Georgia Website Owner Wins Libel Law Suit Filed by Bobby Lee Cook
August 25, 2009 – Part IV: Summerville’s Pravda Rides Again
It has been three weeks, today, since a Chattooga County jury found in favor of myself and my website for the accusation of libel for what someone else said.But the Summerville News could not bring itself to print that fact in its August 6, 2009 edition.In fact, they sought to demean me and detract from my un-published,[by the Summerville News] victory, having to depend on fraudulent misrepresentation and outright lies to do so.I have addressed this now, for a second time, in a Retraction Demand letter, which I posted to the Espys through Certified Mail, yesterday.
I am posting that letter in its entirety, below. It answers most questions which so many of you have called or e-mailed about.I have already addressed the fact that they alleged that I never was able to produce the cell phone trace record which proved a death threat phone call was placed from a cell phone belonging to one of the Hammitt’s attorneys, Jon Dennis.Contrary to the Summerville News’ claim, I showed the jury that, among many other documents, via the overhead projector, during my opening statements.
The allegation that “the local jury also found no proof of a Dixie Mafia” is ludicrous.That was not an issue of the law suit.It was not a question the jury was asked to determine.The jury form, which anyone can look at in the file at the local courthouse, has three findings:
1.Claims of Plainitffs against Defendant Busbin – We,the Jury, find in favor of Plaintiffs.We,the Jury, set damages at $0.00.
2.Claims of Plaintiffs Against Defendants Watson – We,the Jury, find in favor of Defendants.
3.Counterclaim of Defendant Busbin against Plaintiff – We,the Jury, find in favor of Plaintiffs.
But the most serious allegations, attributed to others, including unnamed “agents” and Narcotics Task Force Commander Mike Howard, are debunked below, in the letter:
RomeNewsByWatson.com, Inc.
6 Vassar Drive
Rome, Georgia 30161
706-936-0274
August 24 , 2009
Jason Espy
Gene Espy,
The Summerville News
Espy Publishing Co, Inc.
P.O. Box 310
Summerville,Georgia 30747
And
Tracy Espy,Registered Agent
Espy Publishing Co, Inc.
388 Rains Circle
Summerville,Georgia 30747
Winston E. Espy, CFO
Espy Publishing Co, Inc.
956 Filter Plant Road
Summerville, Georgia 30747
Gregory Espy, Secretary
Espy Publishing Co, Inc.
6788 Dry Creek Road
Summerville, Georgia 30747
RE: Second Retraction Demand per O.C.G.A. 51-5-10,11, and 12 (2009)
Dear Sirs:
In the Thursday, August 6, 2009 edition of the Summerville News, the following statements were made about me by Jason Espy:
1.“Watson still clings to a mysterious notion that local drug agents are investigating the Hammitts. Local drug agents say Watson is lying”.
2.“Local drug agents say Watson is lying.Most of the drug agents said they have never heard of the Hammitts until Dirty Boy’s false allegation”.
3.“Chattooga County Narcotics Unit Commander said Watson is a liar”.
4.“I have never heard of [the Hammitts] in regards to any drug activity at all, Commander Howard said”.
5.“She takes a little information, just like basic facts that some marijuana was found on [the Hammitts] property and …just spins it and puts it into some overall conspiracy theory, said Commander Howard”.
6.“Local drug agents say Watson is hiding behind her three letter acronyms doesn’t fly either”.
7.“Not only does Watson’s site allow others to make alleged false accusations about local residents selling drugs, but she also lies about other matters as well, according to Commander Howard”.
8.“that stuff about an alleged cellphone call made from [Dennis] cellphones to her in a form of a threat, she’s got that thrown into the mix of a big federal investigation now is false”.
Per O.C.G.A. 51-5-10, 11 & 12, I am demanding both a retraction and a correction of those statements, both in print and on your internet website.
1.My testimony was that there was NO investigation going on, and that the authorities did not pursue an investigation because the drug activity of the Hammitts was so small time.I testified that there IS NOT AN on-going investigation, although some of the DTF and DEA agents were aware of the Hammitt’s activity.
I made this point VERY Clear in my testimony, and the transcript of the trial will prove me out.
2.Sheriff John Everett is at this time attempting to learn from his drug agents if any of them accused me of lying, and so far the answer is “NO”.School Resource Officer Tucker and Investigator Schrader certainly did not testify that I was lying.
3.I have now been able to exchange communications with DTF Commander Mike Howard, and he has insisted that he never made the comments above which Jason Espy has attributed to him. Howard’s statements will be used should I have to file a law suit against the Summerville News, Espy Publishing and each of you.
Once a law suit is filed, I will be deposing ALL of the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office agents, detectives and investigators to learn if Jason Espy has lied about their comments as well.
While I had made a retraction demand already, I had not at that time had a chance to study in detail all of the lies which you all have allowed to be printed in your newspaper.I have now had time, have had several conversations with Sheriff John Everett, and correspondence with Commander Mike Howard.
At this time, it is my belief that your reporter, Jason Espy, made ALL of this up, with all of your approvals, in an intentional and malicious attempt to defame me and my website, which is libel per se, for which there is no privilege.
I am stunned that you cannot comprehend how very serious this is, and somehow attach your legal responsibility/exposure to that of protecting Ed and Brenda Hammitt by responding with a letter attempting to secure a statement about their activity from me.
While I regret having to drag the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Department into this distasteful controversy, I believe it is necessary not only to clear my name of the vile and reprehensible lies you have printed, but to secure clarification to the people you supposedly serve, the citizens and readers in Chattooga County.They need to know that their Sheriff’s Office personnel would never stoop to such undignified name calling.They need to know that their Sheriff’s Office is not as classless, petty and sophomoric as the news organization which represents their county – that the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office can be trusted.
I will, therefore, give you one more chance to correct you false and maliciously libelous statements in the next edition of your newspaper to repudiate these accusations in an editorial, both in print as well as on your internet website, while also removing those comments from the internet website.
If you do not, I will bring a law suit for Conspiracy to Libel, and libel per se against the Summerville News, Espy Publishing Co, Inc, a Georgia Corporation, and each of you gentlemen individually.I will also include you each in the federal suit which is being prepared for the Conspiracy to Violate Federal Civil Rights.
I admonish you each, and put you on notice, not to dispose of any of your real properties, large amounts of cash or deposits, stocks, bonds, jewelry or other items of significant value, until this matter is resolved, either through retraction or litigation.
Sincerely,
Teresa Watson
August 22, 2009 - Part III:An Attorney, A Judge and A Defendant
Attorney Ben Ballenger
Except for a few hearings we have had along the way in this Hammitt case, I have never really seen Ben Ballenger in action.
I first met Ben when he contacted me during and after the Mario Armas case, asking me to come up to Chattooga County to review some files and meet some folks. That was in October of 2007, and what has transpired since then has been a developing friendship which has suffered its obstacles and setbacks, parting of ways and then a long, slow approach to climb back to a level playing field.
My husband and I have shared wine with Ben and some of those close to him, eaten dinners, and sat for long talks in a wonderful sunroom looking out on Hwy 27. I have shared e-mails and phone calls, and I have sat in Ben’s office on Commerce, admiring antique glass front book cases, while talking about serious legal issues with him and other attorneys, law enforcement agents and friends.
I have argued with Ben, both in person and over the phone, and like many of his friends, have had the phone slammed in my face when Ben gives up on reasoning with one his intellectual inferior.
Last fall, Ben Ballenger and I experienced a traumatic pulling asunder as we came to blows over an ideological difference of opinion on how to handle a legal development in this Hammitt case.While Ben Ballenger handled the situation inappropriately, in my opinion, as time has passed, I can see more clearly that the basis for his decision was based both in sound reasoning and in trepidation of some unstable vibes he was picking up from my attorney at the time.
Unfortunately, I took the advice and counsel of someone else, and have suffered bitterly for it.
Ben Ballenger is essentially a good guy, flawed as we all are. He is blessed with a keen mind, and cursed with a very short temper.
But on August 3 and August 4, 2009 I saw a practiced and gifted trial attorney work his magic, drawing out inconsistencies when he could find them, in the witnesses the Hammitt’s attorneys put up on the stand.
Because I was already represented by counsel when I got sued with both this and the Stephanie Dennis, Ben Ballenger could not represent me, and he volunteered to represent Kenneth Busbin, in a case which at first did not include myself and my website as defendants.
Remember, Bobby Lee Cook filed cases against both myself, here in Floyd County, and against Busbin in Chattooga County, and then dismissed both, immediately re-filing as a “Conspiracy” case in Chattooga County.
During trial a few weeks ago, I saw an experienced attorney, whose slim files were not only adequate, but precisely gauged to contain only the necessary specifics of evidence he would use during trial.
I struggled in with overhead projectors, transparencies and screens.The Hammitt’s five man team brought in screens and computers and all manners of technical setups, and were aided by the local court personnel in setting up.
Ben Ballenger had a large accordion folder with his evidence neatly ordered inside.
I tried to be objective. I know what I know about the case, and about the evidence.I know that both Mr. Ballenger and I were left to struggle with an unprecedented, pre-ordained trial time constraint ordered by Judge Wood, with a threat that if there was not a completed trial and a jury verdict by the end of the third day, he would declare a mistrial.
We assumed that the jury would need at least half a day for deliberations, and suspected they would need the better part of a full day, and so while the Plaintiffs could luxuriate in calling as many witnesses as they wanted to, leaving the crumbs of time for three Defendants to launch a defense, (Busbin, myself and my website), Ballenger and I began gutting our witness list and adjusting to shrink our arguments.
But there were times when Ballenger was so gifted, knowing all the sides of the equation, that he would complete his examination of a witness, and turn to me,knowing instinctively what I needed and sensing that I understood that he had set the stage for me to come in and take what I needed.
I felt at times that we were in a beautifully choreographed dance, and Ben Ballenger was obviously leading me.
But several spectators in the gallery also commented, both on the first day and on the second, that it looked as though Ballenger and I had practiced our “tag teaming”. Honestly, it was just that Ben Ballenger is that good, and knew his case that well.
His lead was so easy to follow.
As he and his client and I see it, the jury verdict which found in favor of the Hammitts, but awarded them no money, was a win for Busbin.IF JUDGE WOOD had not ordered a specific time deadline to have all matters concluded, Ben Ballenger would have put up the several eye witnesses who had worked with Busbin and who had seen and overheard all Busbin testified to, and which he had posted in his comments on this website.
But uncertain of how long the jury would need to deliberate, Mr. Ballenger felt that there was not time to engage in four other witnesses. Especially when we were sure the Plaintiff’s team would drag out each cross examination, eating up precious time. Otherwise, it is my opinion that the verdict would have been in favor, not just of Defendants Watson, but also in favor of Defendant Busbin.
Judge Jon Bo Wood
I do not even know where to begin.
I will start by saying that the strict, by the book demeanor of Judge Wood during this trial was nothing short of refreshing. His adherence to courtroom rules and decorum was like an oasis in a very dry dessert. Even when he scolded or cautioned me in his strict and commanding voice, I could appreciate what he was doing, because he was right to do so.
Judge Wood was fair, impartial, strict and extremely patient with this one who has no courtroom experience, and made a few errors in the beginning. In fact, at one point, I misjudged the timing and order of when certain cross examination would occur, relying on my countless hours watching criminal trials.
When I asked His Honor a question about the order, he firmly set me straight about it not being his job to teach me the law.
He was right, and I was a little embarrassed, but mostly amused and grateful. No judge likes to have to deal with pro se litigants – those who have fools for clients and fools for attorneys. But I do believe that after reading pleadings in the form of a lien filed by my former attorney, that Judge Wood understood.Mr. Anderson grossly violated attorney client privilege by including e-mail correspondence between us directly related to case strategy, and because Mr. Anderson disparaged me and then filed false time billing sheets, I believe that Judge Wood understood why it was necessary that L. Vincent Anderson not walk into court to represent me during the trial.
