Freshwater: Movement toward a settlement?

Recall that John Freshwater brought a federal suit against a slew of defendants ranging from the Dennis family through various and sundry school officials to 16 unnamed John and Jane Does. There’s a hint that settlement talks are underway, the hint coming in the form of a request for a gag order signed by attorneys for all the parties to the suit (except the John and Jane Does, who presumably don’t know they’re parties to the suit). The relevant docs are here on NCSE’s site.

In other news, R. Kelly Hamilton, Freshwater’s attorney in the administrative hearing and in the federal suit mentioned above (but not the federal suit against Freshwater), has filed a request for reconsideration of the sanctions imposed on him by the federal judge for failing to comply with an order to compel that dealt with shortcomings in Hamilton’s and Freshwater’s response to discovery requests. The documents are here. The request for reconsideration includes pictures of the split pipe that drowned his laptop computer (Attachment 1) and a picture of the nail (Attachment 6) that Hamilton claims flattened his tire(s) so he couldn’t make it to a hearing in the federal court on the original motion for sanctions. (There’s no picture of the dog that ate his homework.)

There’s one priceless line in Hamilton’s affidavit attached to the request:

Affiant [Hamilton] states as it relates to any of John Freshwater’s testimony that John Freshwater can only testify to what he knows or remembers. Affiant attests that communicating with John Freshwater can be challenging or even frustrating and a questioner must ask John Freshwater very precise questions and give John Freshwater time to think about his answer. (Attachment 7, pages 3-4)

Client, meet bus.