American staff
Former Vashon High School basketball coach Floyd Irons and longtime supporter Demetrious Johnson have filed a character defamation lawsuit against Veronica O’Brien, St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education president.
The suit accuses O’Brien of falsely alleging that the men had harassed and threatened her.
O’Brien had sought a restraining order against Irons and Johnson, but a judge refused the request.
Irons and Johnson were among plaintiffs who sued to have William Purdy removed from the SLPS board on a legal technicality, and they lost and were ordered to pay legal fees.
The suit seeks $25,000 in damages because of “emotional distress.”
Irons is also seeing damages against former board member Amy Hilgemann for defamation for comments she made on KFNS 590AM about Irons and a fight with a teenage student six years ago.
That man was gunned down earlier this summer and Jerome Dobson, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told the Post-Dispatch that O’Brien was purposely linking his clients to the unsolved murder.