Publisher, attorney want $1 million for damages caused by their arrests
A publisher who lost his weekly newspaper and his attorney want $1 million from a North Georgia county, a judge and a prosecutor for the felony charges they briefly faced -- and that were dropped soon after -- because they tried to get public records.
Attorneys representing Mark Thomason, who owned the now-closed Fannin Focus, and Hiawassee lawyer Russell Stookey sent a demand letter to Pickens County and Applalachian Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Brenda Weaver and District Attorney Alison Sosebee in June.
Thomason and Stookey were indicted and jailed over night a year ago on charges of identity fraud and attempting to commit identity fraud in connection with the subpoena they secured to get copies of cancelled checks drawn on a office account for a former judge.
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