The next chapter of the Hester vs. Anonymous Bloggers lawsuit will take place tomorrow at 10:30 a.m.
The hearing will take place in Louisburg, North Carolina.
To review:
On April 8, 2010, Home in Henderson editor Jason Feingold was served with a subpoena requiring him to produce information identifying twenty comment posters (Beautiful Dreamer, Confused, Fatboy, Heelshouse, InTheKnow, Interesting, Cathy Lee McIver, MJ, northstar, not my fault, Pearl, Point Keeper, Rachel, Sparky, THE REAL DEAL, Underworld, Who’s winning, A Tax Payer, Self Serving Sam and Ziggy).
The subpoena was pursuant to a Order Allowing Expedited Discovery issued by Judge Howard Manning on April 1, 2010. That order was the result of a civil summons also filed on April 1, 2010 by Tommy Hester, the plaintiff in this matter.
In response to Feingold’s subpoena, lawyers for Home in Henderson filed a motion to quash the subpoena of Feingold. A hearing on that motion was scheduled for April 20, 2010 10:00 a.m. in Vance County Superior Court with Judge Manning presiding.
At that hearing, all parties agreed to a consent order that essentially delayed the hearing on the motion to quash Feingold’s subpoena until the May 17, 2010 week term of Superior Court in Granville County, where Judge Manning was to be sitting at the time.
During the interim, Judge Manning’s schedule was changed and that meeting was pushed back to June 7, 2010. It was subsequently changed to June 4, 2010 at 10:30 a.m.
Hester proceeded to file his complaint which included the allegedly defamatory statements, something his original summons failed to do.
Essentially, this arrangement will allow Judge Manning to evaluate the allegedly defamatory statements that will be cited by Hester’s attorneys before ruling on Feingold’s motion to quash.