Jimmy Herndon (left) and Gerald Weber.

Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren has resolved a federal lawsuit with a political opponent by agreeing to stop deleting comments and blocking critics from his public Facebook page in a settlement announced Friday.

The sheriff also agreed to unblock his Democratic challenger and restore previously deleted comments on his Facebook page from former sheriff's investigator James "Jimmy" Herndon and anyone else his office blocked, the settlement agreement said. Warren also agreed to pay $29,750, including $29,000 in legal fees, according to the agreement.

Herndon sued the sheriff and public information officers Lt. Col. Robert Quigley and Deputy Glenn Daniel in November, claiming they engaged in "viewpoint-based censorship" in violation of the First Amendment by deleting critical comments and blocking him on Facebook.

In settling, the sheriff maintained there was no factual or legal basis for Herndon's claims and that the agreement doesn't constitute an admission he violated anyone's civil rights or broke the law.

Herndon's attorney, Gerry Weber, said the suit reinforces the message "that public officials should never silence their critics on social media. They are their constituents, whether they are their critics or supporters."

Weber said that Warren is not the only public official who has blocked critics on social media.  "It's a frequent problem that should, by now, not be happening," he said. "I've seen it done by politicians from both political parties. It's a nonpartisan affliction of public officials to silence critics."

Atlanta attorney Craig Goodmark and Lilburn lawyer Jennifer Hickey served as Weber's co-counsel.

Herndon said the case was about restoring his constitutional rights, and not about the money. Herndon said he sued after Warren "stonewalled" offers by the ACLU of Georgia a year ago warning him he was in violation of the First Amendment.

Cobb County attorney Lauren Bruce couldn't be reached for comment. Outside counsel Sun Choy, a partner at the Atlanta offices of Freeman, Mathis & Gary, also couldn't be reached.

On Friday, Warren said the settlement "is an example of how a disgruntled former employee can continue to cost taxpayers."

The sheriff said that Herndon "wanted to post angry untruthful comments on my personal social media page and had to resort to lawyers and legal fees to get his way."

But Weber countered that what the sheriff calls his "personal page" was where his office posted all official communications. Weber said it was also managed by two sheriff's employees "on the government's dime," making it a public forum.

Herndon's claims are virtually identical to issues raised in lawsuits against President Donald Trump and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, after they blocked critics from their Twitter feeds.

Last July, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that called the president's action of blocking critics on Twitter an unconstitutional affront to the First Amendment. The appeals court concluded Trump's Twitter account is a public forum that he uses to deliver official news.

Just days before Herndon sued last November, Ocasio-Cortez issued a public apology for blocking a former elected official from her Twitter account. The apology was issued as a condition of settling the lawsuit accusing her of curtailing his First Amendment rights.

Last year, Weber settled similar claims against Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman over the sheriff's deletion of critical comments by former law enforcement officer Christopher Davis, whom Chapman also blocked from access to the sheriff's public Facebook page. 

In October, a Washington County sheriff's deputy paid his ex-wife $100,000 and publicly apologized for having her arrested and jailed after she complained about him on her personal Facebook page.