Former Santa Fe council candidate sues newspaper

GALVESTON - Claiming the editor of a local publication targeted him for defamation, Santa Fe resident Warren Aldous seeks legal action.

Aldous alleges Breck Porter of The Police News took a negative stance against him and has written stories containing slanderous and defamatory material, a lawsuit filed June 7 in Galveston County District Court says.

Aldous was a former candidate for Santa Fe City Council who ran on a platform of cutting the police department's budget as a way to restructure the city's budget.

He argues Porter used the print edition of The Police News and its website to humiliate him.

The suit explains that the editor allowed only negative comments about the plaintiff to appear online and displayed images of court documents "as if they were images so as to represent that they are pictures of Warren Aldous," insisting "the text documents are obviously not pictures of the plaintiff."

Aldous tried to get the files removed to no avail and was subjected to various articles reportedly unfavorably toward him, the original petition says.

It adds that he has suffered shame, embarrassment, public humiliation, mental pain and anguish.

Consequently, he seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.

The plaintiff is represented by his son, attorney Michael L. Aldous of Santa Fe.

Galveston County 405th District Court Judge Wayne Mallia is presiding over the case.

Case No. 11-cv-0903