Sep 9, 2004 By Jennifer Harr 4 min read

State House Minority Leader H. William DeWeese made several promises to the Herald-Standard to provide detailed records from the House Special Leadership Account in his control, according to a court document the newspaper’s attorney filed Tuesday in response to the lawmaker’s lawsuit against the newspaper. In December 2002, DeWeese sued the Herald-Standard, former executive editor Michael C. Ellis and five unnamed members of the newspaper’s editorial board over a series of commentaries that ran next to caricatures of the lawmaker from June 2001 until May 2002. The commentaries counted the number of days DeWeese did not release detailed expenditures from the special leadership account.

The $12.5 million account supports activities of the House Democratic Caucus, but attorneys for DeWeese and the House of Representatives have argued that a clause in the Pennsylvania Constitution precludes lawmakers from releasing details that relate to legislative activity, including the special leadership account.

Initially, DeWeese claimed the newspaper defamed him in the commentaries and editorial writings by using the term “slush fund” in reference to the leadership account. At a hearing last month, DeWeese’s attorney presented an amended version of the suit that withdraws the “slush fund” claims.

The remaining allegation in the lawsuit contends that when the newspaper published in the commentaries that DeWeese did not “honor his word” in releasing account documentation, the newspaper accused the lawmaker of “dishonorable” behavior. DeWeese alleges that the commentaries and other editorial writing in the newspaper defamed him because it implied that he lied or broke his word.

The latest filing from Herald-Standard attorney Charles Kelly indicates that commentaries and editorials that ran in the newspaper never said DeWeese “lied.”

“To the contrary, the newspaper’s opinions reflect that the editorial board believed Rep. DeWeese to be a man of his word and expressed that view repeatedly for nearly a year, inquiring when this leader would honor his word by producing detailed records as he promised and conceded was the ‘right’ thing to do,” Kelly wrote.

The filing also asks Fayette County Judge Steve P. Leskinen to dismiss the case and award court costs to the Herald-Standard.

In the filing, Kelly also contends that DeWeese promised to produce detailed account information and acknowledged his promise on several occasions, both personally and through his chief of staff Michael Manzo.

After the initial October 2000 editorial board meeting during which DeWeese acknowledged that releasing detailed expenditures from the account was the right thing to do, he followed up with communication through Manzo, according to the filing.

In February 2001, Manzo, speaking on behalf of DeWeese, told a newspaper correspondent that the legislator would make detailed disclosures that spring, the filing contends.

Around that time, DeWeese also told a newspaper reporter that he was “committed” to releasing the records, and said he was committed to “an open process with the public and the media,” the filing indicates.

Comments from both DeWeese and Manzo ran as part of a story in the newspaper, and DeWeese never called to demand a retraction or claim it was inaccurate, Kelly wrote.

In June 2001, during a telephone conference shortly before the caricatures and commentaries began running, DeWeese, through Manzo, again promised detailed disclosures from the account, Kelly contended.

Before the caricatures and commentaries ran, a newspaper representative called DeWeese’s office and told Manzo that the Herald-Standard would continue to publish the material until DeWeese produced detailed, itemized expenditures. Neither DeWeese nor his office staff told the newspaper that there was anything false in the content of the commentaries, Kelly wrote.

“To the contrary, Mr. Manzo, on behalf of Rep. DeWeese, promised to make public disclosure of itemized expenditures from the account,” according to the filing.

During that month, DeWeese also sent a letter to the newspaper “in which he acknowledged his promise, as first made in October 2000,” Kelly wrote. In that letter, DeWeese gave a general breakdown of some account expenditures, and promised to release “similar reports as warranted,” the filing states.

In July 2001, as caricatures of the legislator were published, DeWeese wrote a letter acknowledging that he “promised additional information,” to the newspaper, the filing indicates.

Based on all those communications, Kelly contends that “the newspaper accurately expressed its opinion that Rep. DeWeese had given his word that the right thing to do was make full disclosure, and, as a man of his word, he would eventually do so because he was ‘absolutely pristine.'”

Kelly’s filing also argues that free speech rights, guaranteed by the United States and Pennsylvania constitutions, protect the newspaper.

The filing called commentaries and editorials written about DeWeese “pure political speech” that is constitutionally protected.