A former LaFollette city councilwoman and her husband face a $60,000 lawsuit for recording private conversations of city employees, according to records obtained on Tuesday.
The lawsuit said that Vanessa Thompson put a recording device under a table in a conference room without permission two separate times. She has been charged with 34 counts of wiretapping and two counts of official misconduct.
Thompson first put a recording device underneath a conference table on or about Jan. 29, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit said that she removed it the next day.
Then, she placed a device underneath a table again on Feb. 12, according to the lawsuit. It says that she also removed this device on Feb. 13.
Her husband later "disclosed or endeavored to disclose the contents of the oral conversations unlawfully recorded" according to the lawsuit. The couple also made public statements berating the plaintiffs, whose conversations were recorded using the devices, according to the lawsuit.
There were six plaintiffs in total, and they requested $10,000 for each plaintiff, according to the lawsuit.
Thompson was indicted on charges of wiretapping and electronic surveillance in 2019.