Edward Teach Brewing files defamation suit against person behind Facebook post

Embroiled in controversy for weeks after a viral Facebook post accused its owner of misconduct, a Wilmington brewery filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the person behind the post.

In the suit, filed in Brunswick County Superior Court, Edward Teach Brewing and its owner, Gary Sholar, accuse singer and songwriter Madonna Nash of defamation and of damaging the brewery's business. The suit seeks damages of more than $25,000 and an injunction "barring Nash from continuing to defame them," according to a news release from Sholar's attorney, Thomas Varnum with the Brooks Pierce law firm in Wilmington.

The suit was filed in Brunswick County because that's where Nash lives.

"The brewery is in the business of making beer, not filing lawsuits," Varnum said in the release. "But after more than a month of attempting to reach out directly to Ms. Nash and asking her for a dialogue, all to no avail, there really wasn’t another option … What’s said and shared on social media has real life impacts, perhaps especially when what’s said is untrue. For the brewery and its employees the effects of Ms. Nash’s defamatory post and the reactions it purposefully instigated have been enormous."

The lawsuit stems from a Nov. 16 incident at Edward Teach Brewing involving Nash's daughter, a singer named Asia Daye who regularly performs in the Wilmington area. Daye was performing at Edward Teach that night when her friend, who is unidentified in the lawsuit, got into a confrontation with Sholar after Sholar tried to sing a song with Daye.

In the ensuing hubbub, profanities were exchanged, at least one chair was knocked over and Daye and her friend were kicked out of Edward Teach.

Nash was not present for the incident, but on Dec. 29 she put a lengthy post on Facebook accusing Sholar of, among other things, grabbing, "pushing himself into" and knocking Daye "off balance" while she was performing. "She was just utterly mortified and felt completely violated."

Nash's post, as noted in the lawsuit, went on to say, "He is dangerous! If it were up to me I would have him shut down. Do not give him your business."

The post quickly went viral and was followed by an Edward Teach boycott of sorts. The lawsuit notes that business at the taproom is down, and that area businesses that used to carry Edward Teach products, including Lowe's Foods, have stopped selling it.

Nash has repeatedly declined to answer questions from the StarNews and Daye has not returned emails seeking comment. In a Facebook message sent Jan. 5, Nash did offer this statement: "We would like to thank everyone in our community for their outpouring of support."

The suit contains what it says is a text exchange between Nash and Edward Teach taproom manager Amy Cavasos that began the night Nash made the post. Cavasos wasn't there when the incident occurred, but said she and at least one co-worker watched security footage of the incident shortly after it happened.

Cavasos told Nash, "I watched the tapes and a lot of what you say is 100% false."

Nash responded, "I'm only going off of the information told to me by my daughter, her friend and a few witnesses."

Later in the exchange, Nash asked Cavasos, "Is any of it true?"

Cavasos responded, "Not much of it. He came up to her, put his hand on her left shoulder for less than a second, walked to the front and started dancing … I get that it happened so fast and for a young girl could seem scary."

Nash later amended her post, taking out a part about Sholar supposedly putting his hand around Daye's hip. According to the suit, Cavasos continued to reach out to Nash to but Nash eventually stopped responding. Her original, edited post is still pinned to the top of her Facebook page.

The suit maintains that Edward Teach tried to recover security footage from Nov. 16 but was ultimately unsuccessful. Less than 20 seconds of video footage of the incident was posted anonymously to Facebook several days ago; it shows Sholar holding a beer and arguing with Daye and Daye's unidentified friend.

Much of the outrage following Nash's post came from fellow musicians, many of whom, in online comments, saw Sholar's actions, no matter how innocently they were intended and even as the owner of the establishment, as a violation of Daye's space as a performer.

The lawsuit also contains what it says are threats of violence against Sholar, and notes that someone made threatening calls to the brewery last weekend, causing employees to call the police.

In addition, the lawsuit includes five affadavits from people more or less backing up Edward Teach's side of the story. The witnesses include three employees of Edward Teach and two patrons who saw the incident.

This is the second civil lawsuit Edward Teach has filed regarding this matter.

Last week, Edward Teach filed a civil lawsuit against Erik Van Peterson, a former employee of Edward Teach who is now an employee at Wilmington's Flying Machine Brewing Co., seeking more than $25,000 in damages.

The lawsuit accuses Peterson of affixing labels containing QR codes to Edward Teach products at two Harris Teeter stores in Wilmington. The QR codes, the lawsuit says, linked to Facebook pages containing what the brewery says is defamatory statements about Sholar.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Edward Teach Brewing claims defamation from person behind Facebook post