Cape & Islands News

Depositions planned in blogging case

W.W.O.D.? What Would Otis Do?

Outside the courtroom Tuesday, local attorney Paul Revere III, above with his R.I. attorney and client Joe Dugas, made repeated references to Joe Dugas's involvement with the placing of statues on the courthouse lawn celebrating James Otis and his sister Mercy Otis Warren. Otis is one of the fathers of the Bill of Rights. His arguments against general search warrants by British officials in colonial America formed a basis for the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. Paul Revere's ancestor made the famous ride to alert the Minutemen at our country's birth.

Comments on Barnstable Harbor dredging spurred lawsuit

Story and photos by James Kinsella

Depositions will be taken in the defamation case involving a Cape Cod Today blogger who wrote about opponents of a dredging project in Barnstable Harbor.

Following a proceeding Tuesday in Barnstable Superior Court, the judge hearing the case will allow opposing attorneys to depose plaintiffs Joseph Dugas of Barnstable and Paul Revere III of Centerville and defendant Peter Robbins of Barnstable.

Joe Dugas is one of a group of Barnstable residents who opposed a planned dredging of Barnstable Harbor.

The case is set to return to court on Nov. 13.

Robbins's attorney, Peter Morin, has filed a motion to dismiss the case on grounds that the suit by Dugas and Revere would stifle fair comment on a matter of public concern.

In their suit, Dugas and Revere say they were defamed by a March 11 posting by Robbins on Cape Cod Today and a subsequent comment on the post by an unidentified person writing under the name "noggin." Their suit names both Robbins and the commenter, calling the latter John Doe.

On Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Robert Rufo allowed Morin to file supplemental affidavits by Robbins and himself in the case. Judge Rufo also will allow J. Richard Ratcliffe and Richard Zabbo of Providence, the attorneys representing Dugas and Revere, to make additional filings.

Dugas is one of a group of Barnstable residents who opposed a planned dredging of Barnstable Harbor. Revere, an attorney, represented them. In fact, the residents didn't oppose the dredging per se - they opposed the manner of dumping of the spoils.

In his blog, Robbins named the residents and criticized them for their opposition.

Was Dugas hoisted on his own petard, or in this case, petition?

Another irony?
According to the Board of Bar Overseers today, Sept. 17, is the anniversary of Paul Revere's admittance to the bar in 1997.

In their lawsuit, Dugas and Revere said the residents acted in good faith. They also said they were defamed by words that Robbins and the anonymous commenter used to describe them.

The irony in the case is the fact that Paul Revere, acting at Joe Dugas' attorney, called Walter Brooks, publisher of Cape Cod Today, shortly after the blog was published March 11,  and asked that three references to Dugas be removed from the text.

Since the phrases had nothing to do with the context, and after getting blogger Robbin's permission, Brooks had the offending phrases removed. Three months later, however, Revere hired a Rhode Island attorney to sue Robbins over those deleted words.

The irony is that the words Revere's client objected to are now a permanent part of the court record and have thus been broadly disseminated in news and blog reports across the country, seemingly the opposite of what a skilled attorney might wish.

Otis fathered the Bill of Rights. Will Revere be its undoing?

Paul Revere made repeated references to Dugas's involvement with the placing the Otis statues on the courthouse lawn.

Dugas and Revere attended yesterday's proceeding, as did Robbins.

Outside the courtroom Tuesday, Revere made repeated references to Dugas's involvement with the placing of statues on the courthouse lawn celebrating James Otis of Barnstable and his sister, Mercy Otis Warren.

Otis is one of the fathers of the Bill of Rights. His arguments against general search warrants by British officials in colonial America formed a basis for the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Otis's sister, Mercy Otis Warren, was a writer known as the "Conscience of the American Revolution."

In a telephone interview yesterday, Revere said Dugas had played a significant role in the placing of the Otis statutes in Barnstable as well as the Iyanough and John F. Kennedy statues in downtown Hyannis.

The Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791, consist of the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The amendments safeguard rights including the right to bear arms, the right to a trial by jury, and the freedom of speech, the press, religion and petition.