Those actions, incidentally, stemmed from Mr. Anderson’s paranoid delusions that I had somehow “conspired” against him to take away his right to filed an appeal in the Criminal Contempt Removal of him from my Floyd County case.He even contacted two attorneys, one from Dalton and one from Atlanta, and accused them of stealing me from him, which was ludicrous.The reality was that when he was removed from my case, by Judge Matthews, I filed a Notice of Appeal in a timely manner, and he did not.
When Vincent Anderson finally did file a NOA, it was rejected, and in a bizarre sequence of events, he tried to then submit an actual Appeal, after I had already submitted mine, with his name as a party to the appeal, and claiming he was also still my attorney. The Clerk of Court of Appeals, Bill Martin, caught the fraud, and sent Anderson’s Appeal back to him, along with a very firm letter identifying the fraud, and reminding him why his Notice of Appeal had been rejected in the first place.
But that did not stop Anderson from sending me threatening e-mails, leaving threats on my answering machine, or contacting two extremely prominent attorneys in Georgia, accusing them of stealing me away from him. It did not stop him from filing a lien, through U.S. Postal Service, which included double billing and false billing, and of course, private e-mails about my case.
So, when I detailed all of this and listed exhibits with my response to the lien, Judge Wood got a very clear picture of what was going on, and at the pre-trial conference in his chambers, on Monday, July 20, 2009, Judge Jon Bo Wood gave me permission to represent not only myself, but also my corporation, which under Georgia Law is generally not allowed.
That was probably my first signal that this Judge would be fair.
The second signal, which also came on that Monday at pre-trial conference, was when Judge Wood denied Jack Harris’ new Motion to Compel Discovery.
You see, on July 17, 2009, Bobby Lee Cook, Rex Abernathy and Jon Dennis engaged Jack Harris ofRome based McRae, Stegall, Peek, Harman, Smith and Manning to come on board as co-counsel in the Hammitt case.
They had done so, already, in the Dennis case, when it became obvious that we had evidence that Stephanie Dennis was not a true Plaintiff in that fraudulent law suit against me. Harris began handling “clean-up”, so to speak, last November, and has handled the entire appeals process thus far.
So, on July 17, 2009, he filed a Notice of Appearance in the Hammitt case, and immediately began submitting various pleadings, including a Motion to Compel Discovery. He also attached the Discovery, which was massive, and included me providing a copy of every single article which I have ever posted in almost two years since I began my website, as well as ALL POSTS.
(That actually would have been funny, because most of what they would be looking for, although perfectly safe for me, was lost when Bobby Lee Cook wrote 1and1.com demanding that they take down my website from the world-wide-web).
Now, a short history on the discovery process in the Hammitt case until then, understanding that in civil cases in the State of Georgia lasts for 180 days after a law suit is served on a defendant.That meant that by July 3, 2008,Discovery was OVER, unless someone could show extenuating circumstance which had prevented them from pursuing discovery:
January 3, 2008 - I was served with the current Hammitt law suit, along with discovery which pertains mostly, not to the Hammitts, but to questions about what I know about local, state and federal investigations against he, his daughter Judge Kristina Cook Connelly [Graham], and his late son-in-law, Branch Connelly.
February 18, 2008 – We file our answers to discovery, what actually applies to the Hammit case, and decline answer BLC family related questions for lack of relevance.
July 7, 2009 – Bobby Lee Cook filed a Motion to Judge Ralph Hill for an extenuation in Discovery, which Judge Ralph Hill granted, extending the Discovery time until December 1, 2008. That means that by December 1, 2008, Bobby Lee Cook would have had time to find out anything he wanted/needed to know for almost one full year since filing the law suit.
But the Plaintiff’s team did not take advantage of that second bite at the apple.
December, 2008 – Judge Ralph Hill retired, and Senior Judicial Circuit Judge Jon Bo Wood stepped in on this particular case.
In January, 2009 - when the case was originally slated for trial, Bobby Lee Cook asked for a continuance until the August Calendar, because Mrs. Hammitt’s father was sick. He also requested yet another extenuation of Discovery.
Judge Jon Bo Wood granted the Motion to Continue the Trial, but ordered Discovery closed.
So, on July 17, 2009, Jack Harris filed a Motion to Compel, claiming we never answered original Discovery, (yet it is in the Court file) and insisted that there was not an Order closing Discovery.
BUT, on that July Monday at pre-trial conference, Judge Wood scanned the massive file, saying he remembered signing an order closing discovery, and with Ben Ballenger’s help, was able to locate the January order. Judge Wood denied Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Discovery.
Way to go, Judge Wood. He obviously was not intimidated by Bobby Lee Cook or Jack Harris.
But again, throughout the trial, Judge Wood let the attorneys practice law.He never interfered until one attorney or another objected. Now, Jack Harris did most of the objecting, and in most cases, Judge Wood sustained the objection. Most of the time, I understood why, and would try to ask a question in a different way.
I did not always understand why Judge Wood was sustaining an objection, because in my mind, very often I knew I could make clear the relevance of my question. Sometimes I got away with it, but sometimes, I came really close to getting in some serious troubles.
Like my brother-in-law, a homicide detective in one of the largest cities in the nation, has told me many times:It is easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
But as I say, Judge Wood was very patient with this fool.
The trial progressed without any major incidences, until Ben Ballenger put Mr. Busbin on the stand. At one point, as Mr. Busbin testified, Ed Hammitt started muttering “Bull-shit,Bullshit, Bullshit”, and with each utterance he got louder and louder. I looked over at him to catch his attention and he turned to me, and said, “And that’s to you, too”.
At that point, I raised my hand, and objected to what was going on. When I explained to Judge Wood, he said that he had not heard it himself, but then he laid into them. It may have been my imagination, but it seemed that after the next break, that more deputies were present in the courtroom.
I was not pleased that Judge Wood would not allow me to present evidence during my testimony, that I felt supported my theory that this law suit against me was simply an end run around existing laws to harass and intimidate me, because I was going full throttle against Bobby Lee Cook’s cartel.
I had, however, gotten enough of it up on the screen during opening arguments, so that the jury had an idea, already. And, Ben Ballenger really hit that point home in his closing arguments. The whole case,including the charges against his client, were just a means to an end for Bobby Lee Cook to get to Teresa Watson and try to shut her website down.
After closing arguments, Judge Wood let the jury leave for an early lunch, while we stayed and hammered out a combination of our three submissions for Jury Charges. After lengthy debate on a number of issues, we finally arrived at mutually acceptable(and in some cases mutually disagreeable), jury charges.Judge Wood noted that he had never in his judicial career used the First Amendment, (one of my submissions), as a jury charge. But he agreed to use the Georgia Constitution version, which, of course, adopts the United States Constitution.
Later that afternoon, after the jury had been charged and sent out to begin deliberations, Judge Wood asked if there were any exception to the record.
Jon Dennis and Rex Abernathy objected to one of the charges which was in our favor, and Judge Wood got riled, in a very controlled manner, but his face turned red. It was a point we had debated at length, and finally agreed to, all around, and Judge Wood remembered it well.He asked Abernathy and Dennis if he was going to have to start having his court reporter record jury charge deliberations. He then asked Jack Harris what he remembered, and Mr. Harris, much to his credit, stood up and admitted that what the Judge had charged the jury with was exactly what he had remembered.
Less than hour later, we were being called back into court for a verdict.
Defendant Kenneth Busbin
As long time readers of this website know, Kenneth Busbin used to be a regular on this website as a poster called “Dirty Boy”.He was polite, and while I may or may not agree with much of what he used to post, he was a welcomed visitor to this website.
When Kenneth Busbin was out and about in town, he, like many folks, talked about the website, and he eventually began telling people what his on-line posting identity was.He even called me a couple of times with news tips, and like I do with EVRTYONE who ever calls, I talk, listen and in some case, get real, verifiable news tips.
Sometimes, I simply chat with the callers, because it is good to connect with the world, and I learn from other peoples’ insights, opinions, complaints and disagreements.
Kenneth Busbin was no different.
But I did not “know” Kenneth Busbin, and I certainly had never met him. I did not know what he looked like, until the Monday morning of August 3, 2009 – the first day of our trial as “co-conspirators”.
That’s right.
The only way that Bobby Lee Cook could bring a suit against me on his home turf would be to sue me in a conspiracy where one of the “co-conspirators” was a citizen of Chattooga County. Otherwise, Georgia law requires that a Plaintiff, (s) who is bringing litigation against a Defendant MUST bring it on the Defendant’s home county turf, unless there are multiple defendants in multiple counties.
But there was no conspiracy.
The Rome News Tribune, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, CNN, Fox News – any news organization gets news tips almost every single day of the year. Many tipsters are regular callers or e-mailers of tips, but nowhere could I find case law of any kind where a news entity or owners of a news entity were sued as co-conspirator with someone, simply because the news organization received tips from that individual.
Now, I know Kenneth Busbin.I sat next to him during two of the most intense days of my life.I now know Kenneth Busbin, a little, and what I know, I like. Kenneth Busbin is honest and sincere, and when I saw him on the witness stand, twice, once called by the Plaintiff’s team and once called by his attorney, Ben Ballenger, I got a goo feeling for his sincerity.
I also believe Kenneth Busbin, as I have read the affidavits of those who worked with him, saw and heard what he saw, heard, and testified to, and who were prepared to take the witness stand had we not been limited in the beginning with a threat of mistrial should we not have verdict by 5:00pm Wednesday afternoon.
One final word about a very critical player in this whole trial, and all trials, Court Reporter Eddie Townes. I have heard very mixed comments about Mr. Townes, and after spending a little time in the law library with him, discussing a myriad of topics, I have to say, I really liked him.
I never realized how much of the trial process depends on the court reporter, even elements I assumed were the Clerk of Court’s responsibility. Meeting Eddie Townes, meeting Kenneth Busbin, seeing deputies I have already grown fond of in various hearings and trials, getting to see Judge Wood operate, and all while having Ben Ballenger guide me, while friends sat in the gallery supporting me, allowed a very stressful trial to actually a positive experience, all in all.
Stay tuned Next week for a blow by blow analysis of the Summerville News’ August 6, 2009 article. Not all bad, but boy are there some lies, which we will correct, for the record, whether they do or not.
Teresa Watson
Part II - Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Media Resource Center, a non-profit research center for lawyers who represent First Amendment Rights in the Press has joined several other entities which have already reported on or are preparing to report on the Hammitt v Watson internet libel case.
First, Jonathan Frieden, an attorney with Virginia based Odin, Feldman and Pittleman, and who specializes in internet free speech issues and intellectual rights issues, wrote about our Hammitt v Watson plight back in December 2007 when we were served with the first of several law suits by Bobby Lee Cook, on behalf of Ed and Brenda Hammitt. Mr. Frieden writes a column for E-Commerce, a web-based magazine which specializes in critical issues of the emerging internet world.
Next came Harvard Law Professor and Director of the Citizens Media Law Project at Harvard’s Berkman Center for the Internet and Society, David Ardia, who has kept up with every stage of the process, and even assigned a third year law student, last year, to collect the various pleadings, and handle communications.
Last week, several reporters and attorney researchers for various other organizations also contacted me when I was with my family, out of town, but most of them I did not necessarily recognize, except for the reporter from the Daily Report, whom I directed to John Bailey of the Rome News Tribune, since I was down-timing with my grandkids.
Even as my son headed back to school for the fall semester, he called me and told me that his father, a Savannah attorney, had called to pass on a congratulations, as he was reading about my win in some legal publication last week, but my son was not sure which article/which publication.
Then, yesterday, Eric Robinson of the Media Law Resource Center,a name I immediately recognized in the voice mail he left,contacted me.In several spurts between a doctor’s appointment, lab work and a lunch with a friend, Mr. Robinson explained that he had been keeping up with both the Hammitt case and the Dennis case since the first law suits were filed in December 2007.
