Circuit Court Judge Keith Kyle was set to hold a case management status conference Monday at 10:30AM in the defamation lawsuits Karen Woodson and John King have filed against Bill Veach and Ray Murphy. That hearing was postponed due to a death in the family of Veach and Murphy’s attorney.
King and Woodson filed the lawsuits alleging Veach and Murphy, who chaired the committee to recall them, lied when they said they violated the Sunshine Law and accepted gifts from developers. Veach and Murphy never provided any proof in the recall, nor were they required to. The recallers made it clear to voters the recall was all about development.
The bar is high to win a defamation lawsuit when it comes to elected officials so this will be an interesting case, if it’s followed through to the end.
When the hearing is rescheduled we will be there to cover it and post about it as it happens.
These lawsuits are not being paid by taxpayers.
Anything new on the writ of certiorari ?
Ed – it looks like there was a hearing yesterday. Check lee county clerk of court website to see the minutes posted. The judge denied murphy brown & veach motion to dismiss and also gave them 21 days to actually answer the complaint, turn over discovery materials. These dumb idiots can no longer ignore the lawsuit filed against them and hope it will somehow go away. They know they did wrong by publishing false statements about 2 innocent council members. Love to see them squirm