A former Democratic party leader wants an Ohio University student to retract a letter he wrote to The Athens NEWS, saying the letter is libelous.
Susan Gwinn, former chairwoman of the Athens County Democratic Party, wrote in a letter to junior Nate Nelson that his Jan. 18 letter to The Athens NEWS falsely accused her of corruption. She demanded Nelson retract the letter and suggested that he hire an attorney.
Nelson, who is studying political science, wrote a column for The Post in 2008.
Gwinn stepped down as chairwoman last month, soon after a judge found her guilty of falsifying campaign finance reports in 2008. The judge found her not guilty of felony theft in office, unauthorized use of property, money laundering and bribery charges.
In his letter, Nelson wrote that Gwinn was corrupt and the county party's corruption runs deeper than Gwinn.
Certainly
the cleanup has begun with (Gwinn's resignation) but Susan Gwinn has been mucking up the Athens County government and spreading the corruption around for a long time Nelson, a member of the OU College Republicans, wrote in the letter.
Gwinn responded in her letter, dated Jan. 28, that the statement is untrue and libelous.
I am sorry to have to write you this letter
she wrote to Nelson. However
as you may understand
I need to stop what appears to be a concerted effort to destroy my reputation.
Gwinn added that she wanted the statement corrected and wanted a reply to the letter from either Nelson or his attorney by Friday.
Gwinn did not return phone calls seeking comment for this article. She previously said she would never speak to The Post again.
Nelson said yesterday that he would not retract the statement, he would hire an attorney and he would defend his statement in court if necessary.
I feel like the facts are on my side
he said.
I wasn't writing a legal opinion. I was writing an opinion piece that was very political
and you have to make a distinction between political speech and legal speech
he said. I was not saying Gwinn was legally corrupt. I was saying
politically speaking
that there was a lot of corruption going on. ... I think the facts bare that out.
The Athens NEWS editor Terry Smith said he wouldn't correct or retract the letter, adding that if Gwinn thought it was a big deal, she would have contacted the paper herself.
Though the law usually protects opinion as free speech, it does not protect opinion based on facts that can be proven true or false, said David Goldberger, a law professor at Ohio State University.
The question here is 'Has she done something wrong?' and 'Is there any grounds to believe that she's done something wrong?' he said. Just the fact that it's an opinion ... doesn't get you all the way free of a libel suit.
Even with this in mind, Gwinn probably will not win the case because the letter commented on Gwinn's work as a public figure, Goldberger said, adding that public figures must prove that a false statement was made either on purpose or in reckless disregard for the truth.
He added, though, that he could not make a firm prediction.
