Tea Party Patriots, Member Pegged with $833K Libel Verdict
A jury also found the Tea Party Patriots acted in bad faith or were stubbornly litigious, teeing up additional litigation by the plaintiff to recover some of his attorney fees.
June 27, 2017 at 06:53 PM
11 minute read
A Cherokee County jury ordered Tea Party Patriots Inc. and one of its members—the ex-husband of the group's president—to pay a man $833,000 for pseudonymous comments asserting he was a “child molester.”
In addition to finding the statement's author, Lee Martin, and the activist group liable for damages, the jury also found the Tea Party Patriots acted in bad faith or were stubbornly litigious, teeing up additional litigation by plaintiff James Lyle to recover some of his attorney fees.
The verdict is the latest twist in a long-running suit that spun out of a bitter fight between the Tea Party Patriots and a former board member who joined rival group Tea Party Express in 2009. Martin was formerly married to Tea Party Patriots co-founder and president, Jenny Beth Martin.
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