Former Legislators Sue Local Newspaper, Reporter

OSWEGO COUNTY, NY – Two former Oswego County legislators are suing a Fulton-based newspaper, claiming that the paper slanted articles to favor the promotion of a county employee who was involved in a relationship with one of the paper’s reporters.

Russ Johnson and Michael French filed the lawsuit against The Fulton Newspapers Inc., parent company of The Valley News; the company president Vince Caravan; vice president Ronald Caravan and reporter Carol Thompson. The lawsuit seeks damages of $2 million.

The 15-page complaint details Johnson’s and French’s allegations of defamation and negligence against the newspaper. (You can read the entire complaint here.)

Approximately seven of those pages relate specifically to Thompson’s news articles and Ron Caravan’s columns during the county’s search for a highway superintendent and county administrator in 2007. Other items addressed in the suit relate to articles published in The Valley News that French and Johnson claim cost them reelection in November.

The lawsuit claims that Thompson failed to disclose an intimate relationship with a 30-year employee of the Oswego County Highway Department, referred to in the lawsuit as “KO,” and that her bosses knew about the relationship. A longtime department deputy superintendent, Kurt Ospelt, was promoted to superintendent of the department in January.

“Instead, the Defendant Thompson went about her pursued expose` while willfully disregarding the facts, changing the facts, and distorting reality, and intentionally inflaming public sentiment against two highly regarded public officials, Plaintiffs Johnson and French.”

“It states that Ronald Caravan supported Thompson in several “Between The Lines” op-ed pieces published in The Valley News, through which he publicly branded Johnson and French as “corrupt,” “cheating the public” and dishonest among other things.

It notes that from September 2006 through December 2007, “Defendants Thompson and Ronald Caravan, acting together and in concert, with the knowledge and acquiescence of Defendant Vince Caravan, engaged in a systematic ongoing course of conduct of negligence, gross negligence and defamation by authoring and publishing in The Valley News well over 100 ‘articles’ and ‘Viewpoints’ in the twice weekly publication, many of which contained conjecture, speculation, factually inaccurate, deficient, or embellished information.”

Under a second cause of action, the suit claims defamation related to an article that appeared before the Primary election entitled, “Going once, going twice. Sold!-to the brother-in-law of Oswego County Legislator.” The article focused on the fact that French’s brother-in-law purchased a piece of property from the Oswego County auction while French, an active County Legislator at the time, was present.

“The article inferred, thereafter, that Plaintiff French and Plaintiff French Construction, Inc. were somehow embroiled in a conflict of interest, and that Plaintiffs French and French Construction, Inc. committed a crime by inappropriately having directly benefited financially from such transaction,” the suit reads.

As a result, Johnson and French reportedly “lost standing in the community, lost their elected positions and any future political hopes, lost reputation, sustained public humiliation, lost sleep, endured difficult family and marital issues, and lost confidence in the reality and honor of the Fourth Estate,” the suit reads.

Johnson lost his party’s endorsement in a primary and ultimately lost reelection. Similarly, French lost the GOP nod to current legislator Morris Sorbello for the election, as well.

Thompson has won many awards from the Syracuse Press Club for her investigative reporting.

French and Johnson are seeking $2 million in special, compensatory, and punitive damages, a jury trial for all causes of action and costs and attorney fees where appropriate.

Mark Blum, attorney for French and Johnson, could not be reached for comment this morning.

Vincent Caravan said that the newspaper has not been served yet.

“We don’t event know what’s in it yet,” Caravan said this morning. “Even then, we can’t say anything until we talk to our attorney.”

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