At 12:20 PM on March 1, 2012, Middleburg Eccentric Editor Dee Dee Hubbard, her son Jay, his wife Megan, her daughter, former Middleburg Town Council Member Lisa Patterson, and Patterson's husband, Tom, filed suit in Loudoun County Circuit Court, requesting that the court enter judgment against Jack and Mary Kirk Goehring, "jointly and severally," for "malicious prosecution" of Dee Hubbard and for "common law defamation and defamation per se" of the named members of the Hubbard and Patterson families.

Jury trials were requested.

The suit requests the court order the Goehrings to pay penalties totaling more than $3 million plus any punitive damages determined to be appropriate by the court.

At press time, no court date had been set.

The suit seeks damages for what is termed, " . . . an unprecedented, premeditated and vicious conspiracy" to injure the plaintiff " . . . through a campaign of malicious prosecution, libel, slander, and defamation that ended with Dee Dee Hubbard being acquitted by a jury of her peers in a criminal case instigated by the Goehrings."

"Beginning on or about June, 17, 2010," the suit continues, " . . . Mr. Goehring began a campaign of defamation and slander against the plaintiffs seeking to obtain baseless criminal charges against all of them with the goal of using the leverage obtained by the filing of charges to extort money from the plaintiffs and to have them all evicted from . . . various properties."

The documentary evidence cited in the suit includes an ID Theft Affadavit filed with Middleburg Bank that, in the words of the suit, " . . . falsely and maliciously accuses the plaintiffs of the crime of Identity Theft." The statement, filed under oath, accuses the plaintiffs not only of identify theft, but with "fraud, embezzlement and/or bank fraud." Those charges, according to the suit, were "false and were knowingly false when made," and are "defamatory per se."

Police Involvement

Dee Dee Hubbard was arrested on November 30, 2010, the suit continues, " . . . after the Goehrings made a series of false and defamatory statements to the Middleburg Police and the Virginia State Police. . . ."

"Not satisfied simply to have Dee Dee Hubbard arrested for false charges," the complaint continues, "Mr. Goehring, who had been tipped off by the Middleburg Police Chief as to the date and time of the arrest, arranged for a friend who was a photographer, to take photographs of the arrest. Mr. Goehring then assisted his friend to find a buyer for the photos which happened to be the local press."

As a result, the plaintiffs charge, the photos of Hubbard's arrest and of her in handcuffs, were " . . . featured on the front page of the local newspaper, Channel 4, NBC Evening News and YouTube."

This was done, according to the filing, " . . . in furtherance of the Goehrings' scheme to humiliate and defame the entire Hubbard family and to damage Dee Dee Hubbard." Goehring himself, it is charged, "published copies of the arrest photos on several websites."

While the trial of Dee Dee Hubbard was still pending, the filing charges, " . . . the Goehrings met with Special Agent Robert Mrak of the Virginia State Police . . . ," telling Mrak, " . . . they wanted a 'fraud' element added to the criminal charges [against Hubbard] so that they could seek over $100,000 in back rent from the Hubbards, even though no back rent was due and owing." Emails sent to the Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney confirming that and similar conversations were uncovered during the discovery process in Hubbard's criminal trial, and were submitted as evidence in the filing against the Goehrings.

Goehring Emails in Evidence

Also submitted as evidence, the complaint continues, were emails sent by the Goehrings to the Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney in which they " . . . clearly demonstrated their intention to use the pending criminal case to advance their supposed civil claims against the plaintiffs." In those emails the Goehrings accused Dee Dee Hubbard of being a thief. Because the statements were "published and are false," the filing continues, " . . . they are defamatory per se."

A long list of Goehring emails that the filing notes were not only "published," but "false," and "defamatory per se" follows. Most if not all appeared in the criminal trial in which Hubbard was unanimously cleared of all charges against her.

Among them were:

An April 6, 2011, email in which Goehring accused Dee Dee Hubbard of stealing from John Bennison, her employer and a business partner of Goehring's. Bennison testified on Hubbard's behalf in the November trial.

An April 7 email flatly accusing " . . . all of the plaintiffs of 'crimes of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.'"

An April 16 email accusing Hubbard's family members of "forgery."

An April 27 email, accusing Dee Dee Hubbard of "embezzling from the Middleburg Christmas Parade," and accusing Lisa Patterson of " . . . colluding with her mother and being a 'criminal accomplice' of the embezzlement." In that same email Goehring wrote, "Having studied these intensely dreadful circumstances, it is my view that logic dictates pressing charges against Lisa and Jay, her children, as they are her most valuable asset."

A May 10, 2011 email, accusing Hubbard of theft.

A May 16 email, accusing Hubbard of being a "master criminal/con artist."

A May 22 email accusing Dee Dee Hubbard of being a "master criminal" and accusing the Hubbards and Pattersons of " . . .being part of a 'crime family' engaged in a 'criminal conspiracy.'"

An email sent to the Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney "prior to the start of the November 7 trial" accusing Hubbard of "forgery" in an effort to "steal" more than $144,000.

"On November 8, 2011," the suit notes, "a jury in Loudoun County Circuit Court acquitted Dee Dee Hubbard of all of the embezzlement charges that the Goehrings had submitted," and that during the course of that trial, " . . . Mr. Goehring admitted, as is set forth in his profligate correspondence to others, that he always intended to use the malicious and baseless prosecution of Dee Dee Hubbard to collect debts he believed he and his wife were owed and obtain the eviction of the Hubbards from his properties. All this was done maliciously and with the specific intent to harm Dee Dee Hubbard."

"False and defamatory per se"

Since Hubbard was found innocent of all charges on November 8, the suit continues, " .. . the Goehrings have continued to harass and sue the Hubbard family and to tell others that the Hubbards are a crime family that stole a substantial sum of money from them.

"Each of these statements are false and defamatory as they accuse the Hubbards of criminal activities, " the filing concludes.