He told me, as have several of these research attorneys for think tanks have over the course of the last couple of weeks, that there is much buzz in that field about our win against the Hammitts, because of several factors.
Of course everyone has been thrilled that a jury returned the RIGHT verdict, in under one hour, for a defendant who had to represent herself AGAINST a Bobby Lee Cook team.I have assured them that I followed Ben Ballenger’s lead, but that my research prior to starting my website, specifically with regard to 47USC230 and Georgia Code on defamation, combined with research both my former attorney, Anderson, and I dove into with each stage of the process, gave me much confidence in the court room.
Of primary concern to both Mr. Robinson, as well as Jonathan Frieden, and David Ardia, early on in the game, has been about how in not just one,but two nearly identical law suits in two different counties, got past two different judges who should have dismissed the cases outright because of 47USC230, especially in light of no Georgia law existing with respect to internet defamation.
Robinson also pointed out, as have we,all along the way in both cases,that even without 47USC230,the judge should have dismissed the Hammitt case outright, because of the Georgia Code on defamation which requires a 7-Day Retraction Demand letter be served PRIOR to filing litigation, and which Bobby Lee Cook NEVER did in either of the Hammitt cases.
That very elements has been in all of our pleadings from the beginning, from Answer through to Motions to Dismiss #1 and Motion to Dismiss #2.
But then Robinson and I also talked about how incredible it was that during all of the harassing assaults,verbal, written and legal,that not a single jurist stepped in, not even after Motions for Protective Orders, last fall, to stop Bobby Lee Cook, his daughter, Judge Kristina Cook Connelly Graham, nor even Jon Dennis, more recently, whose cell phone was used to make the February 21, 2009 death threat phone call.
These research attorneys are each appalled that the Georgia State Bar Association refused to do anything to Bobby Lee Cook regarding the “Miss Nipples” “Bitch” and “Fool” comments, as these are not only unethical,but illegal name calling to engage in during a deposition.It is Civil Rights Color of Law Intimidation, and is felonious activity – yet even with legal, deposition transcripts and hearing transcripts delivered to the Georgia State Bar, proving exactly what Bobby Lee Cook had said, the Georgia State Bar did nothing.
These men and women who have interviewed me have been incredulous that Floyd County Superior Court Judge Walter Matthews allowed Bobby Lee Cook, on the record in court proceedings, to call my attorney a psychopath and incompetent, and then to call us both pathological liars. One of the researchers last week asked me if I planned to sue Judge Matthews for his violation of Oath of Office. I honestly have not made up my mind about that, as suing a judge is a very tricky business.One cannot sue them for judicial rulings, but one can sue for violating their responsibility within court room, and allowing a client or an attorney to be harassed.
One final aspect of the case which Mr. Robinson raised yesterday, as did another one of the several fellows last week, was how any judge, whether in a civil case or a criminal case,could possibly believe it was appropriate to limit a trial prior to the start of trial, announcing that if there was not a jury verdict by Wednesday afternoon, that he would declare a mistrial.
Mr. Robinson thought that what he had read in the Rome News Tribune about the judge’s announcement was clearly a misprint, but, as I told him, Rome News Tribune reporter John Bailey got is dead on.
Clearly, both Ben Ballenger and I limited our witness list significantly because of this, choosing to close on Tuesday morning at lunch time, so that the jury instructions, which generally take the better part of a half day to combine, argue and then read to the jury, could be hammered out, and the jury could start deliberating before the end of Tuesday.
Indeed, the jury was sent out to deliberate a little after 3:00pm on Tuesday afternoon, for what we expected to be a full, day-long process.Little did we know that the issues were so clearly set out during trial, that the jurors would return a verdict in less than an hour.
We talked at length about the voir dire process, (I asked questions but deferred to Ben Ballenger to striking, since I do not know many people in Chattooga County), and opening and closing argument strategies.
Mr. Robinson asked me if either side put up professional internet witnesses, and I laughed. What professional witnesses could I afford, if I had to in the end represent myself, and what professional witness would the Plaintiffs put up who could possibly justify their suing me for Kenneth Busbin’scomments? Mr. Robinson seemed amused as well.
Another attorney or reporter also asked about witnesses last week, but not professional witnesses.I cannot remember who it was, but someone was very eager to know if Michael Leon Smith had testified, or if Judge Kristina Cook Connelly Graham testified. They knew I had subpoenaed each.I had done so because my whole defense,(asside from 47USC230 and the Georgia Code on defamation),was that this case, these cases, including the Dennis case, were part of a pattern of conspiracy to intimidate a free press and free speech, so that I would not continue to write articles, based on court documents and federal and state law enforcement reports, about the drug activity and other illegal enterprise activity by that family.
This was well supported by the record itself, as evidenced by the Discovery which Bobby Lee Cook submitted in both the Hammitt case and the Dennis case,questions which related,primarily,not to either the Hammitt or Dennis issues,but demanded to know what I knew about criminal investigations involving Bobby Lee Cook, Kris Cook Connelly Graham and the late Branch Connelly.Reporters and attorneys across this nation are aware of those very specifics of these cases, and it amazes me how well versed they are in these facts.
But as I told the gentleman last week, while the Legal Counsel for the Southern District of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Ms. Terri Collins, had signed off on allowing MLS to testify, in the end, a federal judge was concerned that there was not enough time to putprotectionin place to warrant his being brought up.MLS, of course, could have significantly detailed the inner workings of the Bobby Lee Cook Continuing Criminal Enterprise, which included not only drug trafficking, but bribery, influence and all manner of corruption.And MLS could have tied Judge Kristina Cook Connelly Graham, Carlton Vines,Albert Palmour and Chattooga County Clerk of Court Lann Cordel,to all of this activity as well.
So, one can appreciate why the Federal Judge was very concerned about Michael Leon Smith’s, and his family’s safety.But without Michael Leon Smith to rebut, putting the Princess Judge on the stand would be fruitless, because there would be no one to refute what she would deny or take the Fifth on.
Word is leaking out, slowly,but like a snowball, is gaining momentum.And national eyes are on the State of Georgia’ judiciary in Northwest Georgia, as well as on its State Bar.Like Erik Robinson told me yesterday, his non-profit organization,Media Resource Center,works regularlywith law firms and attorneys who represent the most elite newspaper publishing and broadcasting entities in the nation,all of whom have been following this story for most of the last 18 months.Entities like the New York Times, the Denver Post and the Cox Group which owns the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
No wonder he was so versed on the GBI-JQC-Kristina Cook Connelly Graham brou-ha-ha.
I am encouraged.
In the meantime,he has asked me for certain documents which he does not have, like the Jury Form/Published Verdict, and I am more than happy to oblige.
Teresa Watson
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
On Tuesday, August 4, 2009, after less than one hour of deliberation, a Chattooga County, Georgia jury found in favor of Defendants Teresa Watson and her Georgia based website, www.RomeNewsByWatson.com.
The same jury found in favor of the Plaintiffs against a third defendant, Kenneth Busbin, who had posted comments to Watson’s website, attached to an article by Watson about a previous law suit involving the Hammitts, their attorney Jon Dennis, and attorney Bobby Lee Cook’s daughter, Judge Kristina Cook Connelly Graham.
The comments were based on experiences Busbin had with the Hammitts, involving the discovery of a pair of marijuana plants on the Hammitt’s property back in 2005, while Busbin was working as a carpenter for the Hammitts.
HOWEVER, the jury awarded $0.00 to the Hammitts, which is essentially, as attorney after attorney who has contacted me over the last two weeks told me, is a WIN for Mr. Busbin.
Busbin, who had taken photos of the plants, and their location and proximity to the house he was hired to help build, claimed that he and his work crew were instructed by the Hammitts not to disturb the plants, as they were growing them for a local Trion City Councilman.
Back in 2005, the Summerville News had even covered the story, identifying the address, but not the owners of that property where the over seven foot marijuana plants were discovered.
Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office investigators had removed the plants, but did not initiate a formal investigation.
However, the incident was memorialized in a photo of one of the seven foot plants on the front page of the Summerville News’ weekly editions back during that time.
Busbin posted his comments about the incident to Watson’s website on Monday morning, December 3, 2007, and within 24 hours, in violation of 47USC230, federal code which protects websites and their owners from liability for what posters post to their websites, famed Summerville, Georgia attorney Bobby Lee Cook, who touts himself and his law firm as defamation litigation experts, filed a law suit against Watson, on behalf of Ed and Brenda Hammitt.
Not only did Bobby Lee Cook ignore the obvious, (47USC230), he neglected to abide by the Georgia Code which requires that anyone suing for libel in the State of Georgia must first send a 7-Day retraction Demand Letter, requesting a correction-retraction of newspaper and broadcasting outlets.
But Georgia has no internet website defamation law, and so the United States Code applies, as case after case after case throughout the last decade of case law, in almost every federal district, has proved.
When Watson was served with the law suit on December 5, 2007, she immediately pulled the comments and posted an article explaining what she had done and why, even though federal code did not require her to do so.
In the article, Watson included the federal code, and the state code as well, pointing out that no 7-Day Retraction Demand Letter had been served prior to filing of the suit.
Two weeks later, on December 18, 2007, Bobby Lee Cook dismissed that first law suit, only to re-file it in his own county, contrary to state law. This time, he named Watson and Busbin as “co-conspirators” even though Watson and Busbin had never met, and in fact did not meet until more than 18 months later, on the morning of the first day of the trial.
But that is only half the story.
During that same week in which Bobby Lee Cook filed the first Hammitt law suit, he also subpoenaed Watson to a deposition in another defamation law suit he had filed, months before Watson had even started her website. In that law suit, filed on behalf of Janice Galloway, a bookkeeper employed by the City of Lyerly, Georgia, who had taken official record books home and refused to return them, sued Mayor of Lyerly over comments he made about the situation at a City Commission meeting.
Although the Janice Galloway v Mayor Chuck Jones law suit was clearly a SLAPP law suit, (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation), the Insurance Company which held the liability policy for the City of Lyerly settled with Bobby Lee Cook’s client for $10,000.00.
But not before Bobby Lee Cook tried to make a spectacle of Watson, who was not even a party to the case and had no knowledge of the details of the case.
In the first deposition, when Watson claimed the Georgia Press Shield to protect her sources, Bobby Lee Cook violated state and federal Color of Law Civil Rights protection, by harassing and intimidating Watson, calling her vulgar names, including “Miss Nipples” “Bitch” and “Fool”.
Although the “Miss Nipples” comment was caught and recorded in the transcript during the deposition, the Georgia State Bar did absolutely nothing when Watson filed a grievance. Watson even supplied the Georgia State Bar with that transcript, as well as the transcript of a hearing in which Dalton attorney Steven Farrow, of Minor Bell and Neal, who had been present at the deposition, testified that after the court reporter stopped recording, that Bobby Lee Cook had called Watson a “Bitch” and a “Fool, while ordering her out of his office.
Still, the Georgia State Bar declined to investigate or bring charges against Bobby Lee Cook.
And, as if that was not enough harassment, Bobby Lee Cook also brought another defamation law suit against Watson, just two weeks after he served her with a subpoena to be deposed in the Galloway case, and filed the Hammitt law suit.
But in Dennis v Watson, again ignoring 47USC230, Bobby Lee Cook managed to file a law suit for comments made by a poster, “Snake” who had posted comments to the same article about the Hammitts, Jon Dennis and Bobby Lee Cook’s daughter, Judge Kristina Cook Connelly (Graham).
In this case, the alleged “Plaintiff”, Stephanie Dennis, was the estranged wife of the Hammitt’s attorney, Jon Dennis. But almost one year after the case was filed, Stephanie Dennis contacted a Chattooga County businessman, to beg him to contact Watson to let Watson know that Stephanie Dennis had NEVER authorized the law suit against Watson and her website.
Boyce Dooley had an affidavit prepared, signed it and had it notarized.
