He claims that I've defamed/libeled/slandered him and fabricated information against him

Let's just stick to "defame" since he seems to have settled on that label as his favorite. First, please check the definitions of defame, as well as libel and slander. They boil down to several points—first, one must be spreading false information. Second, the defamer must know that the information is false. Third, the defamer must be spreading the information with malicious intent.

So—have I published false information? As soon as I learned of an error in information I was given about Hillyard's attorney, I corrected it. Hillyard turned around and accused me of "covering up." Did he want the information presented accurately, or not? I've been given no credible information that leads me to doubt anything else on my site, although I've taken a slightly harsher look at the wording of some information I received (like the statement regarding Hillyard's attorney) secondhand. I've always identified my sources, and the fact that information is secondhand, so the reader would know how to weight what he is reading.

Hillyard claims I've misquoted some testimony from his trial, but until I'm provided with a certified copy of the transcript I don't know that. I trust my sources far more than I do Hillyard. Even if he were to present what he claimed was a transcription, I wouldn't trust it—perhaps a high quality scan of a certified copy, but with his record I doubt it. He has already lied and twisted the truth yet again in his acccount of what happened, claiming that no harassing communications were ever sent from the CDC—despite the fact that I've provided copies of a great many posts, some of them definitely his, which have been proven to be posted from inside the CDC.

Anyway, if Hillyard wants to have a certified copy of that transcript sent to me, he's welcome to do so. I'll read it and correct anything I've mis-stated, just as I corrected the information about his attorney. If he wishes to point out any other specific information he disputes, I'll check it.

I've already made a clear offer to change anything that isn't correct as soon as I'm notified of the error, and given proof that my information is wrong when necessary. I'm afraid it isn't possible to simply trust Hillyard's assertions that something is true--please see the details above regarding his other unfounded accusations, and his repeated lies about his criminal background as well as his claim to a degree he does not (according to one source) possess, and affiliations that simply do not exist. These are proven lies on his part—not something that I'm simply saying I doubt. The information I've provided gives anyone interested the ability to verify the information—you don't have to take my word for it.

So—I've not published anything I know to be false, and I've offered to correct any mistakes—how can I possibly be defaming Hillyard?

Oh yeah—he claims that publication of his former address and telephone numbers is defamation, and an invasion of his privacy. It isn't private information, so it can't be an invasion of his privacy—he has personally published that information, and it can be found in many public sources. They are, according to him, his true address and phone numbers at the time the case started—so publication of them cannot be defamation, because it isn't false. This goes back to his accusations that I'm stalking him and his family. He has also said that the fact that people who have contacted him have mentioned me proves that publication of the information is defamation, but I'm afraid that doesn't follow. I haven't harassed him, I haven't knowingly presented any false information that would lead anyone else to harass him, and I've never requested that anyone else harass him or his family. Actually, at the moment, I have what I'm told are his current home address and phone number, but because until I verify that information from publicly available sources, I won't publish them. The same source claims that Hillyard and his wife Kay Ball Hillyard are now divorced, so there's also a question of whether that's still his residence or whether that's where his (ex?) wife lives.

 

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