Former security guard Richard Jewell sued The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and his former employer on Tuesday, saying they libeled him when he was identified as a suspect in last summer's Olympic Park bombing.
The newspapers, nine of their reporters and officials of Piedmont College in Demorest, in north Georgia, made false and defamatory statements about Jewell, the suit said. No damage amount was specified."The filing of the lawsuit is the first step in what will be a long and hard-fought battle against a billion-dollar corporation that tried and convicted Richard Jewell for a crime he did not commit," said Jewell's attorney, Lin Wood.
Wood said Piedmont College, its president and a former college spokesman were named as defendants because of statements the officials made to newspapers about Jewell, who once worked as a campus police officer at the school.
The newspapers quoted Piedmont President Ray Cleere as saying Jewell was a "badge-wearing zealot" who "would write epic police reports for minor infractions."
Roger Kintzel, publisher of The Journal-Constitution, said Tuesday he had not seen the suit and would have no comment. Earlier, the newspaper had declined to retract any articles, saying it was accurate to report that Jewell was under suspicion.
Jewell, 34, was working at the park when a pipe bomb exploded July 27, killing one person and injuring more than 100.
His name was leaked as a suspect to The Journal-Constitution on July 30; federal prosecutors cleared him in October.
Last month, Jewell reached a settlement with NBC over comments Tom Brokaw made on the air. The Wall Street Journal reported the settlement was worth $500,000.
Meanwhile, the FBI planned to interview a witness who says he saw a man at the park who resembles a defendant later arrested in a series of bombings at Spokane, Wash.
The witness, an Atlanta architect, said he told the FBI twice about a man he saw wearing a backpack in Centennial Olympic Park but never heard back from agents.