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Updated: 5:38 PM Nov 13, 2008
Democratic candidate sues Knoxville's Stacey Campfield for libel
Unsuccessful state House candidate Roger Byrge is suing Republican Rep. Stacey Campfield for libel.
Posted: 5:35 PM Nov 13, 2008 |
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4 Comments 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Unsuccessful state House candidate Roger Byrge is suing Republican Rep. Stacey Campfield for libel.
Byrge, a Democrat who lost his East Tennessee race by fewer than 400 votes, filed the $750,000 lawsuit against Campfield in Jacksboro this week.
The lawsuit alleges that Campfield, of Knoxville, falsely wrote on his blog that Byrge had been arrested several times on drug charges.
Campfield said he has not seen the lawsuit. He said he was only repeating what he had heard about Byrge, and that he was not presenting it as a fact.
Byrge is a Campbell County sheriff's deputy. He lost the race for the open House District 36 seat to Chad Faulkner, a deputy sheriff in Knox County.
The district represents Campbell and Union counties.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Latest Comments
I wonder how Roger Byrge will react when eyewitnesses appear to testify that he was making false accusations? He won't be able to blame his party because he started with the negative attacks on his opponent way before anything came out about him so he had to face some things. I'm afraid he's started something he won't be able to win. The people in this county are simply tired of several politicians that hang together and there's alot of corruption with the members of this group--people were afraid this candidate was taking it to the state level. All I can say is that if he's going to dish it out, he's got to be a big boy and take what's handed back in return. This is simply nothing but a publicity stunt and I think it will backfire on him as well--he's just bringing more attention to the new state rep and making the newly elected rep even more popular. That's not very smart in my opinion for anyone who wants to have a political future.
Go to the top political candidates running at anytime and you will find false statements. Even the "one" ,Obama, made statements in attack ad that were untrue,John Murtha falsely accused American soldiers of murder. McCain,Clinton, etc. are also guilty. Can we clean it up?? Not as long as folks have mouths and no brain..
However Robert Byrge is a public figure. So he sues Campfield for 750k? If Campfield were found guilty he should only be responsible for the amount that was put into Byrge's campaign. This would also give every candidate grounds to sue each other. Have you seen some of the attack ads out there? So Stacey wrote something about Byrge on his blog where he gets very little readers. Big deal. Let's keep freedom of speech protected or else we won't be able to say anything about public figures. Hustler v. Falwell.
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