A bitter dispute between a local landlord and a group of his former tenants over living conditions has entered a new chapter as the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island Inc. has stepped in to defend the tenants against a defamation lawsuit filed by the landlord in August.
The ACLU launched a countersuit on Dec. 31 against property owner Jeffrey Butler, arguing that his lawsuit over the content of a TikTok video posted by former tenants is an effort to silence them in the form of a SLAPP suit – or a strategic lawsuit against public participation.
For Shana Crandell, an organizer at the tenant advocacy group Reclaim RI, the case illustrates broader challenges tenants face at a time when affordable housing is in short supply in Rhode Island.
“There’s incredibly weak enforcement of tenant protections here and organizing with your neighbors is one of the only ways to protect yourself,” said Crandell, who is one of the defendants in Butler’s defamation lawsuit. “Tenants aren’t just fighting for maintenance – they’re fighting to stay in homes that are livable at all.”
But it’s the way alleged SLAPP suits are entering into housing disputes that is most concerning to Lynette Labinger, a cooperating attorney for the ACLU of RI who is serving “of counsel” to the defendants in the defamation case.
It’s a type of litigation that has traditionally been associated with development, land use and media disputes, but is increasingly emerging in housing conflicts tied to tenant organizing, she said.
Broadly speaking, Labinger said, SLAPP suits are less about winning damages and more about making public criticism costly, exhausting and risky.
“If you look at some of these cases, the defendants are lower-income people, and the plaintiffs are usually developers or public figures who can withstand a long legal battle,” she said.
Rhode Island’s anti-SLAPP law, passed in the early 1990s, is meant to protect people who speak out on public issues, allowing courts to dismiss cases early and shift legal costs to plaintiffs who file retaliatory claims.
“Speaking up shouldn’t put you in court,” Crandell said.
But Labinger cautioned that even with these protections, vulnerable residents can still get caught in drawn-out legal battles.
“There’s unequal power between the big landlord and the low-income tenants and grassroots tenant organizers,” she said.
Along with Crandell, defendants named in Butler’s lawsuit include former tenants Melissa Potter and Kellee Silvia, Reclaim RI and tenant organizer Cherie Cruz.
Butler told Providence Business News that his lawsuit is unrelated to tenant organizing and is focused solely on what he described as false personal allegations.
“I have no problem with them putting anything out there if they believe, from a landlord-tenant point of view, I did anything wrong,” Butler said. “But this particular issue crossed the line and had nothing to do with landlord-tenant matters.”
The battle between Butler and his tenants first boiled over in 2023, when Reclaim RI began speaking with tenants at properties managed by Butler in Pawtucket and West Warwick about organizing to address concerns over living conditions, according to the ACLU.
When Butler was accused of threatening to evict tenants who talked with the organizers, the ACLU sued him and a settlement was reached.
Then in 2024, during a court-ordered inspection of another property managed by Butler, at 1890 Broad St. in Cranston, a fight broke out between Butler and three tenants, which led to arrests and disorderly conduct charges against both sides, the ACLU said. The charges were later dropped.
Afterward, a member of the Elmwood Tenants Union at 1890 Broad St. posted a TikTok video that included a mugshot of Butler taken after the altercation, with a caption of “slumlord” and background music that included the lyrics “borderline sex offender.”
The ACLU said the video was taken down a short time later, and Butler’s defamation suit came more than a year after that.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Michael A. Kelly, argues that the defendants inflicted emotional distress on Butler, who is not a sexual offender nor has been charged with such a crime. The filing also says the defendants’ action also hurt his business because multiple partners “have ceased or negatively altered their business and contractual relations” with Butler.
Butler said the post caused serious reputational and professional harm. “I have a perfectly clean record,” he said. “Everyone has a right to their opinion. But when they cross the line and make it personal, that was the real problem here.”
In its countersuit, the ACLU says the TikTok post “was made as part of numerous efforts to communicate with other tenants and members of the public on a matter of public concern.”
In addition, the ACLU argues that Butler has acknowledged he is a public figure, and it claims that the post was not defamatory and that the tenants’ actions concerning Butler all involve matters of public concern protected by the state’s anti-SLAPP law.
Labinger said the stakes go beyond the immediate Elmwood legal battle, highlighting how precarious housing is for many Rhode Islanders.
“If you lose it, where’s your next residence?” she said. “It’s easy to say, ‘just find another place,’ but for a lot of people, that’s easier said than done.”
Tenant organizing, too, is also about housing security, Crandell said. Rhode Island currently faces a deepening housing crisis, with rising rents, limited affordable units and long waitlists, putting low-income residents at risk of displacement.
According to the 2025 “Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes” report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Rhode Island had 47 rental homes that were both affordable and available for every 100 extremely low-income households.
An anti-SLAPP lawsuit that fails could make things even worse, Labinger said, forcing residents out of homes.
A hearing is currently set for April 21, according to Labinger, though it could be postponed or combined with other motions, and will determine whether the claims qualify as anti-SLAPP.
Meanwhile, Crandell said she hopes the Elmwood case is an exception, not a model, for housing disputes moving forward.
“The goal is not to drag someone through the mud forever,” she said. “The goal is to reach an agreement where people have dignity in their homes.”
