As if we haven’t had enough fun with Ray McBerry for the campaign season, he calls a press conference today and releases a press release that is just more of Ray’s rambling style of whatever you want to call it. He claims his innocence, and all the usual jazz, and you can read it for yourself on Peach Pundit.
In it, McBerry claims he will be filing a lawsuit against three people to be named later. I’m guessing that Jeff will be one of them, and Rachel Gandee another. Whether yours truly is the third or not is a matter for debate (it may also be Jim Galloway from the Atlanta Journal). Ray also says that anyone repeating the charges will get a big, fat lawsuit leveled at them as well. Hmmm.
You see, it’s only libel if it’s false, you know it, and report it anyways with an intent to cause harm. Frankly, he doesn’t have a case against Jeff Sexton, Jim Galloway, or Tom Knighton and I think he knows it. That’s why the suits won’t be filed until after November supposedly. However, there’s something else intrinsically disturbing here. Here’s the exact quote:
I will be aggressively prosecuting anyone who continues this libel, or reprints that of others, whether they be blogger, media, or political opponent.
Now, let’s keep in mind that it’s only libel if you believe it false. Now, let’s also keep in mind that Ray is supposedly a big fan of the Constitution. I guess he missed that whole “freedom of speech” issue?
For the record, both Jeff and I completely believe Rachel Gandee’s report of what happened. We believe her mother’s as well. McBerry can try and file a lawsuit. Frankly, I doubt it’ll materialize. This is nothing more than a way to deflect the situation until after the election, because he believes he’ll win. Afterwards, who will care about a few bloggers?
Personally, I don’t see how he could think he’d win a lawsuit. The facts are that he was found on a dirt road at night with a teenage girl who he had been told to stay away from, and that he put up a sign offering free puppies of a breed that Rachel Gandee had said she wanted in an effort to get her to initiate contact with him. Frankly, the creepy scale on just the stuff he admits to is high enough to warrant my decision to consider him unfit to rule an ant colony, much less govern the state of Georgia.
But you know what Ray? We know the only reason you’re doing this is because you think that this will be sufficient to diffuse discussion about this inappropriate relationship. Plenty of commenters on various blogs have argued that if it’s false, he should sue for libel but if it’s not, he should withdraw. He doesn’t want to withdraw, because he’s crazy enough to think people believe him. But I suspect he doesn’t want to file a suit because he knows the allegations to be true and he would lose, which would hurt his chances with the hard-core, Christian Republicans that he seeks to court.
But that’s fine Ray. You make your little threats, and we’ll do what we do. Ain’t America great?
http://swgapolitics.com/index/2010/03/28/ray-mcberry-child-molester/
Grift:
Actually, even that one was kosher, for several reasons. I’ll discuss if Ray follows through on his threat.
You know all, Jeff.
Not all, but I know there’s nothing Ray can peg on me here.
You play fast and loose and with arrogance. One day it will bite you. Maybe not this time, but one day.
You’re one to talk about arrogance, grift.
Did Ray write his letter before or after the stepfather accused McBerry of molesting their daughter?
Somehow I don’t see writing a seven page later asking for forgiveness from somebody who had just *falsely* accused me of being a child molester.
Unless he’s claiming that the stepfather only made those accusations after he wrote the letter, I don’t see how any reasonable person could reconcile McBerry’s story with the content of that letter.
[...] McBerry also states that he plans on suing no less than three individuals for libel over the issue. Among them may be Jeff Saxton from SWGA Politics: As if we haven’t had enough fun with Ray McBerry for the campaign season, he calls a press [...]
I’ve done a lot of reading on this story because I’m backing Ray for Governor, and Tom and Jeff seem like they’ve done a lot of work on this, BUT (and it’s a big BUT) it still seems to come down to a “he said/she said”. Her family going through some kind of divorce, McBerry spends time with her, Step-Father gets mad, doesn’t like Ray and looks to damage him. Why wouldn’t they pursue prosecution for this? There’s no way in hell, that if an adult male molested my daughter, he would still be a free man. I would pursue his prosecution to the Nth degree!
Tom or Jeff, have you gotten any corroborating statements from any of the church members, from the school administrators, any police investigators? You’ve got some evidence that you can use to sway with the right play on words, but when you mention something about further investigation you said something about not having time.
You’ve called McBerry supporters “trolls”, what about the few people who have shown up to say something negative (they are of course legitimate right)? I could change my display name to “formerstudent” very easily, or something similar. How about “formerstudent2″, now there’s a story: “Former McBerry Students Lining Up to Tell Their Stories”. You seem to lean only in one possible direction, that he is guilty, is it at all possible that this girl’s family is lying? Is it at all possible that the school board only suspeneded him for a week because there was nothing to the charges, and they had to do something because he used poor judgement in counseling a young girl? You know I’ve never in my life heard of a girl using the courts to smear someone, or lying about being raped, Duke Lacrosse incident ring a bell?
No one said anything about rape.