ROGERSVILLE — Hawkins County Clerk of Courts Sarah Davis will be in Circuit Court on Wednesday — as a plaintiff instead of a court official — seeking a subpoena for the identity of the unknown person who libeled her online last year.
Last month, Davis filed a $200,000 lawsuit against a “John Doe” defendant who made libelous statements about her in July 2012 on the online public forum Topix.com. The discussion thread cited in the lawsuit was later exposed as a hoax.
Someone started a thread claiming that a public official had been charged with public intoxication after being caught having sex at Crockett Creek Park in Rogersville.
A person calling him or herself “luv2walk” identified Davis on that thread.
Last month, Davis, through her attorney William Phillips II, filed the $200,000 defamation of character lawsuit and issued a public notice giving luv2walk 30 days to respond to the lawsuit.
That 30 days expired last week with no response by luv2walk.
Davis and Phillips will appear today before Circuit Judge Kindall Lawson asking for a subpoena to get any information regarding the identity of luv2walk from Topix.com.
Topix CEO Chris Tolles told the Times-News last month he will cooperate with any subpoenas issued in this lawsuit.
“Topix says on its terms of service that it will disclose any information pursuant to legal process or subpoena,” Phillips told the Times-News on Tuesday. “This individual (luv2walk) knew, or should have known, that there was a risk of disclosure of their identifying information. I don’t know what identifying information Topix has, but at a minimum an I.P. address. If it’s an I.P. address, there will still be some legwork involved in attaching that address to a specific computer and a specific individual.”
Phillips said that if luv2walk’s identity is exposed, the lawsuit will proceed and the defendant will have an opportunity to defend himself or herself.
In seeking the motion for the subpoena, Phillips said he has to show Lawson that he has a viable case and that the case has merit.
“I certainly think we can do that,” Phillips said. “In order to establish a case for defamation or libel you have to prove that there was defamatory language published; that it was of, or concerning the plaintiff; that it was actually published somewhere; and that there was damage to the reputation of the plaintiff. I think we’ve established all of those, and Mrs. Davis will establish those through her testimony.”
Phillips added, “Additionally there’s a Tennessee statute that provides that any words accusing adultery or fornication are actionable without proving damages. We here in Tennessee still believe that an individual’s right to an unsullied reputation is valuable.”
Phillips noted, however, there’s a chance that luv2walk was using a public computer and the identity will never be known. If that’s the case, he said he and Davis still believe something good was accomplished by filing the lawsuit.
“Individuals now know that there is no guarantee to their anonymity on public forums like Topix,” Williams said.