Facebook sparring by Powell attorney leads to defamation lawsuit

For at least a year, a Powell attorney has been waging a verbal attack against a resident via social media.

From the Powell Watch Facebook page, of which he is an administrator, Gary Yashko has launched a fusillade of insults, name-calling and accusations against Greg Bean-DeFlumer, who has returned fire.

The back-and-forth has been relentless, personal and vulgar.

Now Bean-DeFlumer and his wife, Jessica, have sued Yashko for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and interfering with Bean-DeFlumer's business contacts. He has been on unpaid leave since April after Yashko contacted his information-technology employer, Greg Bean-DeFlumer said.

Because the website's other administrators and moderators failed to stop the verbal attacks, Yashko, 53, and seven others are also named in the lawsuit for "civil conspiracy," according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit raises broad questions, some say, about what is permitted on community social media sites and who is legally responsible when dialog turns hostile, vindictive and, potentially, defamatory.

The attacks are "disparaging misinterpretations of the truth in order to make the plaintiffs look unhinged, untrustworthy, unable to serve the public and incompetent," according to the lawsuit filed earlier this month in Delaware County Common Pleas Court.

The lawsuit states that Yashko called Bean-DeFlumer a pedophile and a "wife-beater." However, there are no public criminal records for Bean-DeFlumer in either Delaware Municipal or Delaware County Common Pleas courts to support that accusation.

The lawsuit contends that Yashko knew the accusations were untrue, and yet made them publicly and maliciously.

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During a preliminary injunction hearing to stop the Facebook posts Monday in Delaware County Common Pleas Court, Yashko defended himself, in part, by saying that his comments were intended as satire.

"No reasonable person would read that and think it was factual behavior," Yashko told The Dispatch after the hearing. "Context is everything." He also said the pedophile post was made prior to the one-year statute of limitations to be included in the lawsuit.

Yashko said he was only retaliating for malicious comments made about him.

"I give the way that I get," he said.

Bean-DeFlumer, of Delaware, said the attacks began about two years ago when he responded online to a Facebook post that he said Yashko had sent disparaging a friend of his.

"Ever since then, I've been his favorite target, probably because I'm the first male who has stood up for one of my friends," Bean-DeFlumer said. "I think he just let his anger at being called out by me take over any common sense he had."

As many as 15 women have claimed to be verbally attacked by Yashko, said one of them, Jenny Yoder, who described the abuse as "adults behaving badly and not setting a good example for their kids."

"I think a lot of people are scared," said Yoder. "And it doesn't stop if you don't say something."

"I want him to be held accountable for his actions, to let him know that he is not untouchable," said Jessica Norris, who had to make her Facebook page private to ward off the attacks against her.

The longtime standard for libel is that the language used against someone in the public eye is knowingly false or that it recklessly disregards the truth. That standard applies to the author, but not necessarily to those responsible for editing or publishing it.

Powell Watch has 4,600 members, including moderators who approve or deny member requests and posts within a group. Moderators also may block people from the group and remove inappropriate content. They typically have less access to the page than administrators, according to Facebook's page roles.

Moderators have to be vigilant about potentially defamatory content, said Dublin attorney Jeffrey Perry, whose specialty includes defamation cases.

"If they exercise any kind of editorial control, then they certainly could be liable to defamation," said Perry. "If they are allowing this kind of content to be posted and not taken down, I would assume they would be subject to liability."

The federal Communications Decency Act generally protects companies like Twitter and Facebook from liability in defamation cases, said Columbus attorney Marion Little, who has a specialty in media law.

"But if you assume the mantle of a publisher, that's when you could have problems," he said.

Ohio law outlines "per se" defamation, language "so egregious that they will always be considered defamatory and are assumed to harm the plaintiff's reputation, without further need to prove that harm."

In May, 2016, Yashko posted guidelines for Powell Watch users, stating "If you wouldn't say it to someone in person, at your place of business, to your spouse, children or mother, don't say it here."

Yashko has posted bodycam footage of at least one incident in which police were called to Bean-DeFlumer's home. Bean-DeFlumer said the incident was a misunderstanding related to a dog that had run away from his home and screams by the couple to retrieve it.

The lawsuit states that Yashko has used several aliases on social media to disseminate the attacks including: Perry Yashko, Jeff Rawson, Rico Diogi, Mito Matsumoto, OKEmillyPhallus and OKGregbeatsdefemales.

Bean-DeFlumer had also filed a grievance against Yashko with the Ohio Disciplinary Counsel, a branch of the Ohio Supreme Court that investigates attorney misconduct.

That grievance was dismissed, however, because Yashko's posts were not related to his status as an attorney.

Still, the counsel described a "mutually antagonistic relationship" between the men with both using "highly offensive language."

In addition to seeking damages in excess of $25,000 for each of the counts, the lawsuit asks defendants to publicly retract all the false statements. The lawsuit also requests that Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge David M. Gormley issue a permanent restraining order to prevent further attacks.

Both parties are representing themselves in the lawsuit. Yashko said he "categorically denies everything" in the lawsuit and will soon file a counter claim for damages and retain a lawyer.

"I don't regret defending myself against him," Yashko said. "I was not intentionally and recklessly disregarding the truth."

dnarciso@dispatch.com

@DeanNarciso

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Powell lawsuit raises questions about community social media sites