Re: 5/10/01 - The Mercury News: Net-defamation case resolved
Posted at 1:07 a.m. PDT Thursday, May 10, 2001
Hollister
Net-defamation case resolved
PINNACLE DIRECTS MOST OF SETTLEMENT TOWARD CHARITY, LESBIAN RIGHTS
BY DALE RODEBAUGH
Mercury News
The owners of a weekly San Benito County newspaper have settled a lawsuit against a former Hollister city councilman, who has admitted he created a Web site to link its gay publisher to lesbian pornography and accuse one of its columnists of being a child molester.
Stories of the $48,000 settlement and an apology from former Councilman Joe Felice dominate the front page of today's edition of the newspaper, the Pinnacle.
Felice, who left office Dec. 4, was the target of a $6 million defamation and copyright-infringement lawsuit filed in November by Pinnacle Publisher Tracie Cone and columnist Bob Valenzuela.
The Web site was traced to Felice through subpoenaed documents that led to the former councilman's home telephone number.
The bulk of the settlement, $36,500, will be donated to charity and a national lesbian rights group. The remainder is earmarked for legal fees.
``We're glad it's over. Part of us wanted to see this through because we were told that it was an important case in the Internet privacy battle,'' Cone said Wednesday. ``But we had our hands full putting out our newspaper, and we didn't want to spend time sitting in court or giving depositions.''
New Pinnacle
Cone and her partner, Anna Marie dos Remedios, a former Mercury News reporter and photographer, respectively, bought the Pinnacle 18 months ago, turning a stodgy production into a lively chronicle of life in the rural county.
In his apology, Felice takes sole responsibility for creating the Web site that caused Cone and Valenzuela ``pain and embarrassment.''
The Web site accused Cone and dos Remedios of being the ``filth from up north'' and of trying to turn Hollister into ``Sodom and Gomorrah.'' Clicking on Cone's name brought up a hard-core pornographic lesbian site.
Felice also lifted Valenzuela's photo from a weekly column, altered it, and wrote a mock article in which Valenzuela says he is a child molester.
Felice admits sending e-mail directing the attention of community members to the Web site. He admits everything he did was wrong and hopes that the apology ``can undo the damage caused by my conduct.''
Cone said Wednesday that the Internet assault was Felice's response to the newspaper's stories and editorials about the effects of growth. San Benito was the state's fastest growing county in the 1990s. It grew 45 percent, and Hollister 79 percent during the decade.
Shortly before he left office, Felice voted to approve a controversial 677-unit subdivision, one of the regular targets of Pinnacle stories and commentary.
Grateful editorial
In an editorial today, Cone thanks Pinnacle readers and advertisers for standing by the newspaper.
Personal conversations, phone calls, letters and e-mails would disprove any belief that the county was an intolerant place, she said.
``Conservative ranchers, people old enough to be my grandparents and many people in between told us that for the first time they understood the torment people often go through because of their sexual orientation,'' Cone writes.
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Contact Dale Rodebaugh at drodebaugh@ sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5089.
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