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Try CasePortal for FreeJ. Grimes finds the lower court properly dismissed a special motion to strike filed by a church deacon and his wife after a donor donated over $1 million to an organization run by the wife, after a sermon. The donation was to help purchase a car and a home for a destitute family, with any leftover funds to be returned to the donor. The donor discovered that the house and car were purchased in the organization’s name, not that of the family in need. The donor filed suit alleging he was solicited for the funds which were used fraudulently to benefit the organization, not the family he believed he was helping. The deacon and his wife deny the claim, alleging the conversations with the donor were public in nature and about the family’s needs, and protected as they were part of a sermon and protected speech. The lower court disagreed, as the discussions were specific in nature and the issue was not so much about where the speech or conversation occurred, but rather about the alleged misconduct perpetrated by the deacon and his wife after the sermon. Affirmed.