Judge dismisses White’s defamation suit against Kurowski
A Washington County judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit by suspended attorney and former state lawmaker Jesse White against the attorney who had represented White’s mother in another case.
President Judge Katherine B. Emery tossed White’s lawsuit against Charles Kurowski in a one-paragraph memorandum order Thursday after White didn’t appear for a scheduled hearing that day on a motion Kurowski had filed.
Emery’s order said it appeared White was no longer pursuing the case, and she’d reviewed a motion Kurowski filed arguing White’s case was legally insufficient to support his claims of defamation and commercial disparagement.
White filed the lawsuit in April 2015, months after Kurowski filed a lawsuit on behalf of White’s mother, Sharlene Watazychyn, who claimed her son had opened a credit card account in her name and made charges on the card without her knowledge. White disputed that story, telling the Observer-Reporter at the time the suit was filed Watazychyn opened the account to help him when he was starting his legal career. Mother and son settled the case in May 2016.
White alleged Kurowski “made inferences and direct statements to imply that the conduct of (White) may have been criminal in nature, despite clear evidence to the contrary given to his client” during interviews he gave to media outlets concerning the case. White claimed these statements harmed his reputation and the law practice he had in McDonald at the time.
Kurowski countered White failed to specify which statements he’d made that were defamatory, and to show how those purported comments harmed his business and reputation.
Court records show White didn’t file a response brief by May 5 as specified by Emery’s order scheduling the hearing last week. Nor did he show up for the hearing, itself.
White’s law license has been temporarily suspended since April 14 pending further action by the state Supreme Court, but he could have represented himself in court. The suspension stems from his alleged misappropriation of as much as $105,344 five clients entrusted to him between November 2015 and November 2016.