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Leshers’ battle with bloggers continues
By Bill Hankins
The Paris News
Published September 2, 2009
CLARKSVILLE — The battle against the bloggers by attorney Mark Lesher and wife, Rhonda Lesher, has become a waiting game in a Tarrant County court.
The Leshers, who have businesses in Clarksville, filed suit earlier this year against bloggers they say maliciously attacked them on the Internet provider Topix.
Topix was ordered by a California court to provide the Internet Protocol addresses of the bloggers and complied with that order, supplying some of the IP addresses.
From those addresses the Leshers amended their civil suit to include the names of Gerald Coyel, owner of Apache Truck and Van Parts in Tarrant County, his wife, Shannon Coyel, James Coyel and Charlie and Pat Doescher, employees of Apache Truck and Van Parts.
The Leshers allege computers tied to the IP addresses were used by the Doeschers.
Gerald Coyel denied any part of the blog messages.
“I did not have anything to do with things on Topix,” he told The Paris News. “I sometimes read Topix but I have never posted anything, and to tell the truth, I barely know how to operate a computer.”
Rhonda Lesher said there will be a lot of depositions and pre-trial hearings before the case comes to trial, but now they are awaiting a court ruling on a motion by the defendants to move the case back to Red River County.
“The judge should have no reason to move it back to Red River since the IP address show the bloggers were in Tarrant County,” she said. “It probably will be about a year before it comes to trial.”
The IP addresses were ordered released by Judge Kevin J. Murphy, of the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara.
“This was a victory for us, ” said Austin attorney Will Demond, who represents the Leshers.
The messages have been appearing for a year on Topix, and according to Rhonda Lesher have grown more “vile” with each passing day.
She said the bloggers’ aim apparently is to destroy the Lesher businesses in Clarksville.
Mark Lesher has a law firm with offices in Clarksville and Texarkana, and Rhonda has a salon and hair care business in Clarksville.
The blogger messages began appearing about the time the Leshers were arrested in March of 2008 on sexual assault charges brought by Shannon Coyel.
They were found not guilty of those charges in January in a Collin County courtroom.
“Those charges and the blogging messages apparently all were a plot to destroy us,” Lesher said.
“This is going to be a precedent setting case,” she said.
The Leshers are represented by the Austin law firm of Connot-Demond. Coyel and others are represented by attorney Wes Tidwell.
“Topix is now being very cooperative, and we expect to get more IP addresses soon,” Rhonda said.
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