prove that citizens acted with “actual malice,” which is nearly impossible.
As an attorney Mike Shivick should know this, but apparently he does not. He frequently uses his Water Commissioner Facebook page to bash people who have concerns about their water supply as uneducated hillbillies, while presenting himself as a “professional” and one of the few Leicester residents who received a “professional degree.”
Despite constantly degrading people like this in a public manner he seems to believe that others are not allowed to do the same to him. Last week he filed a defamation lawsuit against a man named Mike Salvidio and a woman named Annmarie Wilson Monteverdi for comments they made about him on his official Mike Shivick Water Commissioner Facebook page.
As you can see this is harmless back and forth talk about the water supply that you probably don’t care about if you’re not drinking water in Leicester. Yet he’s suing these two people over it, which one person predicted.
Here is the complaint.
Shivick-4 (1)
According to this very serious complaint Shivick was “attacked” when Salvidio “continued to raise talking points that were already addressed by Mr. Shivick,” because evidently civilians must cease from speaking on the Internet when politicians believe that they have already answered the question.
He claims that the citizen’s comments were “motivated by hostility or revenge” and thus not covered under the First Amendment. This shows how little Shivick seems to understand about the First Amendment, which doesn’t have exceptions for comments motivated by hostility or revenge.
He’s also suing Salvidio for bringing up Shivick’s previous DUI, and Montiverdi for using a crying laughing emoji on a comment warning Salvidio about a potential frivolous lawsuit.
You must never crying laugh emoji about Michael Shivick. He is a very serious person.
Prior to filling this lawsuit Shivick attempted to get the man who warned Salvidio that Shivick would sue him for defamation to screenshot any comments made about him so he could sue anyone who voiced their opinion about an elected official into silence.
Salvidio posted this message on Facebook, which Shivick is now suing him for doing. Salvidio politely messaged him with an olive branch, telling Shivick that he wanted to work together, and Shivick replied by contacting the police.
That’s normal.
Shivick is now suing the two of them for $55K, citing damage to his reputation as an attorney and “sadness.”
Ironically Mr. Shivick is doing more to damage his reputation as an attorney by speaking publicly and filing this lawsuit.
The lawsuit he filed last year against the Town of Leicester and their Police Department, along with the 24 page manifesto included, shows how deeply disturbed Shivick is.
PRIORITY-MAIL
It would take a week to review that entire thing, as the longer he talks the more he descends into madness. Here are some of the highlights pertaining to the alleged police misconduct.
He accuses a cop who pulled him over for driving with a suspended license of harassing him because he didn’t realize his license was suspended.
He points out how important he is as both an attorney and an elected official and mocks the police as uneducated rubes who who didn’t understand the law. He calls the cops “slugs,” claims the Police Chief didn’t train them properly, and accuses the cops of lying on the police report.
He said that the police “must not have known Shivick was a lawyer,” and complained that they made him call his elderly mother who he allegedly lives with to pick him up and drive him home as his car was towed away. Additionally he alleges that the Police and Fire Departments are colluding against him by painting fire trucks and police cars with the same patterns.
He then alleged that a Detective Fontaine was also out to get him from a 1999 arrest of Shivick for selling pot. He
According to Shivick the cops arrested him then because they “needed to justify their own existence” while covering up drunken steroid injected police officers. He claims that the police are specifically targeting him for his very important and brave public commentary on the town water supply, and alleges that the police work hand in hand with the “hillbilly mafia.”
He believes the LPD are targeting him by putting officers outside of his mother’s house where he lives.
He accuses the police of refusing to investigate the very serious criminal charges he wanted filed against Jeff Eller for touching him on the shoulder, and even attacked a man named Scott Weikel, who hosts an impressive Christmas light display at his house every December.
Basically everyone in Leicester is out to get him because he’s really important and they’re all corrupt. The letter just descends further and further into madness the longer you read it.
He is now demanding $5.5 million from the town, and is attempting to rescind his previous votes as a Selectmen to have public roads paved.
That’s not how any of this works Mr. Shivick.
Prior to publication of this blog Mr. Shivick emailed me after I talked about this on last night’s Turtle Club Premium Stream, claiming he did not want to “poke the turtle.” He said that the emails were off the record, which I never agreed to, and wrongly cited the NYT vs. Sullivan case as grounds for suing private citizens for comments about an elected official by claiming that they were warned he would sue them ahead of time. After I asked if he lived with his mother he told me to cease and desist communication with him, which I will happily oblige.
However, if he would like to come on the live show to discuss he is more than welcome to.
As amusing at it is to laugh at someone like this, it’s a failure of our judicial system that attorneys (or pro se plaintiffs) can bring lawsuits like this in front of a court at minimal cost to themselves, burden innocent defendants with exorbitant legal fees, and suffer no financial consequences when the lawsuits are eventually dismissed. But the more disturbing aspect is the effect it can have on public discourse was elected officials weaponize the courts to silence dissent from concerned citizens. Who would ever want to speak publicly with their opinions if they knew they would be facing $20K or more in legal fees to do so?
Mr. Salvidio as of right now has no representation and cannot find an attorney who will take his case. One attorney told him that he’s “worried Shivick will sue him and he’s just too busy to deal with that.” If you are an attorney who would like to help please email [email protected] and I can get you in touch with him. In the meantime Mike Shivick should be disbarred in order to prevent him from abusing his authority and law license, and I encourage all residents of Leicester to file a complaint with the bar against him.
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