When Watson and her attorney attempted to reveal this at a hearing in December, 2008,Floyd County Superior Court Judge Walter Matthews through Watson’s attorney out of court, banned him from Floyd County courts all together, and yet continued the hearing refusing to allow any of Watson’s witnesses to testify.
That law suit, which is almost two years old now, has never had a single witness take the stand or answer questions in deposition, despite Watson’s attempts to depose and have a fair hearing.
The Dennis v Watson et al case now rests in the Georgia Court of Appeals, in an appeal of the removal of Watson’s attorney from last December.
The particulars of the attorney’s removal, called Criminal Contempt, allows all of the issues of the case to be considered during the appeal.
It is slated for the September calendar, and will be decided, presumably, by the end of December.
But the intimidation and harassment of Watson and her website by Bobby Lee Cook did not stop there.
Below is a time line of sorts of bizarre actions by not only Bobby Lee Cook, but also by his daughter, Judge Kristina Cook Connelly Graham and the Hammitt’s other attorney, Jon Dennis.
As detailed in Watson’s second Motion to Dismiss, filed weeks prior to the August 3, 2009 jury trial, Watson sought protection from these characters:
On December 14, 2007, attorney Bobby Lee Cook, the attorney in the underlying case, for which a Motion to Dismiss was sought, called Defendant Watson vulgar names, including “Miss Nipples” and “Bitch”, under color of law, during a deposition. EXHIBIT 1.
On January 2, 2008, in an attempt to thwart First Amendment rights of Free Speech and Freedom of the Press, attorney Bobby Lee Cook, the attorney in the
underlying case, sent a letter to Defendant Watson’s advertisers, demanding they pull their support from Defendant Watson’s website or face litigation, and falsely alleging that at least ten other people wouldbe suing Defendant Watson for defamation. EXHIBIT 2.
On January 3, 2008 – Dalton attorney Steven Farrow, testified at a hearing to the truth of the vulgar name calling engaged in by attorney Bobby Lee Cook, the attorney in the underlying case, against Defendant including “Miss Nipples”, “Bitch” and “Fool”. EXHIBIT 3.
On May 14, 2008 – attorney Bobby Lee Cook, the attorney in the underlying case, physically attacked and knocked to the ground, a road worker outside of his home in Summerville Georgia.According to the Police Incident Report, “Mr. Cook also threatened to get a gun and told him he was “going to kill him”. During that altercation, Mr. Cook allegedly also busted out the window of another worker’s vehicle. EXHIBIT 4.
On July 2, 2007 - attorney Bobby Lee Cook, the attorney in the underlying case, submitted a document with a forgery of Defendant Watson’s attorney’s signature, [at that time], and dared to write under that signature, “With Express Permission”.
EXHIBIT 5a (Forgery) &5b (e-mail from former attorney confirming forgery).
On September 5, 2008 –This Honorable Court’s colleague, Judge Kristina Cook Connelly (Graham), daughter of attorney Bobby Lee Cook, the attorney in the underlying case, attacked Defendant Watson from the bench, when she chewed out Prosecuting Attorneys Council’s Special Prosecutors Joe Burford and Gary Bergman, their boss, Rick Malone, GBI Special Agent Dan Sims, and Secretary of State Inspector General Shawn LaGrua, who were present to make Grand Jury presentments.
In her tirade, Judge Connelly accused the gentlemen and lady of conspiring with Defendant Watson to have the Judge removed from the bench, and of “forum shopping”.Judge Connelly then called Defendant Watson “The Biggest Liar in the State of Georgia”, all recorded and published in the October 3, 2008 Summerville News. (EXHIBIT 6).
That unseemly attack is now part of a Judicial Qualifications action against Judge Connelly, which is pending before the Supreme Court of Georgia.
THE PROXIMITY OF THESE ACTIONS are not coincidental and are indeed road signs in the overarching conspiracy of Defendant, Bobby Lee Cook, Judge Connelly and others to undermine the judicial system of Northwest Georgia, and to stifle United States Constitution First Amendment Rights of Free Speech and Freedom of the Press, by intimidating Defendant, an investigative journalist who has written about and been critical about all three.
On October 9, 2009 – Alleged Plaintiff in another law suit for defamation against Defendant and her website, Stephanie Dennis, contacted Boyce Dooley to tell him that she IS NOT the Plaintiff in that case, and that she NEVER gave her permission for Bobby Lee Cook to file this case against Defendant.
Discovery in that case was identical to Discovery in this present case, and dealt not with defamation against the Plaintiff’s but with what Defendant knows about on-going criminal investigation involving himself and his daughter, Judge Kristina Cook Connelly-Graham. Affidavit - EXHIBIT 7.
On December 17, 2008 – Plaintiff’s attorney Bobby Lee Cook, also the attorney in a fraudulent defamation action against Defendant Watson, attacked Defendant Watson and her attorney, when in the Dennis Defamation law suit, said “dishonest as a lawyer and human being, but he is completely incompetent”. EXHIBIT 8 – [MT.pg6.Deceember 17, 2008].
On December 22, 2008 – Plaintiff’s attorney Bobby Lee Cook, sent a letter to Defendant,gloating about Defendant’s struggle with a kidney disorder.
That letter was delivered to defendant on Christmas Eve, 2008, DESPITE THE PROHIBITION under Georgia law for an attorney to directly contact an opposing part while they are represented by counsel. EXHIBIT 9.
On January 27, 2009 – Plaintiff’s attorney Bobby Lee Cook, also the attorney in a fraudulent defamation action against Defendant Watson, again attacked Defendant and her attorney, when in the Dennis Defamation law suit, said “that she as well as Mr. Anderson are pathological liars”. EXHIBIT 10. [MT.pg6.January 27, 2009].
Beginning on February 18, 2009, and continuing through February 26, 2009, this Honorable Court’s colleague, Judge Kristina Cook Connelly (Graham), again attacked Defendant, but also attacked local Drug Task Force agents, GBI agents, DEA agents and at least two Sheriffs, while also threatening to kill Defendant. At least one of these tirades was tape recorded, and is now also part of the JQC case against Judge Connelly. This has now become the subject of API Wire stories, since GBI Director Vernon Keenan filed an official complaint against Judge Connelly for her vulgar and threatening attacks.
Again, this is pending before the Georgia Supreme Court.(EXHIBITS 11 – Entire JQC Complaint, (except DVD) secured through Georgia Open Records Request, including Witness Statement and transcript of one of the tirades).
On February 21, 2009, right smack dab in the middle of this Honorable Court’s colleague’s tirades and death threats to Defendant and local, state and federal law enforcement agents, Defendant received a vulgar Death Threat phone call, which has now been traced back to the daughter of Bobby Lee Cook, Judge Kristina Cook Connelly-Graham, and to one of the Plaintiff’s three attorneys, Jon Dennis. These records are in federal custody at this time.
On February 23, 2009, within hours after Defendant Watson filed a formal Police
Report about the Death Threat phone call, Plaintiff’s attorney, Bobby Lee Cook, sent a letter to the web providers of Defendant’s website, demanding that they remove Defendant’s website from the world wide web, or face litigation.
One of those companies,www.1and1.com removed Defendant Watson’s portal connection, costing Defendant thousands of dollars to transfer her website off shore, while her website was down for almost one month. But Mr. Cook also demanded files from the website which are not legally accessible except through federal warrants, and so this, too, is now part of an investigation. EXHIBIT 12.
Unfortunately, Watson’s first attorney, David F. Guldenshuh of Rome, never filed a countersuit, assuming that the case would be dismissed outright, because of 47USC230.
Watson’s second attorney, L. Vincent Anderson of Dalton, did not file a countersuit either, until it was too late, almost six months after he had come on to her case, despite their oral agreement and e-mail agreement.
By the time Anderson got around to filing a countersuit, the case was already one year old, and Judge Wood denied the attempt.
But Watson has options.
Luckily, she served “Abusive Litigation 30 day Demand Letters” through Certified Mail, to Bobby Lee Cook, his law firm, Cook and Connelly Law Firm, and to Rex Abernathy, another lawyer with the Cook and Connelly law firm, who also signed the original law suit, the second law suit and most of the pleadings since then.
Watson and Summerville attorney Ben Ballenger, who represented Kenneth Busbin during this entire last 18 months, both filed Abusive Litigation letters per Georgia Code, on attorney Jack Harris, of Rome-based McRae, Stegall, Harman, Smith and Manning, when Harris signed on to the Hammit law suit weeks prior to trial.
Georgia law allows persons who have been sued by aggressive attorneys who have grossly disregarded the law in filing litigation against someone, in cases which cannot be won on the merits as filed, to sue those attorneys who waste private and public resources in frivolous litigation.
Damages can be both actual and punitive, and the sky is the limit on the punitive damages.All that is necessary, aside from serving the aggressive and abusive lawyers with 30 Day Demand Letters (to dismiss the case initially), is that the Defendant Victim must prevail in the litigation.If a judge dismisses the case against a Defendant-Victim, or if the Defendant-Victim prevails in a jury trial, the Abusive Litigation Right kicks in.
Watson won, and Watson will sue the attorneys for Abusive Litigation.
Teresa Watson
Stay Tuned in coming days for Watson’s thoughts about Kenneth Busbin, after finally getting to meet him, (What a nice and credible guy), and about Ben Ballenger’s amazing court room presentations, and killer closing arguments.
This reporter will also detail her new found appreciation for Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Senior Judge Jon Bo Wood’s strict court room demeanor and adherence to the letter of the law.We will also address some antics by the “Other side” during the two day trial, and we will explain why so many of the Defense witnesses, both Watson’s and Busbin’s, were not put on the stand.
We will end this series with a look at what the Summerville News reported, how it conflicts with actual testimony and the only record that matters – The Transcript.
And, finally, a final word about the Rome News Tribune. We want to thank reporter John Bailey for his clean and accurate reporting. In the face of what the Summerville News wrote, it is refreshing and we are so grateful for the Truth.
tw
Comments (43)
After reading this latest account, it sticks out that the Cookster is doing a lousy job of getting his local clients the big payoff they are expecting. Maybe he could make a contribution to them for all the misery they are enduring to be his clients. The results of these lawsuits are leaving them all muddied and poorer for the experience. Just the one $10,000 settlement must have been a kick in the gut for that client. Then the Hamitts taking all this negative public exposure and getting ziltch. RGS and his poems are right on target. I wish he would do more in the comments. I can just imagine the red faces when these people read those.
CC may seem like a fiefdom to some, but word does get out and I dread to think what the rest of the world thinks about what passes the smell test around here. Someone inform us of how the Tattler handles TW’s demand letter. I hate to wait, but if they follow true to form, it should be another jaw dropping moment.
Dear Room4,
As we have started preparing a lawsuit, (like the Boy Scouts motto, I believe in being prepared), we have learned some interesting facts. For instance, the Summerville News is not incorporated, but is, according to their stationary, “A Division of Espy Publishing Company, Inc.”
So, if their retraction does not happen, OR if it is not fully appropriate, we will sue Tracy, David, Gregory and Winston, as well as Jason, in addition to the corporation.
I wonder if they have Liability Insurance? I wonder what it will be like deposing Jason, who sat at my Galloway deposition. I wonder how many column inches the SN has devoted to stories about me. I wonder what other targets of their attacks have been so thoroughly covered, in column inch comparison.
I wonder what they will do when we get the transcript and rip their allegations to shreds, leaving them no where to run, AFTER it is too late to retract.
tw
hey tw where is the proof that these national agencies have been following your case? who are the several attorneys? oh you took care of identifying them didnt you. your message sounds alot like the messages you claim the news prints. vague. so please clarify…
Dear KS,
You and your puppet masters are so predictable. We had not heard from you in so long, and I knew this little tidbit would draw you out.
But you do not read very well, do you? Go back and read what I wrote to John H. My next installment will go into at least a couple of names/entities. I already knew about a couple of entities, as they wrote National stories more than a year ago.
