On Monday, March 31, federal Judge William Campbell denied all but one of Johnny Hunt’s defamation claims against Guidepost Solutions and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
Judge Campbell’s order read:
Pending before the Court are Defendants’ motions for summary judgment (Doc. Nos. 216, 222, 229), which are fully briefed. For the reasons stated in the forthcoming Memorandum, the motions for summary judgment are GRANTED IN PART as follows: Guidepost’s motion is GRANTED as to all claims. The motions by the Southern Baptist Convention (“SBC”) and the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention (“Executive Committee”) are GRANTED as to the claims for false light (Count III), public disclosure of embarrassing private facts (Count VI), negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress (Counts IV and V), and the defamation claim (Count I) arising out of the Report and the Letter. SBC and the Executive Committee’s motion are DENIED as to the defamation claim (Count I) based on the Tweet.
SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg told Baptist Press, “We are grateful for this decision and the forward progress in our legal process.”
In February, Iorg told Executive Committee trustees that a large portion of the $12 million the SBC has spent on legal fees in the past three years stemmed from the Hunt case.
On Monday night, SBC President Clint Pressley posted the word “Thankful” in response to the judge’s order.
The remaining count is related to then-SBC President Bart Barber’s Dec. 5, 2022, social media post in which Barber referred to Hunt’s actions as criminal.
“Hunt was the subject of a third-party investigation in response to allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman half his age in ways that would, to my knowledge, constitute a felony in any jurisdiction in the US,” Barber said in the post.
A trial is scheduled to begin on June 17.
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Sexual Abuse Survivor Tiffany Thigpen Responds
Sexual abuse survivor and advocate Tiffany Thigpen responded to Judge Campbell’s order by telling ChurchLeaders, “I’m thankful that once again, outside of the SBC structure, something was not allowed to be swept under the rug.”
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