Needelman supporter accuses me of libel (again)… says lawsuit is on the way

‘Badge451′ says I didn’t contact Needelman before running my story
Asking Needelman live on the air on Bill Mick’s show in front of thousands of listeners didn’t count

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Click here for pdf snapshot of Needelman campaign web site as it appeared August 7, 2008

Apparently my coverage of Needelman’s Campaign Web Site HomeTown News Interview “modification” has earned me a spot in the State Rep’s legal counsel’s crosshairs. Here is a post from earlier today from someone called ‘Badge451′ from the Florida Today Clerk of Courts forums who claims to be some type of law enforcement. 

“Here is a bulletin for our Mr. Nye:

You have been an annoyance to me from the very start. Your arrogance and pompous attitude, your self-importance, your smugness when you “thought” you had caught Representative Needelman in some kind of deliberate lie are all revolting and nauseating. You disgust me, as you do so many others.

I was especially outraged by your cowardice when confronted with your own lies regarding all this. Instead of being a man and apologizing because the holier-than-though puppetboy had made a mistake, you attempted to minimize it and pass it off as unimportant.

Well, guess what, it isn’t unimportant. You attempted to ruin the reputation of a STATE LEGISLATOR. You did it in several different forums, you did it with malice and intent, and you were WRONG.

You never saw that information on Needelman’s website, because it was not there. You might have gotten it from some other source, from an email prior to final editing for print in HTN, but you NEVER got it from Needelman’s website.

You doctored that pdf as sure as I am sitting here typing this. You thought you could weave all that crap together, and you almost did it. HTN went along with it to a certain extent, but if you read their article closely, they NEVER said it was originally on Needelman’s website. All they said was that the article they ran and the current website do not match. The reason why is left to speculation. Read it again, Puppetboy, and try not to wet your pants. They did NOT support your allegations.

Not only did you jump the gun by printing what you THOUGHT they said, they never said it. And neither of you… not HTN or YOU ever contacted Needelman for comment before going to press. Another big NO-NO. Additional proof of malice. “Rush to Judgement”, Puppy. And you know what happened the last time somebody did that. They lost, big time.

Further proof of malice??? Here is some for you. I printed every single time you reposted that “report” of yours. I lost count of how many times you did it, but according to my source, every time more than ONCE is additional proof of malice. Ouch. It sucks to be you right about now…

Here is another bulletin for you. Needelman can update his website anytime he wants to, and he does not have to get your permission. No changes were made in this particular content, but if he wants to make additions, deletions, change logos or fonts or whatever, he can do it, because it is his website. So you’ve got nothing to be hollering about in the first place. The fact that you are doing this, and suggesting something improper or illegal just further digs your own grave.

YOU, however, are not privileged to post whatever you want, alter other’s words or writings, or do anything that suggests that someone has done something wrong or illegal without actual proof. Again, I reiterate, even if you could by some miracle prove what you are saying, there was nothing wrong or illegal about it. Just your PERCEPTION of it, which is also wrong, and which is going to cost you a lot of money. I hope you got a good bang for your buck, and a big fat checkbook so you can put your money where your mouth is. Which for you means you would have to sit on it.

The reason you are not privileged to do that on your website, is because you are presenting it as a source of information, you accept advertising, and you proclaim to be a “journalist”. I am sorry to tell you that when you do all those things, you elevate yourself above us mere mortals to an alleged “professional” status, and you are held to a higher standard of conduct than the rest of us; both professionally and legally.

What you post or print CAN be held against you if it is incorrect or a deliberate lie. Especially if there is malice, and in this case, based on all the postings you did on the FT blog, proving malice is a walk in the park. If it can be proven, and it CAN, that you fabricated something and said you saw it on Needelman’s website when in reality it was something you constructed, then you are guilty of libel. You know what the penalties are for that.

That is why actual newspapers and real journalists are so careful about what they say and do. The field is always ripe for lawsuits. Since you mentioned the National Enquirer in one of your posts, you should go and research how much they have paid out in lawsuits they lost because they were not careful about what they printed. The only difference between you and them is that you are a little creep wannabe without a pot to p*ss in, and YOU can’t afford to defend yourself against a libel case. The National Enquirer spends more for coffee stirrers than you make in a year. They don’t care about the lawsuits. They take a calculated risk, and their profits from their outrageous headlines far surpasses what they pay out in legal fees. It is a cost of doing business for them. Not so for you, is my bet. This is going to break you into tiny pieces.

Do you have a fleet of attorneys on retainer like they do?? Do you have even ONE??

The reason I ask this, my little buddy,is that the s**t is about to hit the fan for you. I would brace myself for the blow. You have never seen a hurricane like the one that is about to hit you. Allow me to explain:

You and your leader have been very disrespectful to me and my position as a former law enforcement officer. You have also been very disrespectful to two fellow law enforcement officers, Hartman and Needelman. I have endured the insults, and the jokes pointed at all three of us, and I have allowed this to go on for days. But now I am done, and I have to tell you I don’t get mad, I get even. Ellis thought I threatened someone on this forum before? No. I don’t do threats; I take action.