I wrote about us being written up by two of them, but you rarely remember facts, and especially ones which reach outside of your skewed little world, do you?
And, since you never acknowledge ANY evidence I ever offer, even in linked documents, trust me, what I reveal tomorrow and in coming days is for real news readers, not hacks like you.
But I love making bets with friends about when you will appear at the behest of your Pappy. I predicted by midnight or slightly thereafter, but you came in earlier than even I expected. I wonder if I can convince my cohorts that they owe me a bonus for such a quick response.
I doubt it, but the 50 bucks will be sweet, none the less.
You see, we long ago figured out that Pappy has losers monitoring this website hourly.
And, BTW, KS, I have NEVER Posted on another local website since I began my own website on August 6, 2007.
You keep calling other posters on other sites, “tw”, but you are so mistaken, and that is really funny. I think that you are referring to someone who calls themselves “WhatsNewstoYou”, but not only is that not me, I do not know who that is.
But I do love what that individual writes, and I certainly agree with most of his/her stances, so I am pleased that you assume that I am that obviously bright and intelligent poster.
Of course, it only makes you look more foolish, because there is at least one other person who knows it is not me, and perhaps that person has told others, who they post as, so that all of their friends can get a big laugh AT YOU, for thinking it is me.
I have my own bully pulpit, and I do not think it is appropriate to post elsewhere. It is just unseemly. I know that Jason Espy has posted on RomeNewsWire before, under his real name, but I just do not think it is appropriate, and that is simply my personal opinion.
So, I guess your computer hacking skills are not what you would like for people to think they are, because if they were, you would know that “WhatsNewstoYou” or any other poster on Topix, for that matter, IS NOT ME.
And your observational skills are not too well honed either, because WNtY does not even have the same writing style that I have, and anyone with any sense of observation knows that writing styles are almost as distinct as fingerprints.
tw
KS. Same old whining where is your proof that it’s not true?
Dear MM,
I have read some of Key Stroke’s attempts to intimidate or be relevant on the Summerville Topix. I even read his attempt to insist his defamation of me was posted by someone who had pirated his identity. LOL.
KS ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he thinks he is brilliant, and that is what is so funny.
Corner Office, perhaps?
BTW, to anyone out there who is aware of this story:
I read on Topix some posters asking about the SN printing a letter from Mr. John Drinnon last week, which the SN claimed he delivered to a rep for Saxby Chambliss, regarding the joint SOS-GBI investigation about Barbara Massey Reece .
A friend of mine contacted Senator Chambliss’s office, while I was with family, down south, and was told that NO ONE had done such a thing.
When I got back to town, this week, I called Mr. Drinnon, who is a Sweetheart. We had a great chat, and I learned a few things.
1) Mr. Drinnon told me that he had delivered two letters, one to Senator Isakson’s rep, and one to Congressman Gingrey’s rep, but that he made it clear to the SN that Senator Chambliss’s rep was NOT at the Chattooga County meeting.
He told me he gave a copy of all three letters to the SN. He was very upset that SN got it wrong.
2) Mr. Drinnon does intend to mail a third letter to Senator Chambliss’ office.
3) Mr. Drinnon is genuinely upset that the investigators continue to go into witness interviews with guns and badges, as he feels it is intimidation. But I explained that BY LAW, all investigators MUST wear their badges and wear their side arms when on official business. It is the law. There was testimony by several investigators about that very thing during the CV trial.
Mr. Drinnon believes the law should be changed, so, we agreed to disagree. He agreed with me that reasonable minds CAN disagree. We ended our conversation talking about his service in the United States Marine Corps. I really liked him a lot, and hope I have an opportunity to engage him conversation in the future.
I hope the SN corrects their story this week. The mistake lies with the Summerville News, not Mr. Drinnon, and I am sure Mr. Drinnon would appreciate them clearing his name.
tw
tw
your response to MM is yet another lie. I have never insisted that my identity was pirated. one of these days all the lies will bite you.
Dear KS,
Perhaps it was ManOnInside, whom we all know is you. And you did not use the word “pirated” but you insisted, on the Topix forum, that someone else had posted under your name. That is the same thing as being pirated.
I copy and pasted it for my files.
Okay, now I have gone back and checked, and you are right, it was ManOnINside. I have those posts saved in a file, including your “The Fix is in”, which the feds picked up on, prior to trial. I am letting them worry with all of that.
Only a few folks call me “Nips”, and write “HeHeHeHe” and “Hahahaha”, and then sometimes use all caps in their posts: You, “Redneck” and “ManOnInside”.
Writing styles, KS - Writing styles.
tw
There is so much drama in your life, key. Have a conference with all your personalities and attempt to herd them in different direc
tions. Promise them a lollipop or something. Right now they are all stuck on stupid and trying to fit through the gate at the same time.
Dear Room4,
Have you seen the SN yet, or do you know anyone who has?
I have been busy posting my second installment to the Feature Story on the trial.
tw
A friend offered to get the paper for me, but I told them not to waste their dime. I’ll probably be gifted with the paper anyway, because my friend wants to discuss the story with me. We do have a fine old time discussing these matters. Always good for a laugh. I’ll let you know later.
Dear Room4,
Thanks,
I have been attempting in the last couple of days to pull the article up on the SN’s website. I can run a search, and get their headline from Thursday, August 6, 2009, but every time I click on it, the internet connection dies, and a message comes up telling me that that page is inaccessible.
But all through last week and last weekend, it was the first headline, and under the headline the words claiming:
“Watson still clings to a mysterious notion that local drug agents are investigating the Hammitts. Local drug agents say Watson is lying”.
However, even then, when I would click to read the whole story, the site would crash then.
So, I am hoping that they have indeed posted a retraction in today’s edition, since it would appear that they have pulled those lies from the internet.
I have not even read the entire article in the hard copy edition, since those accusations were so egregious, and I had to demand a retraction on that immediately.
I will wait and see what happens in today’s edition, and then when I get the transcript, I will sit down and go through the whole article, and compare to the transcript. I will let minor errors just go, but if there are any other major lies like the comments posted above, I will send another retraction demand letter.
What would be appropriate, I think, since they posted the entire 4 hour Galloway deposition of me, and then the whole tirade of Judge Graham calling myself and the PAC Georgia prosecutors, SOS personnel and GBI agents folks horrible names, that the SN should print the ENTIRE Hammitt trial transcript, including when Judge Wood really got on to the Plaintiff’s attorneys.
tw
http://thesummervillenews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2463&Itemid=2 Does this help?
Dear Room4,
That did the trick. So, they have not taken it down. Not really.
Those vile people.
tw
I once again go on record saying that i have not in the past or in the present threatened you or anyone else. i have never called you a name other than tw. you are once again wrong about who you think i am. i have no other screen name and i have never attempted to ‘hack’ into anything. i have questioned you on various things because you said that was the way to find out things. i apologized when i crossed the line and posted something inappropriate toward you. all the while u insist that it was insincere and would not be accepted. i find it difficult to believe everything you post because i know you do not always represent the truth to the readers. if you have been wronged by the news, they should run a retraction. you should also have more sources before you post comments about people from this county.
Dear KS,
Once again, you are making this entire set of articles all about you. You have got to be one of the most narcissistic bastards I know.
Exactly who are you talking about when you say I should have more sources when talking about people from this county. Which County do you mean? Floyd? Chattooga? Walker? Please tell me. If you are talking about yourself, then how could I possibly KNOW who you are, or what county you are from?
But you should not come into my home and accuse me of lying and making stuff up, like your accusation last night about the various entities interviewing me. You need to stop coming to this website and attacking its owner, over stuff you have no clue about.
Please leave my website alone, and let the Real News be revealed. Not everything is about you. (Or is it?)
tw
Yada, yada, yada, key. You make me laugh.
I did receive the Tattler as predicted. A couple of corrections or clarifications, but nothing on your points. Nothing I could find.
The Princess is mentioned in a murder trial story, Al Pal is mentioned in another and there is a ridiculous story on a cucumber attack! I’m not joking about the attack, but the last sentence in the story is a lame attempt at being funny. So goes the Tattler!
In the last edition you were pointedly called a liar on several occasions. Names were named specifically as to who said what. I saved the copy if you need it. Read it carefully because there is so much BS in the story, you may miss something.
Waiting on the Bright verdict.
Dear Room4,
I am guessing the yada-yada-yada comments are for Red, I mean KS, I mean ManOnInside, no, I mean KeyStroke.
Are you talking about last week’s FishWrapper? August 13th, not the August 6th which I have? Specific names were identified about who called me a liar?
Do you remember what names? I mean other than the attorneys and the usual crowd. Were there any LE names? Because it is LE they wrote who said I was lying on the 6th.
tw
Sorry, I meant the August 6th edition. The yada was for whichever personality is in charge today in keystroke scrambled brain.
In the August 6 edition of the Tattler this is the quote from the paper. Chattooga County Narcotics Unit Commander Howard says Watson is a liar.
In the next column it is written, ….but she also lies about other matters as well, according to Commander Howard.
The local jury also found no proof of a “Dixie Mafia.” That is one of the statements in the Tattler that I was curious about. Did someone poll the jury or what? I missed that. LOL
Dear Room4,
The Dixie Mafia was NOT an issue claimed in the law suit, and it was not a jury charge, and it was not an issue to be decided by the Jury. That is insane.
But even more insane is that DTF Commander Mike Howard NEVER took the stand. The only law enforcement officers who testified were Brian Tucker and Mark Schrader, who had pulled up the plants.
tw
tw
That is the Tattler! Insanity in print! PROPAGANDA!
The very sad fact is no one believes anything they write now. Calling it a rag is a compliment.
Dear Room4,
I have just finished the August 6, 2009 Summerville News Article.
I am stunned.
In addition to the inaccuracies I have mentioned above, I noticed that Jason Espy quotes Sheriff Everett, “after the trial”, but Sheriff John Everett told me himself that as far as he knew, NO ONE from his office had been interviewed by anyone from the Summerville News about the trial, although he was still trying to confirm all that.
I am pretty sure he would not have said that IF he had talked to anyone from the SN himself.
Also, the claim that I was never able to produce the evidence about Jon Dennis’s cell phone being used for the Death Threat Phone Call, is astounding. I used it in my opening arguments, displaying it on an overhead projector for the jury to see, along with the comments by Kris Cook Connelly Graham detailed in the GBI report, about the woman, Teresa, on the internet, and in her very next sentence, says that folks die all the time and maybe she needs to kill someone herself. I also showed them the Christmas Eve letter from Bobby Lee, gloating about my kidney condition. I showed them all of that to set the stage for what this law suit was really all about.
The jury sure saw that, so for Jason to claim that I was never able to produce the cell phone evidence about the Death Threat coming from Jon Dennis’ cell phone is just jaw dropping.
Unbelievable.
As one LEO said, what he read in the SN was not the trial he watched for two days.
I can hardly wait to get started on tearing that article apart, and shining some light, and I can hardly wait until the Conspiracy to Libel suit gets filed against the Espys and the Summerville News.
tw
The jury got it. I don’t think the Tattler got the memo.
Have you thought about interviewing members of the jury? That would be enlightening.
Dear Room4,
I have thought about that, but right now, am helping prepare the Libel Suit, and there is much to get completed in the next month prior to filing it. We hope to have it ready to go, with subpoenas for depositions and Discovery all lined up, by October 1, 2009.
It seems a long way away, but in preparing these sorts of pleadings, because of whom we are including in the conspiracy to libel, it is complicated.
tw
The issues Espy, Keystroke, Lydia and others who worship bobby lee cook have is they cannot imagine a little grandmother won a case against their hero bobby lee cook. Espy probably believes like many the blc can get him out of anything. Do they not realize those days are over? Do they not realize Teresa won against the big, bad blc? It is amazing how long people will old onto a sinking ship.
