Methuen mayor files suit against Valley Patriot paper

Methuen Mayor James Jajuga is suing a local newspaper for defamation, claiming the publication made “false and outrageous statements” about him being a drug addict, a corrupt cop and a crooked politician.

“The defendants ignored evidence readily available to them, if not in their actual possession, that these statements were untrue, or simply chose to make these statements up, believing that they had no obligation to comply with the most basic journalistic standards of ethics, to the extent that they were even aware of those standards,” the scathing complaint, filed yesterday by Jajuga’s attorneys, states.

Jajuga brought the lawsuit against the North Andover-based Valley Patriot and owner and publisher Thomas Duggan in Essex Superior Court. The suit points to a column Duggan published earlier this month in which he claimed that Jajuga was forced from his job with the state police “because of heroin addiction and several other issues. That is a fact.”

Duggan also claims in his column that Jajuga was forced to resign from his position as a state senator because “he was under both state and federal investigation for a multitude of criminal accusations.”

“The First Amendment does not protect those who could not care less about publishing complete falsehoods for the purpose of attempting to injure peoples’ reputations, and it is important that those who have acted as Mr. Duggan has here are held accountable in a court of law,” attorneys for Jajuga said in a statement.

Duggan defended his article to the Herald yesterday, arguing that it was an opinion piece. “I stand by everything that’s in that column. Much of what he seems to be objecting to in his lawsuit are things that are opinions — like that he’s a crooked cop or a crooked senator,” Duggan said. “Donald Trump gets called crooked every day, and he doesn’t go around suing people.”

He added that Jajuga is only bringing the lawsuit because “he wants to bankrupt us through a lawsuit because we have to pay attorneys to fight this. We’re a small paper. We don’t make a lot of money.”