Sued By Ousted Library Director, Campbell County Says She's No LGBTQ Hero

In a scathing court filing, Campbell County’s government and library board Wednesday denied wrongdoing in the 2023 firing of the local library’s executive director, who is now suing over her dismissal.

The county also denies ever seeking to ban books from the Campbell County library, an assertion it bolstered by pointing to a long-running controversy over whether to move sexually-charged and other controversial books from the library’s children’s and teen’s sections to the adult section.

In an April lawsuit, former Campbell County Library System Executive Director Terri Lesley accused the county, library board and a handful of current and former board members of orchestrating what she called her wrongful firing.

She was persecuted for advocating for LGBTQ people, Lesley alleges.

That lawsuit is Lesley’s second federal lawsuit on the issue, running concurrent with a 2023 complaint by which she’s suing a local outspoken family on claims of injurious falsehood.

‘Portraying Herself As A Champion …’

Campbell County, its board of commissioners, its library board and a handful of officials whom Lesley sued in their individual capacities filed a Wednesday answer to the lawsuit that challenges the government, denying wrongdoing.  

The county’s answer, filed by Patrick T. Holscher of Casper-based Schwartz, Bon, Walker & Studer, is both defensive and accusatory.

“The Plaintiff commences her complaint with a long, inaccurate, self-laudatory introduction,” says the filing.

It references the community’s yearslong struggle over whether to move contested books from kids’ sections to the adult section.  

Lesley’s legal filings call that saga a censorship campaign.

The county says it was far from that.

“Portraying herself as a champion of free speech, in reality, Ms. Lesley long indicated she supported the actions of the Library Board in seeking to have certain books removed from the children’s section of the library to the adult section, something that is far from an act of censorship,” says the filing.

The answer also delineates some legal issues, noting that library boards in Wyoming consist of people appointed by the county commission, and that the library board has the authority to fire library directors.

The Campbell County Library Board fired Lesley on July 28, 2023.

Board member Sage Bear (who is among the people sued by Lesley) did not give Cowboy State Daily reasons for the firing at the time, noting that Lesley was an “at-will employee.”

Lesley wasn’t fired via discriminatory social warfare, the county’s answer claims.

She was fired “because of concerns with her performance as Director,” not any association with LGBTQ people nor advocacy of a protected class, the filing asserts.

“Plaintiff’s complaint is an improper run-on narrative combining fact, fable, self-praise, and a self-heroic tale which is not suitable for a complaint,” says the county’s answer. “(We ask the court) to strike all characterizations contained in the complaint and all accusations of personal motivations, as well as all (Lesley’s) claims to self-nobility.”  

Lesley did not respond to a voicemail request for comment by publication time.

Going on the offensive, the county says Lesley “lacks clean hands” in this action because she “seeks to hinder public officials in their duties and suppress free speech.”

The county asserts other affirmative defenses, claiming Lesley didn’t tie her allegations to laws that can propel them through court, that the county may bear some immunity and that there are “legitimate non-retaliatory reasons” behind Lesley’s firing.

The Partial Victory

In Lesley’s 2023 lawsuit against the family of Hugh, Susan and Kevin Bennett, a judge ruled in April that half her claims can go forward.

That ruling is based on some trailblazing reading of the Ku Klux Klan Act, which gives people a mechanism to sue those who conspire to deprive them of rights due to their being part of a “class of persons.”

The federal law was passed in 1871, when people were persecuting African Americans to prevent them from exercising their rights such as a then-new (and still confined to men) right to vote.    

In 2025, the law also applies to LGBTQ people as a group and to the group’s advocates, U.S. District Court Judge Alan B.  Johnson concluded in April.

Insofar as it's new to Wyoming, it was a bold conjecture - one that Johnson reached after what he called an “elaborate research project.” 

Lesley may have a valid reason for suing the Bennetts, the judge added, if the case evidence shows she was persecuted for advocating for LGBTQ people.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.