Dear EBF -
I have, for the most part, had real heroes in my life. Men and womene who risked their lives for the betterment of others, (Good parents, Soldiers, LE, Teachers), not those who sucked life away through litigation and through bullying and blackmailing people, so even though I have been seeing it for more than 18 monhs, it still makes my jaw drop.
tw
There was once a fruitful sow in Chattooga County that had many teats overflowing with milk……………………………………….those teats are now drying up……………………………….
some folks are starving……………
some folks are finding other sows to satiate their needs……………..
some folks are fighting over those last few drops of milk………………..
What better way to ensure you get your share than to show publicly and regularly that you support and love the sow???????????? Could be that you get your lunch paid for you at Pop’s……..could be that you get your photo taken with the sow to hang on the wall in your office……..but I suspect it is more about growing up in an area that worships old men who curse women and assume incest…………..it’s hard to break the lessons taught to you when you’re growing up, and had my father taught me that men who curse women, call them sexual names and assume that parents have sex with their children were “great” men, I would probably too have a different take on this issue………………………………………………
Stop pining over the Summerville News calling you a liar…………….you’ve done your legal duty, if they don’t do theirs……..sue………………….simple as that……………………
Dear RGS,
Thank you. I actually got a good night sleep last night, after I calmed down from all type excitement of fantasizing about the possibilities of the suit.
I am actually disturbed by Espy’s use of two names Mike Howard and John Everett.
I respect both, and while Everett probably was not aware of the Hammitts, Mike was.
I have talked to JE, but not to Mike, since I had been with family for the last two weeks. But a mutual friend of his and mine contacted me after the SN story came out, and told me that as they went about their business one day at the SO, that Mike told this person that he was very upset
about what the SN had printed, and that he has never and would never say anything closely resembling “Liar”, “Lying”, etc., with regard to me.
He said that Espy was hanging around the SO after the trial, but never conducted an interview, and certainly never overheard what he has printed in the SN.
Hopefully, since Jason carries that little recording device everywhere with him, he has proof to back up what he printed. Perhaps it will somehow disappear before we get a chance to hear it in deposition.
But I suspect somewhere deep inside that this is less about defaming me, and possibly more about trying to build a schism between myself and Sheriff Everett and DTF Commander Mike Howard – trying to pit us against each other, and it ain’t gonna work.
The SN is desperate to defame the new Sheriff and Mike, since the latter has been following the leads, which in a few cases lead to the Princess, and other cartel members, like Albert Palmour and Carlton Vines etc…, and the former has stood behind him protecting his back like a good boss who trusts his commanders and agents.
Thanks for the perspective.
tw
TW,
I have a hard time believing that if one represents himself/herself they have a fool for a client. This is a very convenient term that originated from attorneys to benefit attorneys. Do you think Sherry Deroche would have been better off representing herself or having larry hill as her attorney? There are cases where people have fools for attorneys. I do not think you are a fool for representing yourself. I think it was the smart thing to do. My experience with attorneys is they do not care about the client but only the clients money. I am very cautious about reccomending attorneys to anyone and from what I have read about larry hill I would not reccomend him to represent my dog at the local Human Society. I will only tell people what attorney not to use.
Dear Evan,
From what I have experienced with Larry Hill, I would have to say my opinion agrees whole heartedly with your opinion.
tw
I am glad Judge Woods was fair in the frivolous Hammitt trial. However, he proved what I have suspected all along that he is fair when the spot light is on him. Remove the spot light and he is just as corrupt as the others. Therefore, if anyone reading this has a case in front of judge woods I strongly reccomend you get your own Court Reporter as Townes, Wood’s Court Reporter, will not get you the transcripts of your trial. He will not even return your phone calls. Also have a reporter in Woods court room because he has to have someone there to hold him accountable. If you cannot find a reporter then fill the court room up with as many of your friends as possible. These are suggestions as Woods does not have the ability to be fair on his own.
I’m satisfied you are right about the judge’s seeming fairness, Evan. The time restraint placed on the proceedings is an oddity from what TW reports. Maybe this will be made clear in the future. Oh well.
I have an observation on something TW reported in Part III. The judge’s admonition to her about not being there to school her in law was the very moment I happened to be watching the jury’s faces. The picture was worth a thousand words. Regular folks with the power to serve notice to the powers that be. It was like a light went on in their minds. A grandma forced to defend herself against what was perceived as a gaggle of legal eagles. It was overkill. It was the death of the Hammitt’s hopes of a big cash award and the death of the Cartel’s grip on Chattooga County. Goliath can be brought down by David, and he was.
A jury of her peers saw through the machinations set in motion. TW’s opening statement set things out in clear terms for the jury and the judge’s admonition put the exclamation point on the absurdity of the lawsuit. Abusive litigation. Yes, the jury served notice.
I have to wonder if the gaggle of lawyers didn’t know their case was lost when TW walked in representing herself. Major underestimation of the opponent on their part. LOL
Dear Room4,
I am so glad you were there. I am not sure that as I looked out at various points, if I always recognized who was there. In some case, YES! But I was well aware of the unseen spirit of support and encouragement.
Thank you.
I am so anxious to get my hands on a transcript. It should be very interesting.
tw
i’ve said this before, and i know it’s easy to trivialize it because of the long list of jokes and satire………………………………….but there is no more devious a bunch, no more gang-like a group, no more evil a profession than that of lawyers…………………………………sure, everyone can point out a good guy or gal who happens to be a lawyer, but that is as meaningful as pointing out “at least those in hell won’t freeze to death”……………………………………………………………..
they create case law, not only to protect themselves, but to enrich themselves……………………………………….they trample the rights of folks trying to work within the system, and PROTECT the rights of those who work outside the system…………………………………….. I suspect that most, including the judges, go to sleep at night without trouble, and yet, on that night when the conscience begans to nag, they stare at their BAR and ACLU awards and fall asleep with a smile on their faces………………………………..
Dear RGS,
You sound as cynical as I am. You are right, of course, and there are a few exceptions. I do count my sister as one of those exceptions. I may have mentioned this before, but I have spent many nights over the last 30 years listening to her agonize about her moral responsibility, first when she was a top notch prosecutor, and later as an attorney who either “knows things” about a client, or who is forced to deal with a domestic case where the children are being used as pawns by her asshole client.
She has grown jaded and perhaps hardened through the years about many things, but still wrestles with moral dilemmas. I wish all attorneys still had that sense of responsibility. Sometimes, she just has to let things go. But spending time with her in the last few weeks was a treat. In her mid fifties, she still gets up at 4:30 am to go walking, then takes care of her family, and then heads to the office by 7:00am every day. She WORKS for her clients. She represents her clients. She earns her fees.
She is the anomaly in the legal profession.
tw
romegasir: You are so, so, right about Lawyers. Your last post concerning their tendency to be gang-like, evil, and devious delivers a message that makes me envious of your eloquence, now who would have thought I would ever say that? Not me. Great Job.
A little more on lawyers and my personal experience with the 5 I have paid serious money to in the last 4 years most of it on the same case. They are all so interested and want to help until they get that almighty retainer in their hands, they then become as a stranger and can’t remember just what it was they promised just prior to the check being written. Next thing, can’t get them on the phone, can’t set up a meeting, then referrered to their para-legal. The para-legal then starts with “What case is it you want to talk about?”.
An attorney from Cartersville whom I thought could not be gagged and bound by the local power brokers was so enthusiastic until he had the first $10,000.00 installment in his pocket. The next meeting with my daughter present was started with this statement. She is F——- and it will cost $100,000.00 or more to turn this judge. My daughter was amazed, shocked me a wee bit also. One full year later, this lawyer had never visited his client, had never written one single letter on her behalf, and had dodged 29 consecutive phone calls. He did send me a letter demanding more money. I fired him and told him I would report the whole thing to the BAR ASSOCIATION, he laughed out loud and said, go ahead I am on the Board, you don’t have a chance. He was right. I won’t go on and on this time but suffice it to say the next 4 were almost as bad, in fact one worse as he was threatened by the Judge concerning his misdeeds and sold us out on the only chance she had. Lawyers, May the crooked ones (majority) rot in Hell.
What RGS said.
MIB………………..anyone with ANY experience in the courts has similar stories…………………………………………………and I’ve told you privately, in private messages, that I thought your wife had paid her dues, so I’ll say it publicly also………………………….I don’t think the system screwed her, but if what you say is true, then it sounds like her LAWYER did screw her…………………………………………even the most sound, sane, legitimate judges play games with their status and their friends…………………………………………maybe it’s just inevitable………………………………………maybe it’s human nature………………………….
I know of at least 12 (and that’s the ones I can think of off the top of my head) people, all men, who have fought for custody of their kids in Rome, Georgia……………….in fact, several of them had almost exactly the same stories………………………..the only ones who actually received custody were the TWO who had the same lawyer (I won’t say who b/c I am certain there are some who are waiting on pins and needles to sue me)……………………………………………….the others were laughed at by the judge, scolded by the judge and basically told that they should be happy that they even get to see their children…………………………………these same fathers pay 25% of their income before taxes to child support, followed by HUNDREDS of dollars a month in health insurance required by the court to be maintained by the paycheck, er um, i mean father……………….followed by life insurance on the children AND half of all school, medical and activities expenses…………………………..in the end, these fathers are paying around HALF of their paycheck to the ex-wife after taxes…………………………………..
do the judges care, see this or make any changes??????? Nope……………………………………….their view is “I’m willing to put up with my wife cheating on me with the country club’s pool boy, so should you………………………..”
I just got a call from Ghostbusters, they told me that RGS was going to say something important tonight, and you have. We have two Judges and a third who’s just retired who think they are Gods. They do not consider anything but the opinion they are carrying around with them that day. Right or wrong for a Father who is either trying to get custody or pay less than half his payday does not factor in. They are on celestial power trips and if the truth be known and factoring in our little used Constitution don’t really have a tenth of the Power that they use. They have taken it over the years, the lawyers have gone along so as to keep their paydays coming in. The Rub is, How do we take that power back. They pay no attention to the Judicial Canons, the Bar Association is a JOKE, and elections are almost unknown. Until that good man Jack Niedrach was elected. We had 4 political appointments roaming around the courthouse. We still have 3 but maybe, just maybe, someone will run against them. I wonder, No I don’t either, They read this Blog and I wonder how long it will take them to set me up with some misdeed. I have never been perfect, still not, but I have changed a great deal these last few years. My prediction, I will be set up and charged with speaking the truth on this forum that I’m sure they all hate. I wish I could hire TW, but they would put her in Jail. I know, maybe that fellow Sawhill, is he still practicing Law at the County Jail. Who knows.
Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that I paid Lawyer Ron Patton cash money to defend a family member, he showed up drunk, recommended no Jury, didn’t call a single witness in defense and then wobbled out of the courthouse. I had also a couple of years before that paid his partner or at least they shared office space Leigh Patterson to represent that same family member on two separate occasions. Said that to say this, When I finally got her a Motion for Jury trial, guess who the only two prosecution witnesses’ that made it to the stand to testify against her being tried before a Jury rather than a Judge. Yep you guessed it, Ron Patton and Leigh Patterson. Both having been paid to represent her in the past. I demanded a Judge from another County, he was way to smart to let the third witness testify, thought she might do something stupid. Her name was Tami Colston. Courthouse Justice, I don’t want anymore of that crap.
TW,
An idea I think you have considered. Once a week post on Rome News by Watson and article about a corrupt, self serving, unethical attorney and the victim of this attorney and how the attorney’s client became a victim. You could focus on Northwest Georgia as there seems to be an abundant supply of corrupt attorneys. The goal of these articles are to prevent what happened to Man in Black and others at the hands of these attorneys. Victims of these attorneys could send you there stories and you could research what happened to get the truth. It is apparent the Georgia State Bar lacks the power to hold these attorneys accountable and the only purpose the State Bar has is to protect their members from being held accountable. The Georgia State Bar charges protection money when it should be charging fees for it’s members.
