Milpitas Councilmember Hon Lien files lawsuit against former Vice Mayor Karina Dominguez

Note: This article has been updated with new information. 

Milpitas Councilmember Hon Lien filed a formal complaint earlier this month against former Vice Mayor Karina Dominguez, citing actions that Dominguez took throughout the 2024 political campaign season. The complaint mentioned that Dominguez made “multiple statements of facts that are false and harmful” to Lien. 

The actions laid out against Dominguez in the complaint include Defamation per se, Defamation per Quod, Intrusion Into Private Affairs, Public Disclosure of Private Facts, and False Light. 

“Defamation per se” occurs when an individual says something about another that is untrue, and “Defamation per Quod” puts those statements into a proper context. 

“Intrusion Into Private Affairs” means that there was an intrusion into the privacy of another person for information that is not cause for public concern, and “Public Disclosure of Private Facts” is when the private facts being shared are offensive to a reasonable person. “False Light” means that someone presented another to the public in a misleading way. 

The complaint claims that there are specific examples of Dominguez’s actions that fall into the above five categories. 

Councilmember Lien ran for Mayor during last year’s election, against Mayor Carmen Montano, Councilmember Anthony Phan, and Milpitas resident Voltaire Montemayor. Dominguez served as a Councilmember and Vice Mayor on the Milpitas City Council from 2018-2022. Although she did run for Mayor in 2022 (and was defeated by current Mayor Carmen Montano), Dominguez did not run in the 2024 election. On social media, she put up posts about how she was supporting then-Councilmember Anthony Phan in last year’s race.

According to the complaint, back in May 2024, Dominguez sent a text to another Milpitas resident, telling them that Lien did business in another country and that Lien would get arrested if she went back to that country. In the text, Dominguez also told this resident that Lien didn’t follow proper export laws in the United States, which led to the fall of Lien’s business. Both statements are false, according to the complaint. 

On October 9, 2024, during The Milpitas Beat’s Milpitas Mayoral Forum, Dominguez also spoke with Paul Ellis, another Milpitas resident. During that encounter, Dominguez made a statement to Ellis about Councilmember Lien being involved in evicting a mother and child from their home in Vietnam. 

“I didn’t do such a thing,” Lien told The Beat in an interview. “I don’t own any properties in Vietnam, so I don’t know how to react to it.” 

Also in 2024, during election season, Dominguez put up a post on her Facebook account claiming Lien was harming her family in Vietnam, a false statement according to the complaint. The Beat received a screenshot of a comment Dominguez made about Lien on Facebook, though whether it is on the post referred to in the complaint is unknown. 

“I am not afraid anymore of this old political machine in Milpitas who clearly thinks intimidation works,” said Dominguez in the Facebook comment. “Vote NO for [Hon Lien]. She is hurting her own family in Vietnam and god knows what else she has done.”

Dominguez had been critical of Lien on social media throughout the election season. A particular incident that became a cause for concern for Lien was a comment that Dominguez made on Lien’s clothing under a post on Lien’s social media, according to Joseph Weinstein, Lien’s campaign manager for her Mayoral campaign. The post was of Lien visiting an unhoused encampment in Milpitas for an event held by Hope for the Unhoused, a Milpitas non-profit. 

Dominguez’s comments, from a post by Lien dated July 17, 2024, read:

“Hon [Lien]. I like you but seriously this post and the way you are dressed tells me you have no clue what privilege you have to ‘walk the talk’,” said Dominguez in the comment, “Please don’t use pictures to ‘walk the talk’ and politicize this issue for votes and instead do policy that will help our unhoused.”

The comment above appears to have been deleted by Dominguez in the post.

The final straw that led to Lien filing the complaint happened during the Mayoral Forum, when Dominguez pursued and recorded Lien after the Forum, asking questions about whether Lien would vote for then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump and whether Lien had any undisclosed legal cases underway in Vietnam. 

After Councilmember Lien’s campaign manager stepped in to help Lien get away from Dominguez, he happened to bump into Dominguez. This led to Dominguez filing a police report, but then later telling the police that she did not want to press charges. 

The initial police report stated that Dominguez told the police she had deleted all the video footage that she had personally shot during the event.

However, Dominguez later posted a video of part of her and Lien’s interaction on Facebook, under The Beat’s article on the topic, according to Ellis, who saw the post while scrolling through social media. 

“I was basically just keeping an eye on the temperature of the candidates and what was going on, and that struck me as being something worthy of capturing,” Ellis said.

Another Milpitas resident took the video to the Milpitas Police Department, which included a description of the video in a supplemental report on the incident. 

But Dominguez has since deleted the post on Facebook. 

“I don’t want us to link this to campaigning, because it isn’t,” said Lien in an interview about the lawsuit with The Beat. “I don’t feel safe, and it needs to stop, and she needs to be held accountable for her actions.” 

Dominguez did not respond to The Beat’s request for an interview; however, she did text this statement: “It is always disappointing to see unsuccessful candidates choose to point fingers or blame others for the outcome, rather than self reflection and personal accountability.” 

During the 2024 election, Lien came in second place; and Mayor Carmen Montano was re-elected to her seat for a second term. 

In Councilmember Lien’s interview with The Beat, she made sure to stress that she was filing the lawsuit out of fear for her safety.

“Knowing that [Dominguez] had always promoted women in power, women of color, she’s a single mom…I am a woman in power, I’m of color, and I was raised by my mom who lost her husband at a very young age, and I was a refugee who knows hunger. This is unjust and I want people to know before they take any actions,” said Lien.