Coleman vs. Lock Haven Express: State Supreme Court Declines to Hear Suit

HARRISBURG – A former Clinton County commissioner has been denied his day before the state Supreme Court.

Former commissioner Adam Coleman had appealed a turn-down of his libel suit against The Lock Haven Express newspaper and two of its employees following a June 28, 2016, decision by a state Superior Court panel which heard his initial appeal. But local court officials learned last week the state’s highest court had denied his “petition for allowance of appeal.”

That likely means Coleman’s nearly five year quest against the Lock Haven-based daily is over. The former commissioner did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Record.

A three-judge Superior Court panel last year had affirmed a Clinton County court ruling from Senior Judge J. Michael Williamson that granted summary judgment to The Express in the case, saying there was no actual malice in reporting, at worst negligence or carelessness.

Coleman was upset by Express coverage of his role in a criminal case from which he was ultimately exonerated. He claimed the paper printed misleading information about his involvement on a number of occasions. Coleman was running for commissioner re-election at the time in 2011 and continued to do so despite the criminal proceeding. After being acquitted of theft charges in July 2012, Coleman and his attorney, Robert Englert, turned their attentions to The Express, which they claimed defamed Coleman and cost him re-election to the county’s board of commissioners.

Coleman was defeated in November of 2011.