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Publisher, attorney want $1 million for damages caused by their arrests

Codefendants Mark Thomason, right, and Russell Stookey, who is Thomason’s lawyer, at the Gilmer County courthouse. They won a ruling of nolle prosequi, which means in effect that the district attorney does not intend to pursue the case further. (Rhonda Cook, rcook@ajc.com)
Codefendants Mark Thomason, right, and Russell Stookey, who is Thomason’s lawyer, at the Gilmer County courthouse. They won a ruling of nolle prosequi, which means in effect that the district attorney does not intend to pursue the case further. (Rhonda Cook, rcook@ajc.com)
By Rhonda Cook
Aug 16, 2017

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.

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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.

ExploreRead more about the case that angered media organizations and defense attorneys nationwide at myajc.com.

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Rhonda Cook
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