Rev. Al Sharpton pushes back after Nolan Wells friends threaten defamation lawsuit
TheGrio...
The civil rights leader says legal threats will not distract from questions surrounding the Mississippi teen’s unexplained death.
Rev. Al Sharpton is refusing to back down after three friends of Nolan Wells threatened to sue him over remarks surrounding the Mississippi teenager’s unexplained death.
Sharpton responded Tuesday after attorneys for Warren Hudson, Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour sent a presuit demand accusing him of defamation. The dispute follows Sharpton’s public calls for greater scrutiny into the circumstances surrounding Wells’ death.
TMZ reported Tuesday that Sharpton’s legal team has described the threatened lawsuit as “meritless” and said the civil rights leader will not retract statements he says he never made. Sharpton has maintained that his involvement stems from a request by Wells’ parents to help them seek answers.
“This is not going to distract us from the question that brought us here: ‘What happened to Nolan Wells?’” Sharpton said in a statement obtained by TMZ.
Wells, 18, died after disappearing during a Fourth of July trip near Horn Island off the Mississippi coast. His body was recovered from the water two days later, but officials have not publicly established a definitive cause or manner of death.
The legal dispute centers on comments Sharpton made while publicly questioning aspects of the case, including what happened to Wells’ phone and keys and what his friends knew before and after his disappearance.
The three men deny wrongdoing and argue that Sharpton’s statements created the impression that they were connected to Wells’ death. Their attorneys previously demanded that Sharpton apologize, retract the statements and remove related material. CNN reported that the Aug. 21 presuit letter alleged Sharpton’s remarks implied the men were involved in crimes, including murder and evidence tampering.
Sharpton’s attorneys have rejected that characterization. They argue that he did not accuse the men of committing a crime and was instead raising questions that Wells’ family had already publicly raised.
The confrontation could now move from public statements to the courtroom. Sharpton’s legal team has indicated that, if the three friends proceed with litigation, he may seek damages and attorneys’ fees.
Meanwhile, the underlying investigation remains unresolved. Mississippi Today reported Sept. 1 that federal proceedings are also underway against two people accused of threatening witnesses connected to the Wells investigation, underscoring how intensely the case has continued to reverberate beyond the original death investigation.
For Sharpton, the threatened lawsuit has not changed his stated priority, keeping public attention on the unanswered questions surrounding Wells’ death.