Paper Industry Analyst Verle Sutton Prevails in Libel Case

In a victory for freedom of the press and good old American stubbornness, a bogus defamation lawsuit against paper-industry commentator and gadfly Verle Sutton was recently dropped. Sutton, never one to mince words, issued a colorful news release announcing that his name had been cleared.

In the May 2014 issue of his newsletter, The Reel Time Report, Sutton exposed a scheme that enabled Cate Street Capital to make money from managing the unprofitable, hopelessly outdated Great Northern paper mills in Maine by tapping state funds. He also pointed out the somewhat checkered history of the company and its CEO, John Halle, who responded by filing a libel suit and partially blaming Sutton for Great Northern’s September 2014 bankruptcy.