Queens City Council Member Vickie Paladino is in another legal battle over statements she made.
A New York City activist is suing the right-wing firebrand, claiming the elected official baselessly claimed she chose not to call the police when her boyfriend was murdered in 2023 because doing so would not have aligned with the activist’s left-wing politics.
Claudia Morales alleged that Paladino instigated an army of her online supporters to harass her — causing her extreme anxiety and to fear for her safety — after the council member reposted a tweet Morales made last year in support of now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani on the campaign trail. Paladino’s repost came with a message suggesting Morales didn’t call for help when her partner, Ryan Carson, was stabbed, instead allowing him to bleed out in front of her eyes because “the murderer was nonwhite and her politics dictate the police are the real evil.”
Morales said that’s “false in every respect”: She says she immediately called the police and, until they arrived, “desperately” tried to administer first aid to Carson.
“[Morales], herself a victim of this violent crime, immediately called 911 [and] attempted to render first aid to Ryan as he lay dying,” says the suit filed late on Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court. “Vickie Paladino made these statements with knowledge of their falsity and/or reckless disregard for the same, and did so to inflict harm upon [Morales] and to punish [Morales] for her exercise of protected speech and association.”
Paladino’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the defamation suit.
Legal action against and an investigation into Paladino over these statements have been floated before. Last year, Morales called for an investigation into the council member and filed a cease-and-desist letter regarding the online harassment.
Queens lawmaker’s history of controversial statements
It’s also not the first time Paladino’s online statements have landed her in hot water.
In 2022, she received backlash for saying drag queens should not be allowed in schools. She has been condemned repeatedly for calling for Mamdani’s deportation, and tweeting that there should be an “expulsion of Muslims from Western nations.”
Earlier this year, she was charged with disorderly conduct by the City Council, whom she then sued, over Islamophobic posts that claimed “New York is under foreign occupation,” and asked if there was “a single American” in Mamdani’s administration in reference to the mayor appointing pro-Palestine activist Faiza Ali to head the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. Faiza was born in Brooklyn and is a U.S. citizen.
Paladino and the City Council eventually agreed to settle the lawsuit on the condition that the lawmaker delete the offensive posts.
In this case, Paladino’s post also suggests Morales, whom she referred to as a “DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) activist,” intentionally impeded the criminal investigation into finding the man who shot Carson because she wanted to “ensure the murderer walked free,” which Morales also says is untrue.
“[Morales] fully and truthfully cooperated with law enforcement at all stages, including upon that individual’s identification,” the suit says. “[Her] cooperation was central to the prosecution of Ryan’s homicide and the ultimate conviction of the person responsible.”
Screenshot of Paladino’s initial tweet, which Morales is suing over defamation claims.
Morales said Paladino’s statements “incited a wave of vile harassment, hatred, ridicule, and threats” against her, including “brigading of online accounts against [her], the posting of hateful and violent imagery and content targeting [her], sexually explicit and violent messages directed at [her], and a variety of other extremely disturbing content.”
Morales said she was left with chest pains, a racing heart, difficulty sleeping, decreased ability to be productive at work, PTSD, depression and extreme anxiety, including over “being targeted by an elected official” for harassment and about leaving her apartment as a result of the “sustained harassment campaign” built on false statements against her.
To make matters worse, the activist said, Paladino “doubled down” on allegedly defaming her after she was told Morales had cooperated with the police through the investigation, her suit claims, refusing to retract or correct her statements, then using her office to intimidate her.
“In defense of her reprehensible and defamatory statements, [Paladino] stated that [Morales] ‘made herself a public figure,’ that [Morales] ‘is a DSA celebrity,’ and that ‘if she’s going to politicize the murder of her boyfriend, then the street goes both ways,’” the suit reads.
Morales said she declined professional and political opportunities, including an invitation to run for office, because she was scared of continued threats, further harm, and additional retaliation against her by Paladino.
Morales is seeking punitive monetary damages and court orders preventing Paladino from making further defamatory statements against her online.