Says Jacksonville ex-officials are public figures

With trial less than two weeks away, a Jackson County judge ruled against a former Jacksonville city councilman and his wife, a former mayor, who allegedly implied a local newspaper publisher was a child molester and then sued him for libel.

The decision Monday by Judge Phil Arnold gutted the lawsuit filed last year by Don and Clara Wendt, who sought more than $1 million from Woody Hunter, publisher of the Jacksonville Review Monthly.

Now the most they can get from him is $500 and some minor costs. The judge's ruling did not affect Hunter's $2.7 million counterclaim for libel and slander.

Trial is set for Sept. 14. An out-of-court settlement appears unlikely.

Arnold tossed out three of four claims made by the Wendts -- libel, false light and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

He left intact the fourth claim that Hunter failed to register his newspaper under an assumed business name, which carries a maximum civil penalty of $500.

By siding with the defense, Arnold essentially declared the Wendts "public figures." Oregon law prohibits public officials from suing for defamation unless they can prove a defendant knew the information was false and acted with malice.

Pedro Fernandez, a Portland civil rights attorney who took on Hunter's case for free, hailed the judge's ruling as a victory for the First Amendment and freedom of the press.

"This puts a high premium on being able to criticize public figures," he said. "This is essential to our democracy."

Hunter praised the ruling as blow against powerful -- and litigious -- figures.

"People shouldn't be afraid of public officials in a little town like Jacksonville," he said. "They shouldn't be scared of getting sued."

The legal dustup between the Wendts and Hunter was only the latest skirmish in a political feud that apparently began in 1991, when Hunter launched the Review to compete with Don Wendt's periodically published Jacksonville Nugget.

The feud flared up two years ago, when an elfish figurine appeared in the window of Wendt's collectibles shop holding a sign that read, "Don't molest me Woody Hunter." The store, Don's Diggins, fronts window-shopping California Street.

The sign was a reference to Hunter's stormy stint in the 1980s as the publisher of a weekly newspaper in Brandon, Vt., where he sued the town for $1.25 million after the local police chief launched a bogus investigation against him that included an attempt to entrap him as a child molester.

On the eve of trial, the Vermont town settled out of court. The damage figure was kept secret, but Hunter has intimated it was close to $1 million.

After his complaints about the Wendts' sign went nowhere, Hunter wrote a commentary in February 1998 that questioned Don Wendt's political and business ethics and called on voters to replace Wendt when his term expired later that year.

Wendt demanded a retraction, Hunter ignored him and Wendt sued. Hunter then slapped Wendt with a countersuit for the sign in the window.

Laurance Parker, a Medford attorney who represents the Wendts, said the judge's ruling cannot be appealed until after trial.

He declined to say whether his clients planned to appeal.