Ex-newsman, lawyer plan to file lawsuit

Letter asks judge, DA for $1M, alleges false arrest, prosecution.

The owner of a now-closed weekly newspaper and his attorney plan to sue the judge and the district attorney who brought felony charges against and jailed them because of their push to secure public records.

In a letter to Appalachian Judicial Circuit Chief Superior Court Judge Brenda Weaver, District Attorney Alison Sosebee and Pickens County, lawyers for Mark Thomason, who owned the defunct Fannin Focus, and Hiawassee attorney Russell Stookey demanded $1 million for emotional and other damages to their respective businesses caused by “the false arrest and malicious prosecution and the egregiousness of the actions leading to their arrest” on June 24, 2016.

Gerry Weber, one of the three lawyers representing Thomason and Stookey, said Tuesday that only Pickens County has responded to the demand letter that was dated June 15.

“There is either going to be a resolution with the defendants or we will file in federal court,” Weber said Tuesday.

Phil Landrum — the attorney for Pickens County where the two men were jailed — said the county had done nothing wrong and “we’ll defend the claim.”

Sosebee declined to comment. A call to Weaver’s cell phone was answered and then immediately terminated, and she did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The felony case brought against Thomason and Stookey drew national media attention and outrage from groups that represent news organizations and defense

attorneys, angry at the steps that were taken to stop the release of public records.

A months-long dispute with the local judiciary began when Thomason had tried to get recordings of a controversial court hearing and then documents relating to court spending.

At one point, the court reporter, who possessed the audio of a court proceeding during which the now-retired judge used a racial slur, sued Thomason because she said he defamed her by claiming her transcription of that court session may not have been accurate.

After Thomason and court reporter Rhonda Stubblefield dropped their respective suits, Stubblefield took legal action to force Thomason to reimburse her the $16,000 she spent bringing the lawsuit against him. Thomason and Stookey, however, insisted that those legal fees were not owed because they had already been paid out of the office account of a then-retired superior court judge.

Stookey secured subpoenas for bank records in an effort to prove that point. Thomason filed a written request for copies of checks that may have been “cashed illegally” to withdraw funds court operating accounts.

Sosebee, the district attorney, at the behest of Judge Weaver, secured indictments against Thomason and Stookey. Both were charged with identity fraud and attempting to commit identity fraud in connection with the subpoena and Thomason was also charged with making a false statement for the wording in his records request.

“That evening, (Fannin County) Sheriff Dane Kirby arrested Mark Thomason in dramatic fashion,” the letter said. “The sheriff shut down the main road through Fannin County and waited for Mr. Thomason to pass through. Around the same time, Russell Stookey was arrested from his home in Towns County. Both men were first taken to local jails, and then transported to the Pickens County jail. During transport, both men had their arms and legs shackled as if violent criminals. They each spent the night in jail.”

Both were released on bond the next day. Thomason was required to submit to several drug-alcohol tests in the days that followed.

Then two weeks later, Sosebee dropped the charges, again at Weaver’s request.

According to the letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that series of events forced Thomason to shut down the Fannin Focus newspaper and damaged Stookey’s law practice.

“While these two men no longer face a baseless criminal prosecution, they continue to suffer the effects of this saga,” the letter said. “Both men rely on people in and around the Appalachian Judicial Circuit to make a living. The acts of the government officials named in this letter have damaged their reputations, which has had a direct impact on both men’s livelihoods.” At one point, the FBI opened an investigation into the controversy around the Fannin Focus but it was eventually closed. Weaver, who was at the time chair of the Judicial Qualifications Commission, resigned from the JQC.

RHONDA COOK / AJC 2016 Co-defendants Mark Thomason (right) and Russell Stookey, who is Thomason’s lawyer, have been involved in a dispute with the local judiciary that began over an effort to obtain public records.