A crybaby councilman will be crying some more after the Mississippi Court of Appeals kicked him to the curb last week.
Anthony Hudson is a Laurel City Councilman who happens to have a little hobby some might consider to be a nuisance: he loves to sue. The dockets are filled with pro se lawsuits filed by Hudson as he strives to be the Morningstar of Jones County.
Hudson sued Gin Creek Publishing, Inc. and ABC Insurance Company in March 2025. The company operates the newspaper Laurel Leader-Call $500,000, claiming the newspaper "deliberately distorted the news" reported of City Council meetings to "only reflect the concerns of white counterparts" of Hudson. The plaintiff charged In Creek racially discriminated against him with its reporting.* The Laurel Loon included Ben and Erin Napier as defendants even though they own no part of the newspaper. Hudson voluntarily dismissed them from the lawsuit as he blamed AI for his error. Gin Creek dutifully filed a motion to dismiss, arguing the lawsuit was frivolous.
Huson claimed text messages between him and Mark Thornton were evidence of discrimination:
¶5. Hudson attached to his complaint a screenshot of comments on a Facebook post between him and Mark Thornton, Laurel Leader-Call’s former editor-in-chief.3 Thornton sarcastically commented, “Anthony Hudson Yes, I always ‘paid’ more attention to whites’ concerns, and that was a real challenge, considering that four of the seven council members, the mayor and all but one of the department heads are black. Thanks for noticing! Pull your head out of your a** and maybe you’ll stop seeing only one color.” Hudson responded, “Mark Thornton Is you crazy man. I will see you in court. So you were only concerned to white issues just like I said and ignored and censored our news. That was discriminatory. You are a pitiful Soul. How many whites complained about you censoring their community concerns. Keep your mouth closed because you are digging a bigger hole for your publisher.” (KF: Guess Hudson never heard of the First Amendment.)
The company's owner, Jim Cegiselski, penned his thoughts on the lawsuit in an April 5, 2025 column:
This week, I got hit with possibly the dumbest lawsuit in the history of lawsuits. Laurel mayoral candidate, Al Sharpton wannabe, attention-seeker and race-baiter Anthony Hudson is asking a Jones County court to award him half a million dollars because he believes that our former Editor-in-Chief Mark Thornton is guilty of "discrimination against plaintiff" and "Gross Negligence of duty of care," whatever that means. I doubt Anthony Hudson knows what it means.
Hudson, who is a serial lawsuit filer and one of the world's worst whiners to boot, is also suing Ben and Erin Napier of all people. Here is exactly how Hudson worded this in his lawsuit: "Defendants Ben & Erin Napiers is owners of the Laurel Leader Call and is place of business is located at 414 Front Street, Laurel, MS 30440". Not only is the grammar on level with a kindergarten student but Hudson was informed via Facebook by Erin's mom, Karen Rasberry, that the Napier's do not own any part of the Laurel Leader-Call, yet now they too, have to deal with Hudson's stupidity.
Hudson has been angry with this newspaper and specifically Mark Thornton for years because, well, we ignore him purposely not because he is black but because he is a blooming idiot. Recently, Hudson was posting on Facebook about how racist we are and how we ignore the concerns of the black community when Mark simply couldn't take it anymore. He responded to Hudson's nonsense with a sarcastic, "Anthony Hudson, Yes, I always "paid" more attention to whites' concerns, and that was a real challenge, considering that four of the seven council members, the mayor and all but one of the department heads are Black. Thanks for noticing! Pull your head out of your ass, and maybe you'll stop seeing only one color."
Of course, Hudson, isn't intellectually capable of sensing sarcasm, so he took Mark's post as an admission of racism, and thus here we are facing a ridiculous lawsuit from a ridiculous human being. I'll let y'all know how it turns out.
Needless to say, Hudson did not take too kindly to being called an idiot and amended his complaint to include a charge of defamation. You can't make this up.
The Jones County Circuit Court dismissed the lawsuit in July and denied Hudson's motion for reconsideration. Hudson appealed to the Mississippi Court of Appeals.
The appellate court said nice try as it denied Hudson's appeal:
The editorial criticized Hudson for filing the lawsuit and referred to him as an “Al Sharpton wannabe,” “attention seeker,” “race-baiter,” having “grammar on the level of a kindergarten student,” “stupid,” “a blooming idiot,” “not intellectually capable of sensing sarcasm,” and a “ridiculous human being.” Thus, because the editorial’s statements amounted to nothing more than insults and name-calling, rather than actionable factual misstatements, Hudson’s defamation claim would have failed as a matter of law.
Hudson also claimed damages because the newspaper called him a "serial filer" of lawsuits. The Court observed Hudson had filed "a substantial number of lawsuits" as it held the statement was true and thus not defamatory.
The decision was unanimous.
* If this had succeeded, think of how the precedent could be used against oh.... Cain, Seal, Chambliss, and other so-called journalists.
3 comments:
Pro se litigants are entitled to have their pleadings liberally construed, but they are to be held to the same standards as attorney when it comes to filing vexatious and frivolous litigation.
Judges have discretion to impose sanctions, and they need to use it, especially with AI now in the mix.
Watch out KF, for he will be suing you after this article. LOL
Maybe awarding attorney fees would dampen his enthusiasm.
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