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The Toccoa Record

Claims included in a lawsuit filed in federal district court this week against local school officials and The Toccoa Record have no merit, according to an attorney representing the newspaper.

The lawsuit was filed Monday, March 6, by Lawrence Leitgeb and Dan Roberts, both of Toccoa, and Robert Clarkson and Nelson Waller, both of Anderson, S.C.

A total of 14 defendants were named in the suit, including former Stephens County Middle School principal Brenda Kelley, school superintendent Gary Steppe, board of education members Jerry Steele, Curtis Waters, Dr. Elizabeth Pinkerton, James Thomas, Debbie Horton, Elaine DeFoor and George Payne, the Stephens County School System, District Attorney Michael Crawford, assistant District Attorney Richard Bridgeman, The Toccoa Record publisher Tom Law and The Toccoa Record.

The four plaintiffs have asked for “an award for unnecessary emotional distress. This includes the pain and suffering associated with going to prison unjustly, as is the case with Plaintiff Lawrence Leitgeb” and “emotional pain, mental distress, humiliation, loss of social standing, inconvenience, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of income and benefits of employment for all four of the plaintiffs.

Additionally, the plaintiffs have asked for an award for slander and defamation, a suffering of a violation of their civil rights and prejudice against U.S. citizens (particularly of a religious nature) and an award for all fees, attorney’s fee, cost of the suit and other relief as deemed fit by the court.

No attorney was listed on the lawsuit as representing either or all of the plaintiffs.

The four plaintiffs asked for pecuniary damages as well as to have the defendants “be ordered to publish and pay for an advertisement in The Toccoa Record and other area newspapers correcting the false and malicious statements of Brenda Kelley and to undo the negative publicity against Plaintiffs’ political cause and Southern beliefs.”

The specific monetary award being sought is not less than $1 million for these alleged violations and general and compensatory damages and $1 million or more for punitive damages.

“The claims against Tom Law and the newspaper have no merit,” David Hudson, an attorney with Hull, Towill, Norman, Barrett and Salley in Augusta, said in an e-mail. He represents Community Newspapers, Inc., parent firm of The Toccoa Record.

Hudson said he will file a motion to dismiss the suit within the 20 days provided under the federal court rules.

Law referred all questions concerning the lawsuit to Hudson.

The lawsuit stems from an incident in 2004 at Stephens County Middle School when several Southern Heritage protesters gathered outside of the school, displayed numerous Confederate and Georgia flags and held a rally.

In the ensuing events, local law enforcement officers were called in as a safety precaution, a rock allegedly was thrown at a school bus with children inside and Leitgeb was arrested and charged with felony obstruction and misdemeanor obstruction.

Initially, Leitgeb refused to tell officers his name, but they discovered his name after he was arrested.

Leitgeb was convicted by a Stephens County Superior Court jury on Dec. 17, 2004, on the charges.

Superior Court Judge James Cornwell sentenced Leitgeb to 90-100 days in jail, five years on probation and a $1,350 fine for his felony obstruction conviction, and 12 months on probation, to be served consecutively to the felony conviction, and a $650 fine for the misdemeanor conviction.

The marchers had asserted that Kelley had infringed on their civil liberties by her alleged banning the display of St. Andrew’s Cross on school grounds.

A campus-wide ban never happened, Kelley had said.

Kelley had said at the time that she had received an anonymous e-mail threatening her life.

Leitgeb and the other three plaintiffs have asserted that the e-mail was fictitious and Kelley made the whole thing up to harm Leitgeb and his associates.

The plaintiffs filed the suit against Law and The Record, according to the document, for reporting Kelley’s receipt of the anonymous e-mail which thereby made the plaintiffs look poorly in the eyes of the public.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, plaintiff Clarkson calls himself “the South’s most famous IRS fighter.”

He “founded the Patriot Network, which runs common-law workshops throughout upstate South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina.”

According to the lawsuit, Clarkson lives in Anderson, S.C., and is “the chief organizer of the Southern Rights Association,” and he was “the main speaker at the March 2004 rally.”

His wife and her family all were born in Stephens County and grew up here, according to the lawsuit

Waller serves as vice chairman of the state chapter of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the Council of Conservative Citizens as a hate group.

The suit makes no mention of Waller’s affiliation with the Council of Conservative Citizens, but says he lives in Anderson, S.C., and “has assisted Clarkson and others at organizing public rallies and demonstrations in support of Southern heritage and its symbols.”

He “leads the singing and music at many flag Confederate rallies, including at least three in Toccoa and two others in Georgia,” the lawsuit claims.

Leitgeb, according to the suit, lives in Toccoa and “although formerly a Northerner, Leitgeb has adopted the values normally associated with Southerners and Dixie. In response, Southerners have adopted him.”

Roberts, who also resides in Toccoa, according to the suit, was “directly responsible for the flag rally that took place in March of 2004 outside the middle school where Ms. Brenda Kelley was principal at the time.”