Rockdale Citizen

COVINGTON -- Attorney Stephanie Lindsey has served at least one person she alleges is a malicious web poster with a cease and desist notice.

On Wednesday, Lindsey apparently sent Kevin Dockery, a former teacher at Alcovy High School for four years, a cease and desist notice via his personal email address.

"Upon information and belief, you have created numerous accounts through the Newton Citizen Newspaper website to lodge a malicious campaign against Dr. LaQuanda Carpenter and Dr. Dennis Carpenter," the notice reads.

The notice does not specify which accounts he is accused of creating or what comments he is accused of making on the Citizen website.

Lindsey is representing Carpenter, the principal of Alcovy High School, in a defamation lawsuit against web posters on the Citizen website, who Carpenter is claiming libeled her with their comments. Her husband Dennis Carpenter, deputy superintendent for Operations at the Newton County School System, is not identified as a plaintiff in the suit.

Web posters who use the pseudonyms MsLoy, bluedeyeddevil, amp72, newtoncountyparent, watermelonlover, beautifulblueeyes, Satan69 and KBeet are named in the suit; originally, three others were named but have since been removed. Additionally, Newton County Board of Education member Jeff Meadors is named in the suit with LaQuanda Carpenter alleging that Meadors is posting defamatory comments under the web IDs MsLoy and KBeet. Meadors has denied the allegation.

Dockery hasn't been added to the suit, according to Newton County Superior Court Records as of Friday afternoon.

The notice to Dockery demands that he immediately stop "all online defamatory blog postings or slanderous comments referencing (the Carpenters)."

Additionally, the notice demands that Dockery stop postings that reference Newton County School System Superintendent Gary Mathews, members of the Newton County Board of Education and NCSS employees that are "tantamount to indirect postings regarding (the Carpenters)."

"I demand that within five days of the date of this letter, or sooner, you begin to publish in writing appropriate retractions in as conspicuous and public manner as that in which the defamatory statements were published and for the same length of time," the notice reads.

Failure to comply with the requests may subject him to punitive damages, according to the notice.

"It is my desire that you adhere to this demand and attempt to bring productive closure to this unfortunate matter," the letter states.

Dockery also received in the body of the email a statement that Lindsey posted earlier this week on the Citizen website that notified posters that they had been named in the suit and would later be informed of a hearing date.

During a motions hearing earlier this month, Newton County Superior Court Judge Eugene Benton ordered Lindsey to attempt to notify the anonymous posters as well as depose them and other witnesses before attempting to request identifying information from the newspaper, as previously requested.

"It's confusing why this came to me," Dockery said on Thursday. "It kind of came out of the blue."

He said he wasn't sure if he became a target because of an affidavit he wrote for the motions hearing. While at Alcovy, he became upset that the administration tried to put a needs improvement status in his evaluation instead of putting him through a professional development plan first after he brought up some issues with End of Course Testing procedures in 2010. He said he still knows teachers at the school who are frustrated with administrative issues.

"(Lindsey and Carpenter) seem to target anybody who's disagreed with them," said Dockery, who now lives and teaches in Tennessee. "I did nothing wrong and see no reason why my name is being brought in."

Lindsey declined to comment Thursday.