The Florida Activist Is 78. The Legal Judgement Against Her Is $4M.

"In 2013, Lake Point sued the county, the water management district and Ms. Hurchalla, claiming she waged an unlawful campaign against the company that cost it its plans to make money off its cleaned lake water.

The court agreed: The litigation found that commissioners conducted public business using their private email and delayed production of those emails — or destroyed them altogether — in violation of public records laws. Three commissioners were charged in criminal court. A jury acquitted one of them in April, and the state attorney dropped the charges against the other two last month.

The county and water management district settled with Lake Point for millions of dollars, and the mine continues to operate. But Ms. Hurchalla fought on, even after Lake Point offered to drop the case if she publicly apologized."

Protected speech as in secretly conducting public business?

Seems to me like Lake Point offered her a way out that didn't cost $4m.