Fayette

Citizen editor and publisher Cal Beverly has

denied any undue influence occurred in the wake

of a December 1999 e-mail message authored by

John Mrosek, candidate for superior court judge.

An

e-mail sent by Mrosek to Peachtree City

Councilwoman Carol Fritz Dec. 7 mentions Beverly

and The Citizen in ways that might suggest that

Mrosek and supporters might have influence with

the paper. The e-mail has been widely and

anonymously distributed in recent weeks, and

became a public document when a lawyer used it

recently as evidence in an unrelated child

support court hearing.

Beverly

said this week that The Citizen has no connection

with the e-mail and certainly does not endorse

it.

"John

Mrosek has called me on occasion, as many people

call me, to talk about news items or politics. In

this job we listen to a lot of people with a lot

of points of view, and his was just another one

of those," Beverly said in response to

questions concerning the e-mail. "Reporters,

editors and publishers get those kinds of calls

frequently - people pushing their points of

view, hoping to get their spin into the paper. We

always listen, evaluate and make our own

independent decisions as to the newsworthiness of

the information, taking into account the apparent

motivations of the spinners.

"I

never saw the e-mail in question until after it

showed up in open court last month, at which time

Mrosek faxed me a copy and apologized for

it," Beverly said.

In

the e-mail, Mrosek suggests that

"someone" get in touch with

"Cal" and talk him into publishing

stories about a 1980s incident in which

then-District Attorney and current Superior Court

Judge Johnnie Caldwell and Peachtree City city

attorney James Webb were accused of improprieties

in connection with a failed fitness center,

Fantasy Fitness.

An

investigation by local and state authorities

failed to produce any charges in that incident.

However, a city building inspector lost his job

as a result of the incident.

"What

we need," Mrosek wrote to Fritz, "is

someone who has been around a long time who (a)

is close to Cal and (b) must have known about

Fantasy Fitness.

"Instead

of an editorial, Cal might do just a news story

that tells the truth and lays out the

facts..." the e-mail says. Mrosek concluded

in the e-mail that "I will be the point man

with Cal," and did talk later with Beverly

to discuss the Fantasy Fitness incident. In

addition, Mrosek provided The Citizen with copies

of articles about Caldwell, Webb and the

mid-1980s Fantasy Fitness controversy taken from

the archives of The Atlanta Journal and

Constitution.

The

Citizen published nothing about Caldwell or

Fantasy Fitness subsequent to those archived

articles being provided. Articles about Webb

dealt with his pending reappointment as city

attorney for Peachtree City.

"Any

suggestion that The Citizen was conspiring with

anyone is patently ridiculous," said

Beverly. "We simply did our job of listening

when people contacted us. As a matter of fact, I

have never initiated a call or written in any

form to Mrosek. He was always the initiator and

remains the initiator.

"I

would have talked to Webb as easily as I talked

to Mrosek, had Webb called," Beverly added.

"While the e-mail suggests that Mrosek and

possibly others wanted to get their point of view

represented in the paper, neither I nor the paper

were influenced.

"I

started in this news business nearly 40 years

ago, and a lot of people have bent my ear during

that time, all with their own motives and their

own particular axes to grind, and most of it

never went any farther," Beverly said.

"This was just more of the same, until a

rich lawyer got his feelings hurt over an

unsolicited letter to the editor and sued us, and

a judge and another lawyer decided to have an

election contest."

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