Publicist files defamation suit against The Hook

A Hollywood publicist based in Buckingham County has filed a defamation suit against the parent company of The Hook and two of the publication’s reporters.

Thomas L. Garrett Jr. filed the suit Monday morning in Buckingham Circuit Court against Better Publications LLC, Lindsay Barnes and Courteney Stuart. Garrett is seeking $5 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages for each of two claims of defamation.

Hawes Spencer, editor and publisher of The Hook, said Monday afternoon that he was not aware a lawsuit had been filed. Spencer said the paper denies the charges and stands behind its reporters.

“… This lawsuit comes as no surprise,” Spencer said.

Garrett’s lawyer, the Daleville-based James R. Creekmore, said Monday that his client felt the lawsuit was long overdue.

“They have followed a pervasive pattern of attacking Mr. Garrett,” Creekmore said. “It was severe enough that he couldn’t overlook it any longer.”

According to the complaint, the first claim of defamation against all three defendants relates to the alternative newsweekly’s coverage of forgery charges filed against Garrett in Buckingham. The complaint claims that Barnes “lampoons Garrett and his attorney over one matter or another” with stories about Garrett’s court case and existence of a magazine cover story on Garrett.

The suit’s second count of defamation, which is only against Better Publications and Stuart, claims Stuart’s April 24 article on Garrett’s plea deal made false statements about the facts of the case.

According to court records, Garrett was charged in January 2006 with 15 counts of forgery and uttering. Garrett pleaded guilty to entering the property of another for the purpose of damaging it, court records show, and received a 12-month suspended sentence and two years of unsupervised probation. The commonwealth’s attorney chose not to prosecute the remaining forgery and uttering charges.

In the suit, Garrett claims that defamation by The Hook and its reporters caused him to lose his position with an Australian radio program, damaged his relationship with a Christian academy in Buckingham and prevented him from renting an apartment in California.