Johnston County Public Schools board chairman Todd Sutton has threatened a civil lawsuit against two Johnston County citizens. Sutton, through his attorney, Alan “Chip” Hewett of Selma, wrote a letter Feb. 18th to the individuals threatening legal action if they did not cease making comments about Mr. Sutton to the public and on social media. The letter was directed to Jim Wiesner of Clayton and Douglas Moore II of Princeton. Wiesner is the former mayor of Micro.
Dear Mr. Wiesner and Mr. Moore:
I represent Mr. Todd Sutton. You are directed to make any reply in writing to this office and do not contact Mr. Sutton.
Over the past several months, the two of you have engaged in a smear campaign regarding the reputation and character of Mr. Sutton. You have made several public derogatory and negative comments to members of the public and on social media sites. Your claims are unfounded and untrue. For the record, Mr. Sutton has never been convicted of a felony in Florida or any other state. While you may think your comment about it snowing in the Keys and 5 o’clock somewhere is cute, any average person knows you are referring to cocaine and alcohol use. As for his last name, Todd was adopted; and after he got married, he assumed the birth name of his father. He has nothing to hide and the name change is nothing sinister.
Your public comments are taken seriously, and they are nothing short of libel and slander. These statements are false and inaccurate, and I am making a demand on behalf of Mr. Sutton to retract the statements. You both are instructed to make no further disparaging comments about Todd or his family. Please make no mistake about it – if your conduct continues, my client will exhaust every legal remedy he has available. This matter is serious and requires your immediate response.
Your best course of conduct is to put this matter behind you. This letter will be the only notification that you will receive, and I strongly suggest that you immediately cease and desist your behavior.
Sincerely yours,
Alan B. Hewitt
Johnston County Report reached out to Mr. Hewett on Monday and confirmed he was being retained privately by Todd Sutton and not through Johnston County Public Schools. Hewett declined to address the specifics or details of “any false statements made” saying “the matter is ongoing.” Hewett said Sutton has never been charged or convicted of a felony.
In an emailed statement Tuesday morning, Hewett told Johnston County Report, “Mr. Sutton, like the other members of the School Board, volunteer a great deal of time and energy to serve the parents and students of Johnston County. It is a thankless job. Social media is an outlet to voice praises or complaints as to how the board members are voting and setting policy. It is not an outlet to perform character assassination or make comments that are false and misleading.”
“Todd Sutton, who is a respectable, self-made, and yes adopted man, will not sit idle and allow his reputation and character to be tarnished on matters that have nothing to do with the School Board. It is most interesting that the letter you were given was mailed on February 18. You received a copy and contacted me on February 22. Rather than address the content of the letter direct in a manly fashion, the recipients have quickly retreated to the media to continue the smear campaign. The unrelated personal attacks will not be tolerated,” Hewett said in his email.
We reached out to Frayda Bluestein, Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government at the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We asked if First Amendment speech is protected on social media platforms. “Social media opens up broad options for First Amendment expression, although defamation is not protected speech. If the allegations are true there is no case for defamation… People who are public officials open themselves to a higher standard, and the official must prove that the speaker spoke with ‘actual malice’.”
Sutton has served on the JCPS board since 2017.
Mr. Wiesner declined to comment for our story. Mr. Moore said he was unable to comment upon advice of his attorney.
They called you names. So what?
Trust me, it’s what these guys supposedly said that make people question your character. It’s the job as board chair that makes people question your character.
If they were serious they would had skipped the attorney scare letter and had his law suit served. Mr. Sutton wants the bad press to go away and he doing all of us a favor in showing us what kind of person he really is. Anyone here notice that this is like Dominion Voting Machines suing anyone that wants to say anything about the large scale voting fraud that just happen this last election? What side does that folks Republican or Democrats? You be the judge Johnston County Tax Payers and Parents?
Let me compare this analogy of another famous presidential politician that did nothing but put this country last. I to was adopted and the folks that raised me were the parents and yes I knew my biological participants. When President Obama made it known he changed his Mothers given name from Barry to Barack all I could think of is what a condescending personality it would take to do that? Now with Todd Sutton the situation is different, the loving parents that open their hearts and home must have gave him their last name along with the acceptance and love that no one else offered him. Does anyone have any idea how those parents must have felt when they heard of his last name change? Now I can see them out of love saying son we still love you and support you, but Mr.Todd Sutton please look at your history that you have publicized and when you make eye contact with Tax Payers and Parents we are asking this question? If he would do his adopted parents that way what would he do to us? Chairman Sutton thank you so much for this valuable insight of your true essence of a man.
Sutton is a disgrace to this county and should resign immediately along with every other member of the school board and don’t think we have forgotten how you guys “lost” $10 million
Yes please step down or ask county commissioner to take him out or let start a Facebook page to remove. He is bad news start a page to remove bow tie I will help yall so sad let Kay Carroll take over he has a Proven leader like him or not bit is Proven jimmy
Carroll? Really? Carroll was front and center when the budget crises began under Ed Croom.
It’s fitting that all this drama is related to the school board members and their opposition because it seems they ALL are behaving like a bunch of 3rd graders! They need to stop all this nonsense on both sides and get back to the business of EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN!!
The so-called Conservative Johnston County Commissioners can only keep hauling truck loads after truck loads of Johnston County Tax Payers Money to Mr. Sutton and having no constructive criticism at all. Where is a Wade Stewart when we need one? What a miserable human excuse for leader ship we have for both boards of commissioners and education.
From the little I’ve seen, it looks as if Sutton is not suited to the position as Board Chair.
This is my last post on this subject and I promise. I just want all of the Johnston County Tax Payers to take notice that both commissioners and education board chairman’s are married into the Teacher Union Teachers family. Anyone want to make a bet of who wears the pants in both of these house holds? Seriously, and yes this is a conflict of interest that carries as much weight as the conflict of interest with Tracie Zukowski being a BOE member by night and a JOCO school vendor by day. What’s wrong with both of these boards is not hard to see because this county has not been this upside down but the last 4 years.
What does it take to remove every single one on this board and start over? We are getting tired of this show and still want to know where $8,000,000 went!
It’s like our own little dominion scam here in joco. Yay!!!