By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

Fayette Citizen editor and publisher Cal Beverly has denied any undue influence occurred in the wake of a December 1999 e-mail message authored by John Mrosek, candidate for superior court judge.

An e-mail sent by Mrosek to Peachtree City Councilwoman Carol Fritz Dec. 7 mentions Beverly and The Citizen in ways that might suggest that Mrosek and supporters might have influence with the paper. The e-mail has been widely and anonymously distributed in recent weeks, and became a public document when a lawyer used it recently as evidence in an unrelated child support court hearing.

Beverly said this week that The Citizen has no connection with the e-mail and certainly does not endorse it.

“John Mrosek has called me on occasion, as many people call me, to talk about news items or politics. In this job we listen to a lot of people with a lot of points of view, and his was just another one of those,” Beverly said in response to questions concerning the e-mail. “Reporters, editors and publishers get those kinds of calls frequently — people pushing their points of view, hoping to get their spin into the paper. We always listen, evaluate and make our own independent decisions as to the newsworthiness of the information, taking into account the apparent motivations of the spinners.

“I never saw the e-mail in question until after it showed up in open court last month, at which time Mrosek faxed me a copy and apologized for it,” Beverly said.

In the e-mail, Mrosek suggests that “someone” get in touch with “Cal” and talk him into publishing stories about a 1980s incident in which then-District Attorney and current Superior Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell and Peachtree City city attorney James Webb were accused of improprieties in connection with a failed fitness center, Fantasy Fitness.

An investigation by local and state authorities failed to produce any charges in that incident. However, a city building inspector lost his job as a result of the incident.

“What we need,” Mrosek wrote to Fritz, “is someone who has been around a long time who (a) is close to Cal and (b) must have known about Fantasy Fitness.

“Instead of an editorial, Cal might do just a news story that tells the truth and lays out the facts...“ the e-mail says. Mrosek concluded in the e-mail that “I will be the point man with Cal,” and did talk later with Beverly to discuss the Fantasy Fitness incident. In addition, Mrosek provided The Citizen with copies of articles about Caldwell, Webb and the mid-1980s Fantasy Fitness controversy taken from the archives of The Atlanta Journal and Constitution.

The Citizen published nothing about Caldwell or Fantasy Fitness subsequent to those archived articles being provided. Articles about Webb dealt with his pending reappointment as city attorney for Peachtree City.

“Any suggestion that The Citizen was conspiring with anyone is patently ridiculous,” said Beverly. “We simply did our job of listening when people contacted us. As a matter of fact, I have never initiated a call or written in any form to Mrosek. He was always the initiator and remains the initiator.

“I would have talked to Webb as easily as I talked to Mrosek, had Webb called,” Beverly added. “While the e-mail suggests that Mrosek and possibly others wanted to get their point of view represented in the paper, neither I nor the paper were influenced.

“I started in this news business nearly 40 years ago, and a lot of people have bent my ear during that time, all with their own motives and their own particular axes to grind, and most of it never went any farther,” Beverly said. “This was just more of the same, until a rich lawyer got his feelings hurt over an unsolicited letter to the editor and sued us, and a judge and another lawyer decided to have an election contest.”