Jefferson County sheriff’s brother sues 1819 News, county GOP chair for alleged defamation over gambling hall claims

The brother of Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against the head of the county’s Republican Party and 1819 News for claiming he “helps to manage” illegal gambling operations.

Bruce Pettway said the statement made by Jefferson County GOP Chairman Chris Brown and republished on 1819 News’ website “have caused serious and irreparable harm to Plaintiff’s reputation and his goodwill in the business community.”

1819 News is a website that was once owned by the Alabama Policy Institute.

“As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ actions,” the lawsuit claimed, “Plaintiff has suffered real and actual damages to his reputation and livelihood.”

Brown said he was not aware of the lawsuit. Jeff Poor, 1819 News’ editor-in-chief, said the outlet had no response to the litigation.

“Christopher Brown, 1819 News, and the Republican Party have intentionally and maliciously defamed Bruce Pettway’s name,” said Leroy Maxwell Jr., an attorney representing the sheriff’s brother.

“These false accusations have caused undue hardship, humiliation, and embarrassment to Mr. Pettway. He looks forward to clearing his name once and for all.”

Brown appeared on “Alabama’s Morning News with JT” on 105.5 WERC in March.

In claiming that he heard that Sheriff Mark Pettway may be facing legal trouble, Brown referenced Bruce Pettway, saying: “his brother also helps to manage much of these illegal gambling operations, which [Mark Pettway is] not cracking down on, which is his job as the sheriff.”

Efforts by AL.com to reach Sheriff Pettway for comment were not immediately successful.

The statement, the lawsuit claimed, and its republishing in 1819 News, was “made with actual malice and/or a reckless disregard for the falsity of its content. These defamatory statements were calculated to cause, and did cause, great injury to Plaintiff’s reputation and livelihood.”

Bruce Pettway, who runs the consulting firm Employer Benefits Consulting LLC and several other businesses, has been victimized by a “misinformation campaign” aimed at discrediting the sheriff, the lawsuit claimed.

The campaign, according to the lawsuit, included Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s seizure in July 2019 of $240,000 from a BBVA bank account belonging to Bruce Pettway’s brokerage and consulting firm “under the unfounded and unsupported claim that the Plaintiff was secreting proceeds from an illegal gambling scheme.”

Efforts by AL.com to reach Marshall for comment were not immediately successful.

After a federal judge ruled a month later that the seizure “strikes the court as facially suspect,” Marshall agreed to return all but $15,500 of the funds. The remaining sum, according to the attorney general’s office, was alleged to have been deposited by a Jefferson County bingo operation.

“Consequently, it is clear that as far back as 2019, Defendants understood that [Bruce] Pettway was not involved in any illegal gambling activities, nevertheless these politically motivated accusations persisted with the express malicious intent of causing actual harm to the Plaintiff,” the lawsuit stated.

Several months before Marshall’s office seized Bruce Pettway’s funds, a public feud emerged between Mark Pettway and Marshall.

Sheriff Pettway, who took office in January 2019, as the first Black sheriff of the state’s largest county, has repeatedly said that it’s not his job to “hunt down” electronic bingo operators, pointing out he’s more focused on stopping serious crimes like human trafficking and gun violence.

Bruce Pettway is seeking a jury trial and general, presumed and punitive damages.