Senate Defamation Mailer Fight to Move Forward
TALLAHASSEE — An appeals court Wednesday rejected an attempt by Senate President Ben Albritton and a political committee to end a lawsuit filed by a former Senate candidate who alleges he was defamed in a mail piece linking him to China.
A three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal denied a petition filed in August by lawyers for Albritton and the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. The petition contended that Lake County Circuit Judge Dan Mosley erred in rejecting a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Bowen Kou.
Wednesday’s one-page order did not explain the appellate panel’s reasons, saying only that the petition was “denied on the merits.” The panel was made up of Chief Judge James Edwards and Judges Joe Boatwright and Paige Kilbane.
Kou ran in the Aug. 20 Republican primary for an open seat in Central Florida’s Senate District 13. Albritton and the committee backed then-Rep. Keith Truenow, a Tavares Republican who won the primary and the November general election.
The lawsuit stems from a mail piece that the political committee, which was chaired by Albritton, sent to voters. The mailer said, in part, “Why are Chinese donors (from all over the country) flooding Bowen Kou (Lake County state Senate race) with cash?”
Kou, a businessman who moved to the United States from China, alleged in the lawsuit that the mailer communicated that he is “controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and takes money from China.”
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Lawyers for Albritton and the committee have denied the defamation allegations, saying in an Aug. 29 brief at the appeals court that Kou was forcing “courts to become ministries of political truth and virtue, probing the thoughts of members in political committees and state senators.”
“Mr. Kou resists the obvious; the political mailer against him isn’t defamatory,” the brief said. “Instead, it drives home the obvious: Mr. Kou’s base of support comes not from Lake County or Florida, but from other states. This is made plain by the lists of donors, on the back of the mailer, from states like Illinois, California, and New York, as well as the question, on the front of the mailer, ‘why’ are ‘donors from all over the country’ — the country being the United States — donating to Mr. Kou’s campaign.”
But Kou’s lawyer, former state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, argued in an Aug. 29 brief that “the mailer misleads voters into believing that he has received political donations from China or people living in China.”
“That statement is false and made with actual malice: Respondent (Kou) has never taken money from China or members of the Chinese Communist Party,” Sabatini wrote. “Petitioner knows this and deliberately stated otherwise with actual malice.”
Mosley on July 29 issued a two-page order denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss, saying that the lawsuit “is legally sufficient to set forth a cause of action for libel.” The order did not provide a more-detailed explanation.
While the petition remained pending at the appeals court, Mosley this month scheduled a September trial in the case. Kou is scheduled for a deposition Thursday, according to a court document.
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