Romain Dallemand's Response to Lawsuit
An attorney for Bibb County Supt. Romain Dallemand says school employees, not Dallemand himself, posted private information about a school board member's child to the Internet.
Dallemand's attorneys last week filed a response to the suit by school board member Gary Bechtel and his wife. The suit blames Dallemand for posting confidential academic information about their son, Sam.
The information was posted as part of a consultant's audit of emails by school board members.
Bechtel, a frequent Dallemand critic, says the superintendent posted the information to retaliate against him.
On Friday, Gainesville lawyer J. Stanley Hawkins, who's representing Dallemand, confirmed that the information on Sam Bechtel was posted in July.
But he says it was done by other school district employees. He said Dallemand was not responsible and had not seen the information before it was posted.
The response, filed Aug. 29 in Bibb County Superior Court, asks the court to dismiss Bechtel's lawsuit and order him to pay Dallemand's costs and fees.
"He didn't start this but he will defend himself," said Hawkins. "There is no merit to the lawsuit."
No trial date has been set. The next stage would be discovery, when the two sides exchange information on the case.
But Hawkins said Dallemand's team hopes that Bechtel realizes that the suit is groundless and drops it. "We don't want to litigate this."