The Sun News continues legal fight in defamation case

The Sun News will continue its fight to overturn a $650,000 jury verdict against the newspaper and a former investigative reporter.

Last month, the S.C. Court of Appeals upheld an Horry County jury’s decision that the newspaper and former reporter David Wren defamed Myrtle Beach area lobbyist Mark Kelley in stories about campaign contributions.

The Sun News has now asked the appellate court to reconsider that decision, said Jay Bender, the newspaper’s attorney. Bender expects this request to be denied. Should that happen, the paper would then petition the S.C. Supreme Court.

“We were disappointed in the [appellate court’s] findings and felt we had a solid argument defending our position,” said Mark Webster, president and publisher of The Sun News. “We are presently pursuing appealing this decision.”

Kelley sued Wren and The Sun Publishing Co. in 2012 seeking compensation for “his loss of and/or damage to his good name, his personal and business reputation,” according to his lawsuit.

Wren’s articles focused on a June 2009 luncheon attended by Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce President Brad Dean, Kelley, then-S.C. gubernatorial candidate Gresham Barrett and a Barrett campaign staff member.

At the luncheon, Dean presented Barrett with an envelope containing $84,000 in campaign donations, most of which were on sequentially numbered checks from LLCs (Limited Liability Corporations) drawn on the same bank.

Kelley has said the wording of the articles, which were published in May 2010, accused him of violating state ethics laws that prohibit lobbyists from soliciting or handling campaign donations for statewide candidates.

Attorneys for the newspaper and Wren have argued that the accounts did not defame Kelley or harm his reputation, but were part of a series of stories about campaign contributions. The newspaper’s leaders maintain they were seeking to determine where those donations came from.

The jury sided with Kelley and in 2014 awarded the lobbyist $400,000 in actual damages and $250,000 punitive damages. The newspaper appealed that decision but wasn’t successful.

Wren left The Sun News in 2014 and works for The Post and Courier in Charleston.

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 1:37 AM with the headline "The Sun News continues legal fight in defamation case."