Freshwater Lawsuit Dismissed

The federal case John Freshwater, et al., v. Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education, et al. was dismissed Thursday:

“Now come all parties, by and through counsel, to stipulate Plaintiffs John and Nancy Freshwater dismiss all claims contained in the First Amended Complaint with prejudice pursuant to Civ.R. 41(a)(1)(A)(ii).”

A copy of the stipulated dismissal is posted on the website of the National Center for Science Education.

UPDATE 10-22-10:

Don Matolyak, Freshwater’s pastor, provided AccountabilityInTheMedia.com with a copy of Freshwater’s statement regarding the dismissal of the lawsuit against the school board:

“I want to pass along this statement. My wife and I directly sent to the opposing attorneys the following statement by email on Wednesday, October 20, 2010. The truth is there was money offered to me several times to leave the district and stop the state hearing before Referee Shepherd could make his finding. If I took the money and left the district the opportunity for truth would never have come out and the eleven students from my 2007-2008 class would not have been able to testify about the truth. Most importantly if I took the money and left the district the Referee would have been prevented from making a decision. The Referee has heard 38 days of testimony and is the best opportunity for revealing the truth. I will await Referee R. Lee Shepherd’s decision.

“(this is the statement I made to the school board’s attorneys)

“Nancy and I prayerfully considered the settlement terms and have decided to REJECT the terms presented.

“From the beginning, my wife and I have only sought the truth. Revelations in the last few days exposed to us the strategy of those who have harmed me, a strategy designed to obscure the truth rather than seek justice and reconciliation. It has become obvious this federal platform and process will never result in the truth coming forward. Truth is not to be compromised or negotiated or hidden behind money.

“We feel confident that the hearing completed in August 2010, after 38 days of testimony before Referee R. Lee Shepherd is the best opportunity for revealing the truth we sought from the beginning. Therefore, we have decided to withdraw our federal lawsuit against all parties without any personal compensation or monetary gain as proposed, and we have instructed our attorney to file the proper paperwork. We seek no other option than to continue to patiently await the finding of Referee R. Lee Shepherd as he is the ONLY person to hear all of the testimony and most importantly see all of the students from my 2007-2008 class speak about the truth of what went on during my class.

“We have already spent our life savings and have pledged our farm to get to the truth. It is better to leave the money on the table than to take the Bible off of my desk.

“John and Nancy Freshwater”

According to Mount Vernon News reporter Pamela Schehl, school board attorney Sarah Moore said: “There was no settlement offer to accept or reject. There was no money on the table for [Freshwater] to leave there. We were baffled when we received the e-mail from him and we can't even begin to speculate why he is saying what he is saying.”

AccountibilityInTheMedia.com Reporter Responds to Subpoena

On Monday evening I submitted a written statement to the Mount Vernon Board of Education regarding the recent subpoena I received from the school board’s attorney Sarah Moore.

In the subpoena, Moore stated that it was for the federal case John Freshwater, et al., v. Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education, et al.

(Click here to view a copy my statement to the school board and a copy of the subpoena. 891 KB PDF.)

Below is a portion of my statement:

“I understand that attorney Moore has a job to do in defending the school district in the federal case. However, there is a difference between being thorough and casting such a wide net, while fishing for information, that one goes overboard. Attorney Moore’s actions appear to be the latter.

“What criteria did attorney Moore use in deciding to whom to send subpoenas? Has she also sent subpoenas to the Mount Vernon News, KnoxPages.com, 13WMVO or the countless television stations and other newspapers who have reported on the story involving Mr. Freshwater? Will she send subpoenas to every person who has ever blogged about the story, written a letter to the editor or spoken at a school board meeting?”

I wasn’t the only one that Moore sent a subpoena to recently. Among those that received a subpoena is Levi Stickle, who maintains the website cfacts.org.

Three people spoke to the school board during the public participation portion of Monday’s school board meeting. Two of the individuals spoke about the recent subpoenas.


(“Levi Stickle to school attorney: Why did you send me a subpoena?”)



(“Community member responds to proposed MVCS levy”)



(“William Pursel: Frivolous subpoenas”)


Moore has been sent a request for comment. If and when she replies this article will be updated with her response.

Also during Monday’s meeting, school board treasurer, Barbara J. Donohue, provided an update to the school board regarding the district’s five-year forecast. She provided information regarding the financial challenges facing the district due to budget cuts at the state level.

UPDATE 10-16-10:


Moore still has not responded to the request for comment.

Mount Vernon News reporter Pamela Schehl did not include any mention of the subpoenas in her coverage of the school board meeting. See her article “McKinley honored by MV school board.”

The managing editor for the News, Samantha Scoles, provided an explanation in an email to AccountabilityInTheMedia.com :

“The reason we have not reported on the public participation portion of the most recent school board meeting is because we were not in attendance. Our education reporter was attending a different school board meeting.

“When we do not attend meetings, we can call on board members, the treasurer or the superintendent for details of the meeting, which we did in this case. I believe we were provided with the statements made in regards to the Behind the Scenes Award.

“Therefore, without being present to hear the public comments, we cannot possibly report on those.”

In an email on Oct 12, Scoles had been provided with links to videos of the public comments and a copy of the written statement given to the school board.

