Naturally,

Steve Brown was pleased to hear Tuesday that the law firm

of Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey plans to drop its libel suit

against him.

But for

Brown, the battle's not over yet. He fully intends to

seek attorney fees so he can pay back the people who

contributed to a legal defense fund that was established

for Brown by his neighbor, Rob Rothley.

"They

never asked for me to pay them back," Brown said.

"I think they appreciated that I'm speaking out on

these issues."

The lawsuit

cited a letter Brown wrote in The Citizen questioning

whether Jim Webb of Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey should be

reappointed as Peachtree City's city attorney. In the

letter, Brown stated that Webb was involved in a conflict

of interest because he had business dealings with

developers who had sued or were suing the city at the

time.

The Citizen

and its editor-publisher, Cal Beverly, were also sued for

publishing the letter, and the law firm also announced

Tuesday it was dropping its lawsuit against them.

In a

statement from Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey on Tuesday, the

firm indicated the lawsuit was dropped because it felt

vindicated by a newspaper article in The Atlanta

Journal-Constitution that, the firm says, "revealed

the publication of Mr. Brown's letters in The Citizen was

politically motivated."

Brown said

no such conspiracy existed. He also said he thought the

firm didn't want to go through the process of giving

depositions in the case. Brown hopes the firm would

voluntarily pay for his legal fees without taking the

matter through the court.

The lawsuit

was successful, Brown added, in intimidating others.

"People

stopped e-mailing me, and they stopped calling me,"

Brown said. Even the people who contributed to his legal

defense fund did so in cash so checks could not be traced

back to them by others, Brown added.

"They

were afraid of some type of retribution from city

government," Brown said, adding that he thought the

lawsuit was filed to intimidate others.

"With

that they truly succeeded, and that's very

unfortunate."