Homeowner who assumed names to protest now faces lawsuit

(1/13/06 - KTRK/MISSOURI CITY, TX) (KTRK) -- A Fort Bend County man says he's expressing his first amendment right of free expression. A major land developer says that the homeowner is actually misleading other people and hurting his business. This war over words first played out on the Internet, but is now moving to the courts.

We're talking about blogging on the net. The law can't always keep up with the Internet and blogging is a little like the Wild West -- there just aren't many rules. But the developer in this case, Sienna Plantation, is huge. So why would they put up a fight about what one little guy writes on a few websites?

This all starts at Chris Calvin's Sienna Plantation home.

"I love it," he said. "I wouldn't speak up if I didn't love it."

He's lived here three years and tells us he wants to stay. But he's pretty upset about hundreds of apartments the developer plans to build about a mile from his home.

"You're going to overcrowd our schools," Calvin predicted.

Months ago Calvin put up signs and circulated a petition to fight the plan. He also started blogging under the screen name 'Responsible Development.' Blogs are online journals and many times people write entries under pen names.

"I wanted to communicate what was going on in the community," Calvin said.

But as he continued to blog Calvin started using other screen names. 'Jane L', 'Buddy J', 'Jim Calhoun 1' - dozens by the time it was done. He admitted using 24 names. And that was when Sienna Plantation's developer had enough.

Sienna Plantation Attorney John Keville explained, "Chris Calvin can say any opinion he wants as long as he puts his name on it. Chris Calvin can't be a mob of 30 people."

It's the power of the Internet as an equalizer the developer says that forced them to sue. They admit much of what Calvin wrote was true or his opinion. But they say he deceived Internet readers when he created the sense that so many people shared his opinion.

"If it's one person saying it, let it be one person saying it," said Keville.

It's an argument our legal analyst says the law may not support.

"You have a first amendment right to express yourself the way you want, providing you're open and honest about it," said Eyewitness News Legal Analyst Joel Androphy. "(Whether you use your name or someone else's) doesn't detract from the credibility."

Calvin said, "We're talking about free speech here. We're talking about rights to property. We're talking about rights to privacy. We're talking about the big issues in American life and these things are important."

Sienna Plantation's lawyer says if Calvin had said all the same things, but used his own name - they never would've sued. Calvin doubts that. In the lawsuit, the developer is trying to get a judge to prevent Calvin from using any screen name or his own name in the future to say disparaging things about the development.

Sienna Plantation is located south of Missouri City. It's a 10,500 acre master planned community with space for 20,000 homes.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•