UPDATE 10-20-10:

Dave Daubenmire, through his attorney, has submitted a motion to quash a subpoena sent to him by Moore. Below is a portion of the motion:

“After reviewing the subpoena, it is clear that the only purpose of the subpoena was to harass, embarrass, and incur expenses for a non-party witness, simply because he is a friend of one of the parties. The subpoena should be quashed in its entirety, and attorneys fees awarded to Mr. Daubenmire from the Defendant for the expense of obtaining counsel to respond to this harassing subpoena.”

A copy of the motion is posted on the website of the National Center for Science Education.

Richard Hoppe, who writes for pandasthumb.org, wrote about the recent subpoenas issued by Moore. Below is a portion of Hoppe’s post:

“Essentially the defense is asking for everything Sam [Stickle] has ever written on the web, whether public or in private, about Freshwater, Hamilton, and the Freshwater hearing. That’s a remarkable demand. It has the effect of bringing everything a private citizen has written about this affair into a federal court proceeding for no discernible reason beyond the defense’s hope that something, anything, will turn up. It is a chilling affront to the First Amendment rights of the Stickle brothers and to anyone else (what, who me?) who might have commented somewhere on the web about this specific affair or who might write a blog post or even comment on a discussion board about any legal proceeding.”

Freshwater’s Closing Arguments: Allegations Unsubstantiated

John Freshwater’s “closing statement brief” was released Thursday.

The 180 page document, including diagrams, provides extensive arguments for why the allegations made against Freshwater are unsubstantiated. The brief draws upon the many witnesses who testified during the hearing that began in October of 2008.

(“Freshwater's Closing Statement Brief.” 4MB PDF.)

(The “Middle School FCA Speakers Survey” diagram, like others used in the brief, emphasizes significant details of the testimony.)

The following is from the introduction of the brief:

“Everything in this case is about purpose, context and intent with an ultimate goal of answering the question set forth in the opening statement –

‘What makes sense?’ versus ‘What does not make sense?’

“Shamefully and sadly, had the administration of the employer invested any zeal in investigative fact gathering to determine the basic:

‘Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why? and How?’

- legitimate answers could have been achieved both by the end of the last day of school in 2008, and before the employer’s resolutions of June 20, 2008, and July 7, 2008.”

AND

“The sum of the decision calculus in this matter will demonstrate John Freshwater prevails in this matter because:

“1. Any and all matters related to John Freshwater’s use of a Tesla Coil were adjudicated by Principal William White’s letter to John Freshwater dated January 22, 2008.

“2. The Academic Content Standards were not applicable in the Mount Vernon City School District until the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year.

“A. John Freshwater taught his 8th grade students exactly as he was required as evidenced by the only known assessment tool authorized in the State of Ohio; the Ohio Achievement Tests. John Freshwater’s students received proper instruction resulting in him being the only 8th grade teacher whose students achieved a proficient rating of seventy-seven (77%) percent on the Ohio Achievement Tests despite his classes containing the most special education students.

“B. Ten (10) eyewitness students, two (2) teachers and one (1) principal testified John Freshwater never instructed on the topics of creationism nor intelligent design.

“3. John Freshwater complied with all of the known parameters as he facilitated, monitored and supervised the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA).

“A. Witness testimony from credible sources clearly demonstrates John Freshwater did not conduct nor lead any prayers during FCA meetings.

“B. Witness testimony from credible sources clearly demonstrates John Freshwater never asked non-familial students to lead prayer in FCA meetings.

“C. Witness testimony from credible sources clearly demonstrates John Freshwater did not exceed his role as facilitator, monitor and supervisor of the FCA.

“4. John Freshwater exercised a constitutional right to have a personal Bible in his classroom on his desk.

“A. John Freshwater removed all items he was lawfully asked to remove.

“B. John Freshwater did not receive any instruction from Principal William White or anybody else to remove the patriotic poster, which was distributed through the Mount Vernon Middle School office, depicting former President George Bush and Colin Powell.

“C. John Freshwater never intended or tried to ‘make a point’ by bringing additional religious articles into his classroom.

“At the conclusion of this brief, John Freshwater will respectfully request the Referee to evaluate and find each of the employer’s allegations against John Freshwater as detailed in the Amended Resolution of Intent to Consider the Termination of the Teaching Contract(s) of John Freshwater to be unsubstantiated.

“John Freshwater prays this Referee, after consideration of the evidence presented, and assessment of the testimony heard, will find the Board of Education (BOE) has failed to prove the charges set forth in the resolution to consider his termination originally dated June 20, 2008, but amended on July 7, 2008.”

For additional coverage of the Freshwater hearing, see the articles in the archive.

UPDATE 9/20/10—related documents:

August 13, 2010 David Millstone’s brief on behalf of the Mount Vernon Board of Education. 239 KB PDF.

August 20, 2010 R. Kelly Hamilton’s rebuttal on behalf of Freshwater. 5.64 MB PDF.

August 20, 2010 Millstone’s rebuttal on behalf of school board. 180 KB PDF.

The above three documents were obtained from the National Center for Science Education.

UPDATE 9/22/10:

The links to the above three documents have been temporarily taken down. (The documents may not have been officially released.)

Freshwater’s “closing statement brief” was released Thursday by attorney Hamilton.

UPDATE 3/17/11:

The links to the above three documents have been reactivated. (The documents are part of the public record pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 3319.16.)