Shock and Awe! Floyd and Chattooga have so much more in common than I could have ever believed. Money talks and if you have any the local judges and lawyers will part you from it. I know quite a few men that have gained custody of their children with little or no hassle. The fact that they all have nothing of monetary value is a given. Just that the mothers are so wasted on drugs or alcohol that they don’t show up to fight for their children.
In a nutshell, if you have nothing the judge has a clearer vision of what is best for the child. If you are carrying the cumbersome weight of money, the decision becomes cloudy until a way is devised to lighten your load.
The amazing thing about these rotten attorneys is if you just tell the truth about your experience with them they cannot do anything about it. Also if they sue you and you have told the truth then you counter sue them for a frivolous lawsuit. Who do you think a jury is going to be sympathetic to? The amazing part of these crooked attorneys is if they would just do what they are paid to do their clients would speak highly of them and they will make a better living. I guess some like having a reputaion of being incompetent and unethical. Once an attorney has tarnished his reputation by being incompetent his clients do not reccomend him and his business falls dramatically. His reputation is always tarnished for the duration of his life and the money he makes by being crooked is a small fraction of what he could have made being honest.
Crime doesn’t pay. You hear that all the time, but it actually does pay. Very highly! One group always prospers. Yep. Lawyers. Every ill of society pays off big time for lawyers. Even in death, there is a pay off for a lawyer if someone wants to fight over the deceased pennies. God, what a depressing thought. Even with a seemingly airtight will, there is a leak or someone will allege one and the fight is on.
Nice and concise update, TW.
I thought I’d mosey on over to the Tattler site to see what, if anything was different. There is one difference at this time, but it may not be a permanent change. The headlines that have been at the bottom of the homepage for so long are missing???????
Dear Room4,
You mean the ones about BLC being vindicated and such? Luckily, I have always saved the hard copies of those for evidence, should I ever need that one day.
I talked to Eric Robinson again, yesterday, in the process of getting him some documents for their files. I also copied him with this letter, as he is aware of the many stories the SN has done about Bobby Lee and me, with Bobby Lee ALWAYS winning. Although I have tried before, I spent time up at the Chattooga County Courthouse yesterday trying to put my hands on the “Transcript” the Espys “allegedly” used to write the October 3, 2008 article in which KCC-G “allegedly” called me the Biggest Liar in the State of Georgia.
It is no where in any file in the courthouse and Judge KCC-G’s secretary is unaware of the Court Reporter ever having recorded that tirade. I have called the Court Reporter to request a copy, but have not heard back so far.
If it does not exist, that means one of two things:
1) That the Espys, conspiring with the Judge, took a recording device into Judge KCC-G’s chambers and recorded that whole long blast at Joe Burford and others, and her accusations accusing us of “conspiring” and including her calling me the BLITSOG - which begs the question why she is so upset that GBI SA Del Thomasson took a recording device in chambers.
OR
2) That the Espys made the whole thing up, which would be hugely and grossly defamatory - libel per se, which legal implies intentional malice.
We shall learn soon enough, if the Espys do not retract ENOUGH and do not apologize, and we sue, then that will be a discovery item.
tw
Thanks TW for the kind words and the vote of confidence. Your opinion is very important to me. Thanks again
The truth is very important to me.
Dear JH,
I know this to be true about you.
You and your friends.
tw
Do you have an update on the propaganda machine? Today is Tattler day in CC.
Dear Room4,
No Retraction, so, the Complaint is ready, although we are still developing Discovery, and preparing the Written Deposition subpoenas and questions for witnesses who are not parties, like the agents and investigators at the SO, and should have that completed by Monday.
You understand that the agents ARE NOT being sued. They are victims just like I am. Quotes have been assigned to them, which they did not say. Words have been stuffed in their mouths by the Espys, and they do not like it, because it calls into question their integrity and their character. So, they will be witnesses.
We do not really have to wait until 7 days AFTER plus enough days to get to next Thursday’s edition, since I had already served 7-Day Retraction Demand Letters on Winston (Gene), “Publisher” as he signed his ridiculous response letter, and Jason, the reporter, back on August 10, 2009.
So, we are good to go, almost, and in less time than we had anticipated.
tw
PS - Check out Breaking News.
tw
OKAY, Room4 -
Dear Room4,
I am confused.
First, a poster on Topix, “TW_libel” wrote:
“TW has posted about me in the past - most of which is inaccurate and false. When I have sent her emails with proof that what she has written is inaccurate and/or false, she simply ignores my emails. She has no desire to print the truth.”
I actually posted my response on JH’s comment, because I do not post on other websites.
So then, “TW_Libel” wrote:
“See, that’s the problem. When you are in the profession that I am in, you can’t respond with specifics without breaching confidentiality. That’s the real danger that TW=LIBEL can do - she can attack you with lies which results in potential financial harm to you and your family, but yet you can’t defend yourself without getting in trouble with the governing body of your profession.”
Now, did “TW_Libel” not say that he had contacted me, through e-mail, with Proof, and that I ignored his/her e-mail?
I am confused.
If he will not reveal who he is, how am I to know if he is for real. Did he supposedly reveal his real identity to me, or simply e-mail as an anonymous person, “Saying” I should take something down?
In that case, no kidding. If someone cannot reveal their real identity, how can I know if the info is legitimate? What does he expect, that I post or remove posts according to what every nut-case anonymous person e-mails me about?
That would be insane.
Very curious. Very unstable…OR - Very poorly constructed lie, which can have holes shot through.
ROTFLMAO at “TW=Libel”. (Not with him/her).
tw
prediction………………………………………………………………
once the suit is filed…………………….
there will be a hatchet job on the SO conducted by the “newspaper” so that they can later claim that the officer’s denials of the quotes were in retaliation for the
“fine, investigative reporting by this newspaper pointing out deficiencies in this very agency; NOW, we have deputies lying and retracting statements made in confidence to this very reporter partly as retaliation towards this fine news establishment, and partly out of fear of losing their jobs for exercising their first amendment rights while under the regime of that jack-booted thug sheriff everett”
or something like that……………………..
(sorry for beating y’all to the punch, but I”m sure you can re-word your article so that no one can tell my prediction was accurate)……………………………………………..
Dear RGS,
I am sure they will assault the SO, and spin the truth, but, perhaps once the Written depositions are returned from the SO’s agents, then perhaps a few folks up Chattooga County way will pay for mass copies of those questions and answers, which will be handed out in parking lots and restaurants and on the street, so that folks who do not surf the net will have access to the real truth.
The SN has already been doing a hatchet job on the Chattooga County SO, ever since John Everett took over, and has been getting so much done.
And, the end, the SN can either settle, or their Liability Insurance Company’s attorney can settle, or they can let a Chattooga County Jury decide.
We are ready.
BTW, take a look at this, and tell me if you think the letters BLC sent to my advertisers and then to my web -hosts, applies.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206615,00.html
tw
Hey thar everbody!
I is Evanbubbafostas twin broutha. Ah folks give us the same fust name cus we is twin folk and we look dang nea the same exceptin fa that buth mauk on my butt. Whea is that lydia? I sho take cotton to them dum women who aint got enough sense ta know the difaence betwix good and bad. Bein that the case lydia, I is rea, rea good. I don’t have tha smauts old bubba does but I know a good woman whens I see ones. And I do like um kinda on tha dumb side. Talk to me lydia and let me cuot ya baby! I heead ya bein callin me out!
Dear ERF,
Now, you are right about Miss Lydia. LOL.
She tried to post, but because she was posting from a new I.P. address, it got caught in the cache.
I would not allow her post to be made public because of the horrible things she said about you, Room4OneMore, John Hovanek and Ben Ballenger.
I mean horrible stuff.
But she tried, liked the Cooks always try to do when they meet someone who is beating them, to demean the ones who are triumphing over them.
It was very funny, in a pathetic sort of way.
She was going on about CNN not doing a story on me, (I did not say CNN did a story on me), and about my website not being Homeland Security grade network security,( WHAT? I never said it was), and it was like someone had come off of their meds AND started drinking or smoking something.
Just so LL will not feel so paranoid, I did mention CNN in this current Feature Story, but the exact quote was:
“The Rome News Tribune, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, CNN, Fox News – any news organization gets news tips almost every single day of the year. Many tipsters are regular callers or e-mailers of tips, but nowhere could I find case law of any kind where a news entity or owners of a news entity were sued as co-conspirator with someone, simply because the news organization received tips from that individual.”
But what Lydia tried to post at 2:56am this morning was:
“Teresa,
You embarrass yourself.
CNN is NOT following you.
You are NOT important. Nor is your petty little case.”
TRANSLATION - This case is huge, and they are terrified of it.
Now, I cannot make public what she wrote about Ben, John, you and Room4, but after she ranted about ya’ll, she wrote this, and it is so weird:
“CNN is following the Kennedys, not the Cooks, and certainly not you.
You do not have Homeland Security grade network security.
You must have been that unpopular girl in high school who constantly railed about how smart and important she was, yet no one remembered.
Once again, you embarrass yourself.”
Aug 30, 2:56 AM
I am not sure why she picked on CNN, or on the Kennedy’s. I am sure that there will not always be a Kennedy funeral every day of the week for the next few years, and so, perhaps CNN will do a story about me, or Bobby Lee or both of us. Who knows?
I do know that Lydia’s post was just in time to coincide with the RN-T’s Sunday Editorial, which printed some pretty big false accusations about me. Good old Pierre Noth. I have had some many people in Rome tell me that Pierre Noth has told them that I am a paranoid schizophrenic. Now if just one person had told me he said that, I might brush it off, but, many people have told me that, so, I am beginning to believe it is true.
That is pretty careless of the RNT to allow one of their big editors to go around slandering someone, and libeling someone. I guess BM and his “Sorrow”-ful shadow should probably stop spending so much time at the Maple Street address where the girls are not quite fully and completely naked, but almost. I am pretty sure that the admonition to let your light so shine before men, was not an instruction to hang out every afternoon at the Lantern, feeling up the girls and engaging in one of the lowest means of demeaning women that there is.
Hey, perhaps Lydia Lunch is one of BM’s girls at the Lantern.
But Lydia needs to get back on her meds, and lay off the bottle and the weed.
tw
This is totally behind your back tyranny existing in CC.
And this is my opinion. Your wrong TW they do use
children to make people look bad here.
Dear JH,
You are probably right. BLC used my son to make a vulgar insinuation about me.
They use children to line their pockets with illegal drug money. They use anyone and everyone they can. They are bullies, whose time is coming to an end, as evidenced by their frantic attempts to post vile things on this website and other websites. The escalation in the last half week is almost comical.
We have struck a nerve. For the last two years we have each in our own way landed punches, consistently, and now they cannot control the involuntary spasms of lying and posting lies, and sinking deeply into the mire of vulgar, vulgar attacks on other websites. The handful are taking on numerous identities to make it appear as though their ranks are many, but they are transparent.
I am not sure which round this is, and we have won some TKO’s along the way. Hopefully we will have a complete and full-fledged knockout soon.
tw
Do you have a link to the RNT editorial? I must have missed that. Thanks in advance.
Dear What’sNews,
I will go get it. But you can go to their site, click on “Opinion” then, on “Column”.
The folks at the big Think Tanks are getting big whoop out of it.
LMAO
tw
Dear What’s News to You,
BTW, I love your posts on Topix, if you are one and the same. They think you and I are the same, which thrills my husband and I who have worried from time to time about their bravado last year about having hacked into my website. If they could hack into mine, they could hack into Topix, and they would be able to see who all those posters really are.
Okay, the permalink is supposed to be: Libel laws not keeping up with Internet’s technology
What is really funny is that they have never complained about any of the comments made about me on other sites. Pierre Noth never seemed to mind that horrible people on the Daily Kos were reveling in former White House Press Secretary, (Bush admin)Tony Snow’s Pancreatic Cancer, and wishing him pain and suffering like BLC wished me last Christmas.
