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Thursday, April 2, 2009

Erie County Prosecutor Sues Sandusky Register

Here's the 22 page lawsuit.

Reading...

Note: Because he's a public official, Mr. Baxter will have to prove "actual malice" in a jury trial.

The suit was assigned to Judge Tone. I'm curious about how this is going to play out. Will they bring in a retired visiting judge?

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spinning says: Does the SR have anything to back up the allegations regarding drug abuse or misconduct?

If not, then many readers and GOBs are going to enjoy seeing the SR taken to task!

The credibility of the SR is on the line if the SR can not turn up witnesses to the alledged misconduct cited in the multiple SR publications.

Must give the benefit of the doubt to Baxter for taking the SR to court to prove his innocence.

Does anyone think that the SR has something up their sleeve?

Could this lawsuit backfire if the SR can prevail on any the facts or if the SR produces any witnesses to support the alledged misconduct reported and presented in editorials.

Who should one believe?

Anonymous said...

You scooped the SR on their own lawsuit! Sweet!

Anonymous said...

I think it is amazing that despite all the obvious bias the SR had for Kim Nuesse that this independent blog did more to help her case. Westerhold was so obviously in Nuesse's corner that it was difficult to take the SR reporting seriously. The video evidence reported here did alot more to convince me, and probably many others.

Anonymous said...

This guy is EVIL. That's why the citizens call it Eeeeerie County.

Anonymous said...

This was all planned. They knew how duh judge was going to rule in the Nuesse case so they want to make sure the SR doesn't report on it.

Anonymous said...

A older well-known Norwalk attorney made the comment that he thought for sure when Tone and Binette took over for Maschari they would start to clean up the corruption in that county----and he was really disappointed to find out it wasn't going to happen. Instead, it has gotten worse.

An Erie County attorney made the comment that the only county more corrupt than Erie County was Cuyahoga County.

Linda said...

First of all, Tone will have to recuse himself.

I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but why didn't Baxter just charge all these people will falsification?

Anonymous said...

If you can't believe the newspaper, who can you believe? Anything written in newspaper print was supposed to always be true to what they stated.

Anonymous said...

It seems as if under Baxter's definition, from my reading of the complaint, at most the SR's reporting only contained "minor inaccuracies." That's not defamation, nor is a reporter's "opinion" about the facts, e.g. "he lied," being the conclusion about the what Baxter characterizes as "inaccuracies."

The reporters cannot be charged with misdemeanor falsification, because the statements were not made in the context of an official proceeding or investigation.

However, if the SR was attempting to influence one or more public officials, they could be charged with intimidation - a 3rd degree felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison per count. That's why its dangerous to criminalize defamation.

Now, however, the SR will be able to depose Baxter and other witnesses and question them at length about all of these issues.

I guess the question is, why would Baxter risk being questioned (since can't refuse to answer questions during a depo on the ground of relevancy) if he has anything to hide?

John Doe said...

It's going to get VERY interesting.

Either Baxter started the ball rolling for him being ousted as the long term county prosecutor, or he started the ball rolling to prove in a court of law that you can not believe what the SR prints and thus they could loose more subscribers.

And yes, Tone will probably have to recuse himself and we'll get yet ANOTHER visiting judge - probably Judge C since those 2 seem to be such good buds.

Yep, the next year or so will be VERY interesting.

Anonymous said...

Roger Binette will probably handle it. I heard that he is Baxter's clone!

Anonymous said...

Matt Westerhold is the biggest jackass in the world. Of course Kevin Baxter is no saint either. Being involved with journalism I know that Matt has used the SR as a platform for his own personal agenda. It is a wonder that the SR is not out of business and we do not have jobs. Newspapers should be unbiased. But that is not the case the SR. I mean look at the article on the Reg's website. It has no byline. Good old Matt is just covering his ass.

I am surprsied that Baxter is only going for $25000. At least do usa favor and ask for Matt's resignation. This paper is so mismananged. If you ask me why I work for a paper like this. It is because i love this area and I believe the SR can be more than what it is.

So at the end of the day, fire Matt, the pubslisher and might as well get rid of Cheryl Welch too. Her ego, not to mention her size take up a lot of wasted room.

Anonymous said...

To Last Poster:

Baxter and his thugs are the ones that have used their power for years for their own corrupt agendas and they have ruined this city! Matt Westerhold is the only one that tried to expose these two-bit thugs and he's getting shut down like everybody else has. Keep living in your dreamworld but Sandusky is done for!

Anonymous said...

Spinning says:

If the publisher is standing by the Baxter stories filed by Westerhold and Singer, then this lawsuit may be just what the SR needs to boost readership and advertisement revenue.

Either way it works out, it is going to be very telling how long before someone calls a truce and we all go back to sleep again with the SR in bed with the GOBs...Oh, I forgot, the SR has been in the tank with the GOBs over the casino & Marina District schemes!

ERNesbitt said...

I love the quote in the Register's story...

"A cocaine-abusing county prosecutor lies to government investigators and abuses his power to falsify public records."

Yep. That sounds about right. It is up to the accuser to produce evidence to the contrary. It's called Burden of Proof. I think Matt has a few aces in his hand.

Now, let's see if Kevie the Pooh can think, think, think his way out of this one. It will come down to the "visiting judge".

Anonymous said...

Baxter must be delusional if he thinks the SR ruined his reputation. He must not know how people talk and I have heard a lot about this guy and his cronies. Even his own family hates him.

Anonymous said...

I saw Baxter at the Yacht Club yesterday. He left before I could tell him what I think of him and that corrupt probate court. Next time......

Anonymous said...

Sandumpy is going to be in a hurt when the 90 year-old judges and Moyer aren't around anymore.

Anonymous said...

I heard that very rarely does anybody ever win a lawsuit against a newspaper.

Anonymous said...

Baxter says that as a direct result of Defamatory Statements by the SR he has suffered injuries of a personal and permanent nature, including (but not limited to) loss of reputation, professional esteem, loss of earning power, mental anguish and emotional distress.

I think this guy is a bit crazy. All of this applies to what they did to Nuesse!

Anonymous said...

please remember boys and girls:

"it's a matter of interpretation."

don c. icsman law director for life
city of sandusky

age: 61 years