By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@TheCitizenNews.com

Webb, Stuckey & Lindsey LLC has voluntarily dismissed its libel lawsuit against Citizen parent company Fayette Publishing Inc., Citizen Publisher Cal Beverly and Peachtree City resident Steve Brown.

The Citizen's countersuit seeking legal fees and damages has not been dismissed.

In a written statement faxed to the newspaper Tuesday morning, the Peachtree City law firm cited a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution article as the reason for dropping the suit.

“Mr. Webb and WSL feel the revelations in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article vindicated them and that nothing could be gained from further litigation,” said the unsigned statement.

“Webb basically admits what was evident from the start: He has no case,” said Citizen Publisher Cal Beverly Tuesday. “Mr. Webb said to my face that he miscalculated in filing the suit against the paper, me and letter writer Steve Brown. Webb said he thought the suit would stop us publishing articles and letters unfavorable to him and his law firm. Obviously, his intimidation tactics failed.”

The firm filed suit in March claiming that letters to the editor written by Brown and published in The Citizen were “inaccurate,” “outrageous” and “clearly libelous.”

Brown's letters claimed that WSL partner James Webb Jr.'s position on the board of directors of a local bank, along with another board member who was suing the city of Peachtree City, was a conflict of interest because Webb was serving as city attorney for the city.

“Someone has to bring a halt to this type of inappropriate journalism and the slurring of people with excellent reputations,” said WSL partner Rick Lindsey in an address to City Council outlining the firm's lawsuit.

Brown's two letters were published in The Citizen shortly after the city announced that it would accept new bids for city attorney services, which Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey have provided since 1992.

City Council later appointed Lindsey its city attorney, with other members of the same law firm serving as alternates.

In its statement Tuesday, the law firm says the AJC story “reported that, in addition to the negative letter writing campaign of Mr. Brown, there exists a large number of e-mails written by Mr. Brown and others which clearly reflect the true impetus for various letters printed in The Citizen.

“Mr. Webb has over 30 e-mails which show that these letters were politically motivated by a small group of people with ulterior motives and political aspirations,” the statement continues.

Previous articles in The Citizen also had pointed out the existence of inflammatory e-mails concerning Webb and Superior Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell, some of them from attorney John Mrosek, who is running against Caldwell for the judge's seat in July.

Don Johnson, attorney for The Citizen, said he finds it interesting that “the dismissal was filed at a time when depositions of Mr. Webb, Mr. Stuckey and Mr. Lindsey were pending next month and open records act requests were pending with Peachtree City, the Department of Banking and Finance for the state of Georgia, and the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.”

In a statement in this issue, Beverly said, “[Webb's] attack was doomed to fail, as he should have known from the beginning. But he and his law firm — who make their living by suing people — decided to punish the letter writer and this paper for daring to question the propriety of this public official's actions in regard to a public matter.

“They intended to make us pay for expensive attorneys to defend our basic right to freedom of the press and freedom of expression contained in an opinion in a letter from a private citizen about the operation of his city government,” Beverly said.

Under Georgia law, a dismissal motion may be challenged, Johnson noted.

“What Mr. Webb's statement, published elsewhere in this issue in its entirety, fails to mention is that this paper has filed a countersuit against Webb and his law firm for engaging in abusive litigation,” Beverly said. “Our countersuit charges Webb and firm employed what is called a slap suit to deter us from exercising our First Amendment rights. We are currently considering whether to continue that counterclaim to compel Webb and his firm to pay for our attorneys' fees and damages. That decision will be made in the next several days.”