In a lawsuit filed yesterday, the area's largest social service agency accuses the town administrators and a handful of residents of participating in "a coordinated effort to rid ... Framingham of its disabled population."

Southern Middlesex Opportunity Council's suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, singles out Town Manager Julian Suso, Human Services Coordinator Alexis Silver, three selectmen and four Planning Board members.

Also named as defendants are Town Meeting members Peter Adams, Cynthia Laurora, Laurie Lee and Steven Orr. Residents Anthony Siciliano and Harold Wolfe, who have expressed their opposition to social service agencies or their clients either on homemade Web sites or other online forums, are also named in the suit.

"Why am I being sued for stating my opinion?" asked Wolfe, who has run www.smocingham.org for several years but has not updated the site recently. "When they start naming everyone who opposes social services, it looks like it's a case of attacking those who attack them."

Jim Cuddy, SMOC's executive director, would not comment on the lawsuit. Efforts to reach SMOC attorney Jim Hanrahan were unsuccessful.

Town Counsel Christopher Petrini promised a "thorough and complete review" of the suit, which is almost 100 pages and contains 90 exhibits.

"It's unfortunate to see this level of public resources was expended on this lawsuit rather than the delivery of services," said Petrini.

The defendant list also includes selectmen Chairman Dennis Giombetti, Vice Chairman Jason Smith and member Ginger Esty; Planning Board members Ann Welles, Carol Spack, Sue Bernstein and Andrea-Carr Evans.

Orr, a Precinct 1 Town Meeting member who oversees Framingham Neighbors, a townwide e-mail discussion group focused on town government, had not seen the suit yesterday. He questioned the premise on which SMOC filed its claim.

"I find the whole thing to be consistent with the pattern of behavior of social service agencies and the people on the side of expanding them," he said. "At every possible opportunity, they're going to take the position that we're trying to throw people out of town or shut programs down.

"We're trying to gain control of the rate of expansion," Orr said.

Bernstein called it "patently ridiculous" for the lawsuit to accuse her of using her position "unlawfully and purposefully to impose hurdles and requirements beyond the Planning Board's authority."

She also questioned how SMOC can accuse Bernstein of being "improperly influenced" by members of Stop Tax Exempt Private Property Sprawl, a group aimed at slowing the growth of social service agencies in town.

"I don't know how they can make that determination," said Bernstein.

Adams, the spokesman for STEPPS, believes the wide net cast by SMOC in its defendant list was an attempt to include as many names as possible in its crosshairs. He called the group "wildly disparate," saying he rarely has reason to associate with Wolfe or Suso.

Adams doesn't plan to stop posting messages on Framingham Neighbors, he said, despite admitting to occasionally inflammatory comments in the e-mail discussion group with more than 1,000 subscribers.

"I've always tried to be very measured and accurate," he said.

The same is true with the STEPPS Web site, said Adams, who said he has never heard from SMOC officials about information they viewed as inaccurate at www.stepps.info. Other agencies or people have called to ask STEPPS to remove information, he said, and the group has done so several times.

(Craig MacCormack can be reached at or .)