Blogger responds to suit, files 1 of his own

WOODSTOCK – Political blogger Cal Skinner Jr. on Monday filed a counterclaim against the Northwest Herald, whose parent company is suing Skinner for libel and defamation.

In the counterclaim, Skinner stood by his June 3 assertions that the Northwest Herald received a county loan to “put the paper in the back pocket of the Republican Party,” and denies defaming and portraying in a false light B.F. Shaw Printing Company.

Skinner also is counter-suing the company, claiming company leaders filed a “frivolous” lawsuit to destroy Skinner’s reputation and to suppress his free speech.

He also alleged that the lawsuit was intended to blackmail him into retracting his statements and issuing a public apology.

“[B.F. Shaw Printing Company] acted in reckless disregard for the truth, and commenced its lawsuit with the malicious and wrongful intent and purpose to injure and destroy [Skinner’s] good name and reputation,” Skinner’s attorney, Patrick Ouimet, wrote in the counterclaim.

McHenry County officials said they helped a limited partnership affiliated with the newspaper to sell $2.6 million in bonds at a low interest rate in 1985, but denied that constituted a loan from the county.

“The actual dollars are not coming from the county coffers or the taxpayer coffers,” Deputy County Administrator John Labaj said. “They’re coming from the lending institution.”

The county also faced no liability of repayment if the company defaulted on the bonds, Labaj said.

The industrial revenue bonds were issued at 80 percent of the prime interest rate, because the company was able to use the county’s tax-exempt status, Labaj said. That meant that Dixon National Bank, the financial institution that bought the bonds, did not pay federal taxes on the interest revenue.

The bond proceeds went toward building the Northwest Herald’s headquarters and printing plant off Route 31 in Crystal Lake.

The printing company denied ever receiving a loan from the county, while Skinner maintained that the industrial revenue bonds were a loan from McHenry County.

Skinner also maintained that his comment on his political blog about the Northwest Herald being in the back pocket of the local Republican Party was an opinion protected from such lawsuits.

But Don Craven, an attorney for the printing company, disagreed.

“Statements of opinion are protected,” Craven said. “Statements of opinion which include defamatory facts are not protected.”

Skinner also alleged that the printing company filed the lawsuit to prevent him from requesting more information from the county about the industrial revenue bonds.

Craven denied the allegation, pointing out that Skinner’s attorney attached records relating to the transaction to the counterclaim.

“I have no clue how what we did would stop him from making a Freedom of Information Act request,” Craven said. “And if that was our design, we obviously failed miserably, because he managed to get ahold of those public documents.”

The printing company seeks in excess of $50,000, which is the minimum under that classification in civil law, in damages in each of its three claims against Skinner. Skinner seeks more than $50,000 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages in each of his three claims against the printing company.