My question involves defamation in the state of: Virginia
I hate to bring it to this, but I feel it order to stop the activity I have no choice.
First, let me say that I am a pastor. I run a ministry called REV-X through my church. REV-X reaches the youth by connecting with them on a common platform. That platform is cars. Years ago, I used to street race, but now I understand the dangers of street racing and actually work to deter it. I had put 2 full years into developing REV-X with my church. Pretty much we setup weekly meets in the 550+ church parking lot. To be clear, I was not willing to compromise when it came to things like street racing or wreckless/dangersous behavior. We would kick people for it. The local law enforcement worked with us and if the caught some one doing either we would deny them entry into REV-X. We also try to educate the youth about the dangers of street racing.
At the beginning of the 2010 season, a person approached me about promoting his web-site. I agreed to do so as long as he allowed me to use he website to get the word out. At the end of 2010. I put together a team to help me guide REV-X. The website administrator and now current partner/owner was on that team. We'll call this person "Mark." Mark posted youtube videos doing burnouts/donuts in public roads and one video of him going 145mph on a public road, so I kicked him off the team. Then Mark and his friends using the website that I helped him build began to slander REV-X.
On to my complaint.
Right when the split started, a young kid who was running an unregistered business called "Rogue Speed" out of his home garage called would promote his business on our facebook page. He did not ask our permission and I asked him to stop. He did not, so I delete his posts, he persisted to repost his advertisements so I blocked the user "Rouge Speed." Rogue Speed then went to Marks meet teamed up with him and began making these stickers and selling them:
[He advertises the items, with prices, on Facebook.]
It is obvious the sole intention of these stickers was to harm REV-X while making a profit. He used our name without our permission and it's obviously damaging. The slander got bad and eventually people stopped coming to REV-X. So I had to shut it down. Unfortunatley, he is still selling these stickers making a profit and the slander has turned it's attention as me as a pastor and rumors of me vandalizing people's cars (all of which is false).
I don't want to sue them but the damage now goes beyond the stickers, I will not be able to do work in this town doing a ministry like this from now on. I would really like them to repair the damage, but I don't see how the could. Still a lawsuit may deter him and other people from spreading the slander.
Do I have a case?


