A Waldo County judge affirmed Tuesday that a defamation lawsuit filed in the county superior court in May 2021 will go to trial.
Rose Woodford and April Walker are suing eight people, including two current Belfast city councilors, for allegedly writing Facebook posts claiming the plaintiffs were running a brothel and hosting sex parties out of their Church Street residence.
The defendants have denied the allegations.
Defense attorney Chris MacLean said expert analysis suggests the images of alleged Facebook comments are fake and is prepared to object to each and every reference made to the alleged online posts.
“The plaintiffs can’t even tell us how they captured these images,” MacLean said.
At the pretrial conference, Justice Robert Murray denied a motion from MacLean to exclude images of the online comments on the basis that they were not real. The court had previously denied a motion made by the defense to dismiss the case entirely via summary judgment in October 2021.
The authenticity of the alleged Facebook posts is at the heart of the case, but determining their legitimacy should take place during the trial, not before, Murray said.
Seth Russell, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the images submitted to the court are a fair and accurate representation of what the plaintiffs saw, despite some of the images lacking details present in Facebook posts.
“Maybe it’s not as crystal clear as it is looking at your phone, but they’re still present,” Russell said.
A trial date has not been set, but Murray expects it to last around two days. Both parties will be notified 60 days in advance of the trial date.
