18-05-2025
Judge dismisses defamation lawsuit tied to casino push in NC legislature
A state judge has dismissed a defamation case tied to last year's Rockingham County commissioners' election, a decision that also has the potential to close off more details about a legislative push to land three casinos in that North Carolina county and two others.
Special Superior Court Judge Hoyt Tessener did not give a detailed explanation for dismissing the lawsuit. It was filed by Craig Travis, who narrowly lost the Republican primary for a commissioner's seat last year. Tessener's one-page decision, filed late Friday afternoon, sided with the arguments the defendants' attorneys made that the lawsuit failed to state a claim the court could act upon and lacked jurisdiction in the case of one defendant.
The defendants are commissioners Kevin Berger and Mark Richardson, former commissioner Donald Powell, Rockingham County GOP Chairwoman Diane Parnell, political groups GOPAC and the North Carolina Conservatives Fund, and Atlas Political Consulting.
Travis, a former commissioner, claimed all were involved in spreading misinformation about his political record to prevent his return to the board. The commissioners and Parnell also made false claims about his character, he said in the lawsuit.
The three commissioners had supported efforts to land a casino in Rockingham in 2023, including voting to rezone property in Stokesdale that would have paved the way for it. The Cordish Companies, a Baltimore casino developer, had formed a subsidiary that had taken out options on the property.
Much of Travis' lawsuit focused on the casino developments. His attorneys contended the commissioners' actions in support provided the motive to defame him to keep him out of office. Travis opposes the casinos. Attorneys for the defendants say no defamation took place.
One of them, Ellis Boyle, told Judge Tessener in a hearing on April 21 that the lawsuit was a 'fishing expedition' to drum up media interest in the casino push. Before legislation emerged to legalize casinos, Cordish had been working to line up land and support for them in Anson, Nash and Rockingham counties.
State Senate leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican and the father of Kevin Berger, pushed for the legislation to authorize the casinos, and late in the 2023 session tried to include that legislation in the state budget. He could not win enough votes in the House, however, and the effort failed.
Last week, The News & Observer reported on Cordish's efforts to obtain land and win support among Anson County officials. County documents and interviews with Anson officials showed the company had begun reaching out to the county at least roughly four months before the pro-casino legislation surfaced. The N&O obtained the documents through a public records request to Anson County.
The N&O's reporting also showed that Jim Blaine, the co-founder of The Differentiators, a powerful consulting firm, was involved in winning over Anson officials. Blaine was Sen. Berger's chief of staff before co-founding the firm.
Sen. Berger now faces Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, a prominent anti-gambling opponent, in next year's primary. Berger told The N&O in a statement for last week's story that he has changed his view on more casinos in the state. There are three operating on tribal properties.
'A number of voters in Rockingham County made it clear to me that this is not something they want,' Berger wrote. 'I do not support moving forward with, and I will not pursue, legislation that would bring casinos to North Carolina or Rockingham County.'
In a brief interview Thursday before that day's legislative session, an N&O reporter asked Berger if he had discussed Cordish's casino plans with Blaine or had received any information from him about them.
'I've known Jim for 20 years. We've talked about thousands of things,' Berger said. 'I can just tell you that my decisions with reference to that issue had nothing to do with any conversation I may have had with him.'
Boyle said he was pleased with the judge's decision. He represents the North Carolina Conservatives Fund and Atlas Political Consulting.
'I don't believe there was any evidence that my two clients engaged in any defamatory conduct,' he said.
Alicia Jurney, one of Travis' attorneys, said in a short statement that they would be seeking to reverse the dismissal.
The lawsuit has had an unusual path in court. The defendants first sought for it to be heard by Special Superior Court Judge Clayton Somers, a former chief of staff to then House Speaker Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican. Moore appointed Somers to the judgeship, one of 10 such positions lawmakers created in the 2023 state budget.
Wake's senior resident judge did not go along with the assignment, but then the Superior Court judge in line to take the case decided to recuse himself. State Superior Court Judge Robby Hicks of Cumberland County had paid The Differentiators nearly $72,000 for campaign administration when he won the seat in 2022.
Hicks said from the bench on April 21, just before the hearing on the dismissal motion, that he did not see a conflict with his use of The Differentiators, but decided to step away after The N&O inquired about it. That's when Tessener, another Special Superior Court judge appointed by Moore, took over the case.
