Libel trial targets newspaper reporters

VALDOSTA - Two reporters from a south Georgia weekly newspaper are defending themselves in court against a sheriff&#39;s deputy who says the paper falsely accused him of killing a suspect in custody. <br> <br> Lowdnes County sheriff&#39;s Deputy Kevin Farmer sued Al Parsons and Charles Moore of the Lake Park Post for libel. The trial opened this week in Lowdnes County Superior Court. <br> <br> Parsons and Moore wrote about the September 1998 death of Willie James Williams and the subsequent investigation. Farmer&#39;s attorney, Mike Bowers, told a jury the reporters&#39; stories contended the deputy beat Williams, even after several investigations cleared him. <br> <br> Bowers said, ``This lawsuit, in a word, is about two men, Al Parsons and Charles Moore, who have run amok.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Attorneys for Parsons and Moore said the reporters wrote about each step in the investigation responsibly and without malice, which must be proven in a libel case involving a public official. <br> <br> Their attorneys said a video tape taken from a patrol car seemed to show Farmer beating Williams with a flashlight. But the deputy was cleared by a grand jury, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the county coroner and the U.S. Department of Justice.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/6/193394