WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - The lawsuit over a false attack ad against Brandon Whipple during his mayoral campaign continued with a hearing Monday at which three former local political leaders, defendants in the case, trying to keep the case from going before a jury.
Essentially the three former lawmakers, former Wichita City Council member James Clendenin, former Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell and former Kansas Representative Michael Capp, say there isn’t enough evidence against them to allow the lawsuit to continue. The attorney representing Whipple, now Wichita’s mayor, does not agree.
O’Donnell’s attorney addressed a false statement made in the political attack ad against Whipple during his 2019 mayoral run, namely that Whipple sexually harassed women.
“There is not one shred of evidence that Michael O’Donnell knew the statement was false and disregarded it,” O’Donnell’s attorney said.
Representing Whipple, attorney Randy Rathbun said the three men did know and intentionally spread false claims.
“There was no serious doubts about the truth of the story,” Rathbun said. “They knew it wasn’t true. It as just a lie made up to win an election.”
The claims used in the attack ad were actually made against another lawmaker, not Whipple. But the ad made it appear as if Whipple was the harasser. He was not.
The argument be defense attorneys made in court Monday claim there was no actual malice in making the claims, meaning the defendants didn’t have reason to believe...
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