The newspaper offered to have the story corrected if anything was false, have a letter to the editor published or have Davis do an interview with Galuszka, Shumadine said.

“Their response was to file a lawsuit,” Shumadine said.

Public officials typically must prove a publication printed false material and in doing so acted with “actual malice,” which would mean knowingly publishing false information or acting with reckless disregard for the facts.

Biss said the questions Galuszka emailed Davis were loaded. Biss said Galuszka based his reporting off unreliable sources and Style Weekly published the articles because it felt they were salacious and would sell well.

“The motive was money,” Biss said.

Shumadine said the issue of censorship in Hanover started a year prior to the articles’ publication when Davis allegedly tried to ban the documentary “Thomas L. Friedman Reporting: Searching for the Roots of 9/11” from Hanover schools. The documentary delves into Muslim perspectives of the Sept. 11 attacks and the rise of terrorist groups.