June 27, 2023 5:45p
(WGTD)---A defamation lawsuit involving controversial blogger and reporter Kevin Mathewson, long-time Kenosha County Board Supervisor Terry Rose and the new chairman of a county commission has taken an unexpected turn.
The story begins a couple of years ago when defendant Ray Roberts, in social media posts, allegedly accused Mathewson of being a white supremacist who was training his school-aged children to be suicide bombers.
Mathewson filed suit, and retained attorney and county board supervisor Terry Rose as one of two attorneys to represent him. Mathewson already had a relationship with Rose, who had used Mathewson’s private investigations service.
Last week the relationship soured when Mathewson accused Rose of coming to court unprepared.
In court for pre-trial motions in his defamation case, Mathewson apparently made a scene, prompting Rose to request that he be allowed to withdraw from the case.
In a letter to Judge David Reddy, Rose said he wasn’t going to put up with Mathewson’s “shenanigans or rudeness,” saying he was “professionally embarrassed” by his client’s behavior. "At that hearing, the deputy sheriff in your courtroom had to stand and take a few steps toward us fearing that Mr. Mathewson would become more uncontrollable. I cannot represent the shenanigans and disrespect," Rose wrote.
In his own letter to the judge, Mathewson indicated that Rose was already fired, accusing Rose of violating confidentiality expectations between attorney and client, and making personal attacks against him.
Rose’s departure leaves co-counsel Xavier Solis at the plaintiff’s table with Mathewson.
Solis was recently appointed by Kenosha County Executive Samantha Kerkman to the county’s Racial and Ethnic Equity Commission. He then was elected to chair the panel by his fellow commissioners.
Mathewson himself was a Kerkman appointee, having been nominated to the Local Emergency Planning Committee. Mathewson, in the face of opposition from a community group, eventually withdrew his name from consideration, citing a potential conflict of interest stemming from an unrelated lawsuit that he had filed against the sheriff’s department.
The trial in the defamation case is scheduled for next month.
A hearing on Rose' motion to withdraw from the case is scheduled to be held via Zoom Wednesday morning.
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