Related articles:

Greyhound Park, blogger agree to drop lawsuit

Other articles by Josh Brodesky:

Foothills area fights plan for cell antennas El Minuto fails health inspection; manager calls inspectors vindictive Tucson housing sales, permits, prices all plummet from a year agoUA researcher fixes up houses on the side, writes about itWhen you owe more than home is worth Money Faire counsels residents on debt management Late actor's Tucson home is no quick saleMore retail closures, and vacancies, loom in Tucson area Measure protecting dogs wins 402-373 LaWall beats back challenge from Roach

General
GROUNDS CONTROL
LANDCAPE FOREMAN & LABORERS Health Care
Freedom Manor
Caregivers Dental
Apache Dental
Porcelain Techs General
Prestige Maintenance USA
Area Manager Education
Yavapai College
Teachers Health Care
SOUTHERN ARIZONA ENDODONTICS I
NSURANCE PROCESSOR Technical
Yavapai College
Analyst Banner Programmer

Karyn Zoldan is free to speak her mind again.

Tucson Greyhound Park had filed a defamation lawsuit against the outspoken greyhound advocate for comments she made on her blog, www.endtucsongreyhoundracing.com.

The suit had pretty much shut down her site, as she had stopped posting new content. But both sides have agreed to have the suit dismissed, and Zoldan has plans to start posting again, albeit with a little more caution.

The track had filed the action against Zoldan for a number of inflammatory statements she initially posted on her blog, most notably the claim that "tens of thousands of dogs have died at Tucson Greyhound Park during its 60-year tradition of racing."

In response, Zoldan cleaned up that sentence and others, and for attorney John Munger, who was representing the track, the changes were enough.

“We were never very interested in trying to punish anyone,” Munger said. “What we were interested in was setting the record straight, and what we said to them from the beginning was if they modified the Web site so it was not so egregiously misleading, we would be satisfied with that.”

Despite the changes, the site is still highly critical of the track and greyhound racing, in general, and Munger said the track still thinks there are inaccurate statements, but at this point track management is willing to let it go.

“Still, we continue to have serious differences of opinion, but this is a democracy and everybody is entitled to their opinion.”

The agreement to dismiss has brought relief to Zoldan, 60, although the suit has also made her think twice about speaking out against the track and the sport.

“I am relieved. I am cautious, but I am relieved,” she said. “I just feel like I am afraid to speak. I am afraid to say anything. I have been very vocally opposed to greyhound racing, in general, and in Tucson, in particular. I just feel I was a target, and if they made an example of me, no one else will speak out.”

In many ways the suit puzzled Zoldan. She said she was hardly getting any traffic on her site and was averaging about 200 original page views a month. On top of that, the track had never contacted her about the site until the suit was filed.

“In my mind, it was much ado about nothing,” she said, adding that she plans to start posting regularly again.

While he couldn’t say for sure why the track agreed to drop the suit, Chris Wencker, Zoldan’s attorney, said he thought the suit was making the track look bad at a time when it’s facing Tucson Dog Protection, an initiative in South Tucson that could directly change the track’s operations and handling of racing dogs.

“I think they just kind of wanted it to be over,” Wencker said. “I think they just wanted to kind of get it out of the public eye.”

Initially the track had offered to settle for $50,000, and then for $15,000, Wencker said.

Zoldan likely has little recourse in collecting attorney’s fees, and Wencker said she may have to live with the chilling effects of the lawsuit.

“Even if it wasn't their motive (to chill her speech), it was something they had to know was going to happen, and they did it anyway,” Wencker said. “They have to know that it had that effect.”