HALFMOON — Bruce Rischert spoke his mind. And for that, believe it or not, he faces a $2.5 million lawsuit.

Whatever happened to free speech?

Rischert is an average guy. The physician assistant, who turns 46 on Thursday, lives in Halfmoon with his wife and 6-year-old child. He loves the Mets and football Giants. He spends his weekends working on his house, or ferrying his daughter from one activity to the next.

But like a rising number people in Halfmoon, Rischert has grown concerned with the quantity and quality of development in a town that's among the state's fastest growing. In particular, he recently spoke out against a 165-unit apartment complex proposed by developer Bruce Tanski.

That should be no big deal. Every American, after all, has the right to schlep down to town hall and voice an opinion. It's better than slumping on the couch watching "Jersey Shore," right?

But Rischert seems to have gotten under Tanksi's skin. Last month, the developer filed a slander and libel suit in which he seeks $2.5 million in damages and claims to have suffered "disgrace, humiliation and shame throughout the community, permanent harm to his professional and personal reputations, and severe mental anguish and emotional distress."

Yikes. To read that, you'd think Rischert must have really said something low and nasty when he stood before the Halfmoon Town Board. (He also opposed Tanski's project in a written letter to the Town Board.)

But what Rischert did was question the standards of Tanksi's prior projects and his property-management history. He cited poor reviews about Tanksi's complexes on apartment-rental websites, for example, and he noted that the U.S. Attorney General had once sued Tanski for alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act.

Rischert also claimed that Tanski himself had admitted to being a sub-par builder.

To Tanski's ear, Rischert's comments went beyond ordinary criticism. His lawsuit says Rischert took words out of context, showed a reckless disregard for the truth and should have known his statements were false.

Well, to my ear, Rischert's comments appear to be nothing more than protected speech and statements of opinion.

I mean, I can understand that the words weren't pleasant for Tanski to hear. Criticism isn't easy, especially if you consider it faulty.

But I've attended my fair share of town and planning board meetings, and I've heard worse. Believe me, people get emotional when they believe a developer's proposal might affect their quality of life or property values.

Now I've interviewed Tanski a few times in the past, and I've found him to be a straight shooter. The Clifton Park native also has a colorful background that any journalist would love, with a rags-to-riches history that mirrors the evolution of Saratoga County from rural farmland to upscale suburbia.

Yet Tanski declined to talk to me for this story. Richard Miller, his Albany-based attorney, did not return my phone calls.

That means I didn't get to ask either man this question: How does this lawsuit not qualify as a so-called SLAPP — a strategic lawsuit against public participation?

SLAPPs are designed to silence opposition. They're frivolous lawsuits designed to scare people from speaking at government meetings, especially regular folks who can't afford the expense of a proper legal defense.

"Anybody who cares about free speech should be horrified by this," said Therese Assalian, who knows Rischert and also lives in Halfmoon.

Assalian and Rischert are both members of a citizens group, Future Halfmoon, that opposes the town's all-growth-is-good-growth approach to development. Assalian believes that's the real reason for the suit by a politically active developer who has financially supported the elections of several town officials.

"We feel like it is an attempt to silence those of us who are critical of the way things are run in our town," Assalian said. "They for too long have run things without scrutiny. That has ended, and some people are not too happy about it."

The weird thing about Tanski's lawsuit is that it essentially provided a much larger audience for Rischert's criticism. Words that were heard only by those at a meeting of the Halfmoon Town Board — which doesn't exactly need a stadium to hold its usual audience — have now been printed in newspapers like this one.

I don't get it. I mean, it's almost as though Tanski handed Rischert a megaphone.

In any event, Future Halfmoon has set up a defense fund to help Rischert with his legal bills. Rischert, in turn, has hired Michael Grygiel, an Albany-based First Amendment attorney who has represented many media organizations, including the Times Union.

Thankfully, New York has an anti-SLAPP law that extends special protections to speech that opposes a person or company seeking an approval from the government. (The Legislature, by the way, is slated to consider much-needed legislation that would strengthen SLAPP protections.)

The current law gives people like Rischert the right to voice an opinion on developments like the one proposed by Tanski, along with the right to make an honest factual mistake.

In fact, for Tanski to win his lawsuit, according to legal experts, he'll have to prove that what Rischert said was defamatory and factually wrong, and that Rischert knew it was wrong when he said it.

I'm no lawyer, but I think Tanski has little chance at winning this suit. But Rischert may still pay through the nose to defend himself — just for speaking out.

If you'd like to help with his legal bills, send a check to the Bruce Rischert Legal Defense Fund at Box 75, Clifton Park, N.Y. 12065.

Advocate@timesunion.com • 518-454-5700 • @chris_churchill