They rejoiced on the Daily Kos when Tony Snow died.
Pierre Noth has never complained about the horrible comments made about Sarah Palin, or Dick Cheney, or George Bush.
But now that I have won a libel suit, against his hero Bobby Lee Cook, Pierre Noth is suddenly all worried about websites that let other people post crap.
BTW PRN - “Acquittal” is a word used in criminal cases not civil cases, and a little research of the actual jury form signed by the foreperson said “We the Jury find in favor of Defendants Watson”.
Really?
And, PRN accuses me of posting gossip. I post articles, and others may post gossip, but they post gossip on your website, Too, big boy. They post gossip on RomeNewsWire, and on the Summerville Topix. In fact a few threads about me on there are so vulgar, it is unbelievable. Some have accused me of having affairs with various agents of various LE entities. These comments have been going on, in some case, for over six months, but not a word from Pierre Noth.
No, when local attorneys and others started calling me this morning, laughing at PRN, the consensus was pretty much the same - PRN, by identifying me so specifically, AND LYING about me, committed libel himself.
But, I will not go after PRN, (not legally) - everyone recognized it as BLC calling in favors and troops, which is a sure fire signal that something is up. Like so many BLC mouthpieces, he makes accusations WITHOUT BACKING up his accusations with any facts.
One gentleman called me this morning, who has NEVER done so, in all these last two years. He told me that he has never read my “column” before, but when he saw the fire it lit under Pierre Noth, that he not only was going to start reading, but just might have to put me in his will. LOL!
He said that PRN’s editorial was a feather in my cap, and that I gained much credibility, in his opinion, from the attack.
Who can be upset with PR, like that? (And from PR-N, LOL!)
BTW, Welcome to the site, WNTY!
tw
What else would you expect from Pierre Rene Noth??????????????????????
anyone who knows him personally or professionally would expect nothing less than arrogance coupled with ignorance………………………………………..
Dear RGS,
No kidding.
Have you guys ever seen the movie “Hitch” with Will Smith?
Remember the two pieces of designer Euro-Trash which one of Hitch’s clients and his date run into at the glitzy party? They poo-poo’d evrything, and assigned the term “disgusting” to everything and everybody.
That is sort of what/who PRN reminds me of. In my opinion, he possesses no common sense, no sense of self worth, no ability to think on his own, and can only rarely connect two cogent and related local strains of thought.
In my opinion, PRN has to simply parrot what ever the powers that be whom he attaches himself want to hear, whether it makes sense or not. And he rarely back up his allegations with facts, or facts which can be verified from other sources.
BTW – just so you will know, or friends of ours, citizens of Netherlands, France, and elsewhere, not of U.S. Citizenship, use the term “Euro-trash” too, and tell us that Europeans use it when describing when talking about clueless social whores.
tw
OMG: Two in a Row, agreeing whole-heartedly with good ole RGS. I knew that we might find a little common ground someday.
As to Mr. Noth, He is worse than a bigot, he is a tool of the elitist. He writes what is politically correct and what he perceieves as the shortcomings of those whom he fears. His article was 100% about Teresa Watson and her website. He is jealous and he is biased. The Rome News has come close on a couple of occasions to getting sued, but leaving Watson’s name out did not hide the intent of his column. It is libelous if not illegal (I am not a lawyer as I retain my soul intact). He thought he could say all those bad things and hide under the lst amendment, and maybe he can. But I know what you are Mr. Noth and rest assured I don’t like you or your Rag.
Dear MIB,
I am not sure Noth has broken the law, unless he has conspired with anyone specifically to drive me out of business. Perhaps that is his intent, but unless he spoke about it, with someone, his libel is simply civil.
I will say this. I know which side PRN took in the GBI – JQC Bobby Lee Cook’s daughter Kris Cook Connelly Graham outrage, and for any human being to justify what she did to those local, state and federal agents is unconscionable. So, I am glad he has come after me too. Funny how he has only come out like this when a Cook family member’s rep was at stake.
No, Sunday’s Editorial by PRN is a Red Badge of Courage which I have rightfully earned.
tw
MIB’s post reminds me…………………you KNOW something is rotten in Denmark when so-called journalists are calling for more stringent laws on free speech………………………………………………………………………….
It’s called “competition”……………………………………………..Not that RNBW is going to put Rome News Tribune out of business, but they can not STAND the fact that folks have a public forum to point out the arrogance, hypocrisy and elitism of the Rome News Tribune…………………………………Folks have talked about it for years, but there have never before been forums in which everyone can compare notes and realize that they are not the only ones who have noticed…………..
As far as your claim that Noth supported kris’ rant against law enforcement, this is no surprise and follows RN-T’s pattern on many fronts………………………..elitism vs. working class……………………….RN-T and Noth specifically have always disliked those in public safety and this can be shown via disparaging remarks they make at every opportunity regarding local public safety agencies…………………………………………………………..they feel law enforcement specifically are a bunch of overpaid goons, and it irritates them that they receive any positive attention whatsoever……………………………………………
Other than the country clubs, those requiring local advertisement and the PIOs of gov’t agencies, I know of no one that sees RN-T as a necessary part of our community OR a contributor in any good way to the historical record…………………………………
TW, you are driving that bunch of big-boys crazy?
have you read their endless ramblings on Topix?
One would almost think you are conspiring with the
Panamanian government to take over the LMJC,
and shrewdly avoid all US legal penalties.
Did you know you were that smart? I’ll bet your
hubby is so proud of his mensa level spouse.
He should celebrate you royally. Cheers.
Dear S,
I know, God Forbid that BLC should drive me out of being able hold a place in my own country, where they can threaten suit and end me, as they did in February.
And you know, I am aware if some gang members who drive Mercedes - God forbid, so, you know all good upstanding Americans should stop buying Mercedes.
And BLC eats at the Brass Lantern. Perhaps because he does, I should never eat one of their wonderful salads again, because ei would not want to be associated with the Cartel.
Intimidation, often through Hate and fear mongering, is all the BLC folks know to do.
How funny.
But what is the stuff about Homeland Security. I cannot quite wrap my head around that one. Who has ever said anything about Homeland Security?
I have contacts in the USDOJ, active and consultant, who recommended this entity in Panama. They are located in some of the former United States Army buildings, which were turned over to Panama when we turned over the Canal, and already had a high level of technical security, which has been overhauled and enhanced. They do offshore hosting for some US Entities and their operations down in Central and South America, but I am not sure they have anything to do with Homeland Security. Who knows.
So, did BLC try to intimidate them, and get the cold shoulder? Is that how he knows he cannot sue them to take me down. Poor little Bobby Lee.
He found someone who is not impressed with his name and litigious bravado.
But let me warn you guys, if you buy German or Japanese cars and trucks, or buy any produce from South America or Mexico, or any clothes from Europe, or tools from Ryobi tools from, via there clandestine Korean and Chinese manufacturers, BEWARE. The Bobby Lee Cook posters will Out you! Better be careful.
Oh, and by the way, 1and1.com who were so easily intimidated by Bobby Lee - is a German based entity, with many ties in Great Britain. So, I was already, technically, offshore before Bobby Lee threatened them.
Now, do you guys really thing that Al Pal and Bobby Lee and the whole gang t do not have multiple accounts in the Cayman Islands – The Banking World to the Drug and Weapons cartels of South America. They are pissed because USDOJ friends suggested playing the same game BLC and organized crime, and legitimate entities do all the time, day n and day out.
Locate off shore where ambulance chasers cannot steal your hard earned business concept away.
But I have not hidden this. I wrote an entire colum about it the week I got back up. It is right there in the archives. Is this suppoed to be some secret revealed?I have been as open and up front about it as I was the lie at Robsinson Humphrey 26 years ago, PRIOR TO the depostion.
ROTFLMAO and loving the exposure.
tw
tw
I’m not a newbie here, Ms. Watson. I posted a comment here a while back when I was first being accused of being Watson. I wanted to see how long it would take me to get a comment posted on my own website. LMAO.
When I posted on Rome topix, I was accused of being Jerry Duke. Everyone was. It never mattered what the topic was or what the comment was. Nothing else to read on that site. When I commented on Summerville topix I hit the mother load. As soon as you kicked butt in court, the place just exploded with nasty comments about you. I think some still believe you lost or are trying to convince everyone else you did.
I’ve never been the target of so many personal attacks. I am enjoying it, I must say. What has set off this onslaught of propaganda? Whose toes have you stomped on? Something big must have slammed into the little pond. Wouldn’t be the Attorney General, by chance?
Dear WN2U,
I am not sure what has them so frantic.
Could be the referral to the AG.
Could be the JQC.
Could be the impending round of litigation against Pravda.
Could be the impending Abusive Litigation law suit against Pappy Slapp.
Could be a lot of things, but, I am on the edge of my seat, and loving it. It is real entertainment.
I was at the Chattooga County Courthouse yesterday, after lunch, and was told that Jason Espy had spent a good deal of the morning at someone’s desk, (she was out sick), searching her computer for something.
I am pretty sure I know what he was looking for, but he is not going to find it there.
Perhaps I can help him.
LOL!
tw
You’ll need to star and flag any information you want him to find and then lead him by the hand directly to it. Even then you may have to rub his nose in it. I can’t imagine him finding anything with those investigative skills he so lacks.
Chattooga County
where merit does not count.
But joining the click does.
High School drop outs with
criminal back ground prefer ed.
Years of development have
created an opportunity for you.
Because of, we can get you off
mentality.
This is just my opinion.
TW you left out you defended yourself.
Dear JH,
I will be getting into that tomorrow evening.
But National First Amendment Rights entities, some of whom are now calling and interviewing me, already know that. It never ceases to amaze me how many major news outlets have been keeping up, and as one attorney with one of these entities told me today, this is making tidal waves in the National Press Rights circles. A couple who have interviewed me have been keeping up since the very first law suit was filed.
I will probably start out with some of the thoughts shared by a couple of these folks, tomorrow, and their concerns about how and why not just one, but two nearly identical law suits in two different counties, got past the judges who should have dismissed the cases outright because of 47USC230.
Each attorney with each entity has been shocked and appalled that in light of everything that transpired, that no judge had the balls to step in and intervene, and one had some serious comments about the Georgia State Bar, and the Dark Ages. I will not identify who said that, but it was very funny.
They each are very disturbed about Judge Wood’s insistence that the case be completed with a jury verdict by Wednesday afternoon, or else he would declare a mistrial. One fellow even asked me if the RNT reporter had misunderstood or got the story facts wrong, but, unfortunately, the RNT’s John Bailey was spot on. Several of these attorneys with these national organizations are admitted to practice law in numerous states, including the State of Georgia, and are at a loss as to exactly what Georgia Code allows a Judge to impose that sort of deadline on ANY trial, civil or criminal.
Each attorney who raised this issue during interviews, admitted that when a jury has been deliberating for a long period of time, and informs the judge that they are deadlocked, that a judge can declare a mistrial, but that Judge Wood’s imposing this strict deadline prior to the start of trial was illegal and inappropriate.
I do not know, as I have only just begun to research this.
If there had been no deadline, then Ben Ballenger probably would have put all of the work crew up on the stand to substantiate what they all heard Ed Hammitt say, and what they all observed with regard to the marijuana plants. Then, Kenneth Busbin may have walked out with a substantial money award.
Who knows.
But they had each read the Rome News Tribune article, and all gave me my space these last two weeks. Oddly enough, not a single attorney with any of these Free Press-First Amendment entities said they had read the SN article or website. One admitted he had been cautioned not to waste his time, but he did not say who had cautioned him in that regard, or why he was cautioned not to waste his time.
BTW, JH, thank you so much for being there. All of you, and you each know who you are, thank you. A couple of you could only stay half a day or one day, but Ben Ballenger, Kenneth Busbin and his wife Toni and I all felt your strength and encouragement.
tw