Kenova Police Department and Kenova Police Chief Ray Mossman were also named as defendants in the suit.
Jeremy Walters does business as Kenova Lawn Care and on July 1, 2015, the defendants published on their Kenova PD Facebook page that Walters had been arrested for possession of crack cocaine, according to a complaint filed May 20 in Wayne Circuit Court.
Walters claims following the arrest and post on Facebook, the police chief spoke on WSAZ News and stated that the plaintiff was arrested for hydrocodone, but that it was the same type of charge and had been a misprint and changed.
Later it was discovered that Walters had picked up his sick grandmother’s prescription pills and the criminal charge was dismissed, according to the suit. The police chief stated on the news that people did not like the extra enforcement he was putting on the drug trafficking trade, implying that Walters was drug trafficking.
Walters claims Mossman’s statements on the news and on Facebook were libelous and exposed him to hatred, contempt, ridicule and obloquy because it implied that he was a drug dealer and/or user and he makes his living based upon working at residences where his good name is essential to the business.
Walters is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. He is being represented by Kevin P. Davis.
The case is assigned to Circuit Judge James H. Young Jr.
Wayne Circuit Court case number: 16-C-067