Garrett v. The Hook [1]

Thomas Garrett, a Virginia chicken farmer, publicist, and self-proclaimed "Hollywood insider," sued the publisher of The Hook, a weekly newspaper in Charlottesville that also publishes content on its website [2]. The complaint [3], filed in Virginia state court in December 2008, alleges that The Hook and two of its reporters defamed Garrett in a series of articles covering state criminal proceedings against him. Specifically, Garrett alleges that one article falsely claimed that he had committed acts of forgery (he pled guilty to a "minor count akin to trespassing" according to the complaint), and that another two articles falsely implied that he had lied about appearing on the cover of Senior Magazine.

In January 2009, Garrett subpoenaed [4] Waldo Jaquith, who runs cvillenews.com [5], a community news blog about Charlottesville. The subpoena requests identifying information for everyone who posted comments to a blog post Jaquith wrote about Garrett's lawsuit, called "The Hook Sued For Defamation [6]." The subpoena also seeks IP addresses for every viewer of the post. Beyond that, it asks Jaquith for every email or written communication he has sent or received relating to the post or Thomas Garrett, as well as any post, comment, or other writing Jacquith has made on other sites. For more information, see our related database entry, Garrett v. Jaquith [7].

Update:

4/14/09 - James Creekmore withdrew as Garrett's attorney, according to an article in the Hook [8].

5/22/09 - Waldo Jacquith reported [9] that Garrett settled his lawsuit with The Hook.  Jacquith wrote that, according to Hook editor Hawes Spencer, "Garrett has agreed to have the case settled with prejudice (meaning he can’t sue the paper again) and, in exchange, they’ve agreed not to sue him."