Let me tell you how that works for me. I have documented every post you and Ellis have made in his various aliases. I especially like the one he did yesterday in which he proved that his twisted little mind will doctor official court records right off the Clerk of Courts website. (That information is already on its way to Tallahassee, by the way. There will be a subpoena to FT for the ISP of the person who did that little trick. If it turns out to be traceable to Ellis, they will address that immediately.) It probably won’t require a lot of action on their part, as he will be out of a job tomorrow. But they may take punitive action and order audits of his records. That would be massive, and I hope in their suit against him he is required to pay the cost of the auditing.

The rest of the information, and the stuff I printed from the website, (yes, all your little comments that prove malice, the repeated postings of your accusations and lies about where you got your information, all of it) has been carefully catalogued and filed. I put it all into a nice big package and delivered it to Representative Needelman late last night. Since I am a fellow retired law enforcement officer, he was more than glad to see me on short notice. The Brotherhood of the Badge is alive and well, you know.

He does not watch the blogs, so he was quite surprised to see what you and Ellis have been up to. He was also both angry and disturbed at the level of “disconnect” both of you seem to be having with reality. He thanked me for my concern, and assured me my time had not been wasted. When I left I was not sure if my information was really worthy of his attention. The blog is, after all, just the blog. It will all go away after the election and everyone will forget about it, no matter which candidate wins. But I was glad that I had at least made him aware of what you were doing. I mean, you have worked SO HARD to destroy this man. He should be aware of your efforts so he can properly “thank” you if he desires.

Now, today is the last day before the election. So I did not expect him to do anything with my information today, because I am sure he is extremely busy with last minute campaign matters.

So you can imagine my surprise when I got a very interesting telephone call about 3:00PM today! It was from Mr. Needelman’s attorney. He was going over the package, and he wanted to verify a few points with me so he was sure he understood completely what you had done.

We chatted for nearly an hour. We went over a lot of the documents I had provided. He has already had one of his investigators do a background check on you, and he shared some of that with me, since I am obviously going to be a key witness in this matter. My, My, you have some deep dark secrets, don’t you my boy???

Well, to make a long story short, he is going to file suit against you. He says this is a very strong case, and he is somewhat amazed at how stupid you have been in making such a trail to your motives apparent in all this. I guess maybe you should have hung out in journalism school for a couple more semesters until they got to the part about legal liability and how to avoid making mistakes that can get your a** sued off.

Actually, he is quite confident you are going down in flames. And he is looking forward to it, as are all of us who feel you are fungus that needs to be sprayed with Lysol. Meet Mr. Lysol, Attorney at Law.

He is a specialist in this sort of thing. I didn’t know that some attorneys specialized in slander, libel and defamation, but apparently they do. In his case, 85% of his cases are like this one, or very similar. And while there is a misperception that public figures cannot sue or be sued because they are in the public domain, that is not true at all. If malice can be proven, if there is motive or intent to ruin a reputation, a career, or cripple someone’s life because of what is said or implied, there are grounds for a suit. Guess what, little buddy?

Officer Hartman, if you are still reading these, take note. You might want to contact Representative Needelman for this lawyer’s name. I think you could use his services, too.

Well, I hope you enjoy your evening. After the election is over, your life is going to change dramatically. I would venture to say that when they are done with you, you won’t be writing or publishing ANYTHING, except that monthly payment check for restitution to your victim.

The reason I am posting this, aside from my obvious glee in knowing this is going to happen, and I have a part in it, is to inform the rest of you here who support Rep. Needelman and believe he has been mistreated by this cretin, to please contact him at his website and let him know if you are willing to be a witness and give a deposition in this case. You are all anonymous now, so his lawyer has no way of contacting you, and the website will probably be abandoned by FT after this election is over. So please, if you want to be a part of this action against Matthew Nye, post to Needelmans’ website, www.mitchforclerk.com and let him know, giving your name and contact information. After the election is over, Mitch will get the information to the lawyer, and the lawyer, or a member of his staff, will be contacting you to set up an interview. Also, please print anything you see that may be used in the lawsuit. I cannot monitor all the time, and I am sure I may have missed some things. Anything you can hold onto will be helpful. Include the posts that are obviously Scott as well. It all goes to motive and intent.

I am looking forward to this almost as much as I am to Needelman winning the election! Nye, you are going DOWN!!! It’s just too bad this is civil. Nothing would make me happier than to imagine you in a prison cell with a roommate named Bubba who thinks you’re cute and likes to dance.

Thanks,

Badge451″

Stay tuned, and don’t forget to vote tomorrow!