By: Tyler Treadway, Treasure Coast Newspapers
WEST PALM BEACH — Maggy Hurchalla is either an environmentalist exercising her constitutional right to free speech or a puppet master orchestrating the death of a business.
Three judges from the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal heard both arguments Tuesday afternoon and will decide for themselves.
Hurchalla, a former Martin County commissioner, is appealing a February 2018 jury verdict that found she interfered in a contract between the owners of the Lake Point rock quarries near Indiantown and Martin County.
Hurchalla was ordered to pay Lake Point nearly $4.4 million in damages to the rock quarry's owners.
Hurchalla manipulated "her friends on the Martin County Commission" through a series of lies about a proposed project at the quarries that squashed the project and cost the company millions of dollars, said Lake Point attorney Jon Tasso.
Three county commissioners — Sarah Heard, who is still on the board, and former commissioners Anne Scott and Ed Fielding — were later charged with public records violations in relation to the case.