Somehow this slipped through the cracks, but Carl is being sued for defamation.

Details here

Someone threatening to sue a blogger is nothing new, someone actually bothering with doing it is.

Most of the suit is bogus. Bill Welch’s privacy is largely a non-issue given his brother is a public official. That his brother voted on his hiring is bizarre in itself and pretty much opens all the rest to public scrutiny. Further, reporting on public records isn’t a violation of privacy.

The only issue that appears legally debatable is whether Carl’s letter to Chris Welch’s boss crosses the line. One would have to see the whole letter, but there is broad latitude depending on how the letter was written if it was seeking information as a member of the press.

Finally, and perhaps Carl can point it out, where is the word liar used by Carl towards either Welch brother? Given it’s in a quote, I’d think it would be verbatim, but then again the bogus privacy argument tends to make me think this wasn’t the work of a genius.

All bloggers should remember being sued is pretty easy. You migh have the law on your side, but it’s an expensive thing to make sure stays on your side–and make sure you have personal liability insurance. To those who threaten to sue me, yes I do and plenty of it. I have since before I started the blog. Bring it on.

2 thoughts on “Suing Bloggers”
  1. Thank you for your help in advance,
    Dear Mrs. Kelly,

    I want to thank you for taking a strong and courageous stand against the
    unethical behavior of Mr. Welch and others on the Proviso School Board. It
    is very unfortunate that I have to remain anonymous in this letter but I
    have been employed at Proviso for over ten years and I have seen what
    happens to employees who speak out. They are just simply terminated by the
    Proviso clique of what is a disgrace of a board majority. It is really a
    shame to allow a person like Mr. Welch to serve on our board making
    decisions for our children?s future and he consistently lies, cheats and
    steals from the very system that he is supposed to protect (District 209).
    He has been involved in illegal employment, firing and now he is using his
    political connections to Eugene Moore to lauder money for his future
    campaigns. When will the people wake up and call for an emergency hearing
    with the state and federal government to remove this poor excuse of an
    advocate for children from our school board. Has anyone contacted the state
    office of education or the Illinois State School Board Association? I along
    with other employees here in the district have watched this madness long
    enough. The recent employment of his brother, Billy Welch, who is a known
    drug dealer in our communities, is not acceptable to our parents and
    taxpayers. Now we have the employment of the past board member, who is a
    Welch flunky (Mike Carlson), working in our schools making $19.00 hr.
    working security. This is just the tip of the iceberg for Mr. Unethical
    Welch. There has been an accused child molester around our children for
    three years under the political thumb of Mr. Welch. There is a man named
    Tommy Miller who is a Chicago Public School P.E. teacher who is not only the
    boy?s basketball coach at Proviso, he also coaches boy?s volleyball for
    Proviso. Mr. Miller is a long time fraternity brother of Welch as well as a
    family friend. Mr. Miller has two sustained cases of (misconduct towards
    female students). That?s right; this man has been involved sexually with the
    students in his past high school coaching positions. If you work for Chicago
    Public Schools, why not coach in the Chicago system? That?s because Mr.
    Miller has been banned from coaching in the system based on his unethical
    behavior at Senn High School in the 90?s. Mr. Miller had sex with several of
    his student basketball players until he was approached by the parents and
    brought up on charges before the Inspector Generals office of Chicago Public
    Schools, (Case# CPS90-12 and CPS90-13). Mr. Miller was allowed to continue
    as a P.E. teacher because he reached an out of pocket agreement with the
    parents to settle the matter. This drained his financial bank accounts along
    with some income property in Chicago and in Louisville, Mississippi and
    forced him to file bankruptcy in the Illinois northern court with Judge Jack
    B. Schmetterer, and Attorney Sara K. Ledford, 200 S. Michigan Ave. Suite 209
    (Case#0436735). After review of the bankruptcy, it was determined that Mr.
    Miller has also used several alias names to file separately under Tommy
    Watson, Tommie Miller (Chapter 7) and would often use the name Tommy L.
    Miller (Chapter 13). Along with filing bankruptcy was the second mortgage on
    his property to pay off the second family of the student that he was
    involved with. This can be found as a Lien on his home (Case# 03M10115189)
    in the amount of a $10,000.00 payment also known as (HUSH MONEY). The last
    family of the student he had sexual relationship with, who also played on
    Mr. Miller?s girl?s basketball team, did not press charges on Mr. Miller
    because there was another out of pocket agreement made between the two. He
    agreed to marry her. It is his current wife who is still ashamed of the
    situation and goes by the name of Marcia Watson. Who by the way is also
    employed by Mr. Welch at Proviso West High School. Mr. Miller was also
    involved with a former Proviso West graduate who played under the direction
    of Coach Dianna Thomas. This Hispanic student went on to Robert Morris
    College where she met Tommy Miller who forced her to have sex with him in
    order to start on the basketball team. This student was later sexually
    abused by a lesbian student associated with Mr. Miller. This led to Mr.
    Miller?s departure at Robert Morris College as a coach.

    GOD PLEASE HELP US. The parents of this community are asking you now, Mrs.
    Kelly and the rest of the Board of Education to please continue to be
    positive voices for our children and remove this type of foolishness,
    unethical and immoral presence from our schools and around our children who
    are striving to be great students as well as athletes here at Proviso
    Township High Schools.

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