Alpha News has been threatened with a defamation lawsuit by the owners of a Burnsville autism therapy provider after the outlet reported that the center billed nearly $2 million in taxpayer funds despite little observable on-site activity, including no children present during visits and weeks of surveillance footage reviewed by reporters.
Fountain Autism Center LLC and co-owner Sharmake Hassan — through their attorney — sent a demand letter accusing Alpha News of libel and seeking $100,000 and a full retraction of reporting that raised questions about whether services were being delivered consistent with the public payments the center received.
Alpha News’ attorney, Chris Madel, formally rejected the demand, standing by the reporting and warning that any lawsuit would be met with an aggressive legal response. Madel is currently running for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s gubernatorial election.
“All these facts support Alpha News in raising the question of whether Fountain Autism Center is providing actual autism services to actual children to support the $2 million it has received from the State of Minnesota,” Madel wrote. “Under these circumstances, it strains credulity to claim defamation, which requires some statement of falsity.”
Original Alpha News report
The original Alpha News investigation into Fountain Autism Center last fall stemmed from a tip by a neighboring business owner who said the Burnsville facility “rarely appears open,” despite billing the state nearly $2 million since October 2023 through Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) program.
Alpha News visited the facility during posted business hours and found only one employee on site and no children present. Asked how many clients the center serves, the employee said, “A good 10,” then added that “most of them come after school or they do like in-home services.”
In a follow-up phone call, the same employee said the center currently serves “four” children in person.
Alpha News also reviewed weeks of surveillance footage from a nearby security camera that captured the center’s entrance. The footage showed few vehicles and no visible pattern of children or staff entering the building, including during after-school hours and weekends.
The center’s co-owner later told Alpha News that most services occur in clients’ homes and that the facility operates near full capacity during summer months. But the business owner who contacted Alpha News said the location appeared vacant even during the summer period described as busiest.
Demand letter alleges defamation
Fountain Autism Center’s attorney – Brian Stanley at RWI Law, PLLC, accused Alpha News of “defamation by implication,” arguing that the outlet “juxtaposes facts in a misleading way to falsely accuse my client of fraud” in a letter dated Dec. 23.
The letter demanded $100,000 in damages and a retraction of all Alpha News articles concerning the provider, asserting that the reporting harmed the business and deterred potential clients.
The demand letter also alleged that the Alpha News article was a “false, targeted attack based off of my client’s ethnicity,” claiming the outlet’s front page was “littered with extreme headlines targeting Somalian individuals.”
In the letter, the attorney incorrectly used the term “Somalian” rather than “Somali,” a reference that stood out given that the Alpha News article made no mention of the owners’ ethnicity, Somalia, or Somali individuals.
The attorney also incorrectly claimed the article omitted information about audits the center had passed.
Alpha News attorney rejects claims
In a Dec. 28 response, Madel soundly rejected the demands outright, stating that the reporting was substantially true, well-documented, and constitutionally protected.
“We reject each and every one of your demands. Alpha News’ Autism Story is
clearly protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as well as
Article I, Section 3 of the Minnesota Constitution,” the response letter reads. “It was communicated by highly respected journalists on a matter of public concern. Your client has no facts to support a defamation claim. And it similarly has no law.”
The response letter said the central issue was whether Fountain Autism Center was actually providing autism services to children at a level consistent with nearly $2 million in public payments.
“The gravamen of the story is simple,” Madel wrote, stating that in order to treat autism, providers must actually meet with children, and that the documented lack of observable activity raised legitimate questions of public concern.
Madel also noted that the original reporting did include reference to a state audit and said allegations of bias were unsupported. The letter invoked Minnesota’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA), which allows for early dismissal of lawsuits targeting speech on matters of public concern and permits recovery of attorney fees. In fact, Madel won a case for Alpha News earlier this year under the UPEPA statute and the plaintiff had to pay $75,000 in attorney fees.
“If a court denies our UPEPA motion (for reasons I cannot currently fathom), I
would love to delve into discovery of your client’s ‘business’ to show exactly what is
transpiring within it. I am ready, willing, and able to use the law to ferret out another
fraud committed on Minnesota taxpayers. If your client decides to sue, our response can be found in three words: Bring. It. On.”
Press scrutiny amid broader fraud concerns
The legal dispute comes as Minnesota continues to grapple with widespread fraud uncovered in publicly-funded programs that, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, could be more than $9 billion.
The EIDBI autism services program has been labeled “high risk” by the Department of Human Services, which has acknowledged dozens of open investigations into autism providers statewide.
As the original article stated, Fountain Autism Center denies any wrongdoing, and neither the center nor its owners have been charged with fraud.
Jenna Gloeb
Jenna Gloeb is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist, media producer, public speaker, and screenwriter. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and on-air host for CCX Media. Jenna is a Minnesota native and resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, daughter, and two dogs.
