Monday afternoon (April 13) I received three emails from attorney Ed Huddleston in Weatherford. The emails were identical except one contained the name Marcy Galle, one contained the name Houston Wingard, and one contained the name Roy Kurban.
The letters stemmed from the previous week’s coverage of campaign finance reports in the race for Willow Park City Council, and the three names were the candidates who are challenging the sitting city council members. The letters accused me and The Community News of publishing libelous statements.
At issue were campaign signs around Willow Park containing photos of the three candidates. My story falsely claimed the banner signs did not have the required disclosure of who paid for them and other verbiage required by Texas law.
My perception at the time was based on driving around Willow Park and seeing that all the other political signs, even those of the the same three individual candidates listed above, clearly had disclaimers. The banners I referred to in the story did not appear to have the disclaimers.
My suspicion when I first saw the signs was that a third party had paid for them and either neglected to include the disclaimer or deliberately omitted it. If that had been true, then the three candidates would also have not had the opportunity report what would have amounted to an in-kind campaign contribution.
Someone subsequently leaked Huddleston’s letter to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. We believe in transparency and have nothing to hide, so below you will find the entirety of communications between myself and Ed Huddleston.
From Ed Huddleston:
Re: Libelous Statements Published on Thursday, April 9, 2026 at 2:38 p.m.
To Whom It May Concern:
The undersigned firm of attorneys represents [Mr. Gary Houston Wingard, Mr. Roy Kurban, Ms. Marcy Galle] with regard to the above-referenced libelous statements published by The Community News and Randy Keck. You have accused my client of criminal activity. Even a cursory review of the banners would have given you sufficient knowledge to know that the banners were legal. The required verbiage is at the bottom of the banners and were printed in accord with the statutes of the State of Texas. The allegation that the costs were not on financial reports is likewise simply false. A simple review of the reports and even the most minimal investigation would have disclosed the falsity of your allegations.
It is our belief that malice may be inferred from your continued unwarranted bias against the current Mayor who won by a landslide and those folks aligned with her point of view with regard to the future of Willow Park. Further, since you chose to commit libel per se, you are subject to presumed damages.
As I am sure you are aware, in order to fully recover all damages available to my client, you must be given an opportunity to apologize, retract your statement and do so in such a way that will be equally obvious to a reasonable person that false statements were made. As you know, failure to make a proper retraction will subject you to the potential for additional punitive damages beyond the already established malice and will certainly create additional issues for you.
Upon receiving the email, my response was to drive to Willow Park and take photos and videos of the banner, and, at the time, a disclaimer was still not discernible to me.
I sent the files to Huddleston with this message, still believing the signs had no disclaimer:
From Randy Keck
Hi Ed,
I have to assume that you and the three people you represent are not regular readers of The Community News.
We have no claims to perfection, which is why, when we make a mistake, we correct it in a following issue of the newspaper at the top of the front page. If we made a mistake in this case, all it would have taken was a phone call from anyone pointing out the error.
In 31 years of publishing this newspaper, no one has ever felt the need to have an attorney send me a letter.
That said, based on the photo and video attached, I stand behind the story as written.
However, since I am evidently not too adept at reading campaign finance reports, if someone will point out to me where on the candidates’ financial reports the in-kind donation of these banners are listed, I’ll be happy to issue a correction on that point, and it will have the added benefit of revealing who, indeed, purchased and placed those banners.
Huddleston responded by sending a rendering of the signs, which I assume was used by the sign printer, that showed a disclaimer. His response:
From Ed Huddleston
When we “assume” we make an ass of u and me….from an old Col…..feel free to steal.
You should rely on facts before you accuse truly honorable folks like Mr. Kurban of criminal activity. I assume from your email that you have no interest in correcting your vilification of these three. (See above).
Please note that Texas law gives some limited protection when a retraction is promptly executed. The letter was sent pursuant to Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code Section 73.055. Since you “stand by” your false story, the Plaintiffs in each of the three cases may receive punitive damages over and above the ones available as a result of the “per se” defamation.
Perhaps if you had dragged your happy butt out of your palatial offices, out of your luxury vehicle and examined the sign in person rather than relying on your co-defendant/co-conspirator, you would have seen the statutory language (I believe, if I remember correctly, along the bottom of the banner). Or, you could have reached out and got a copy of the Certificate of Compliance from one of the Plaintiffs. Relying on a co-defendant who is clearly biased and benefits from your campaign publicity contributions through the paper is perilous at best.. Standing by a cell phone picture when the banner is available for a first hand inspection is ultimately very expensive.
Your second libelous statement relies on your (and perhaps one or more of your co-defendant’s) assumptions regarding the campaign reports. First, you admit lack of competence in reading the reports, yet, despite admitted lack of experience, nonetheless, you still made false statements accusing these folks of criminal activities. Secondarily, you assume that the banner was an in-kind donation which it was not. Again, relying on individuals who are making stuff up regularly leads to unpleasant results. The expenditure is clearly reported on each of the candidates’ reports.
After all these years, it looks like for the “first time in 31 years” you have stepped in it. I do not have authority to make any kind of offers but I think it would be helpful to your long-term profitability to try to make the peace with these folks yesterday or sooner. I do not like it when people I care about end up in silly controversies. I am not a photographer but below is a photo of the bottom of the banner at the station. I am sure your spatial visualization will give you some context.
At that point, I drove back to Willow Park, went to the sign, and got down on hands and knees to examine it. And there the disclaimer was, in red-on-red lettering. I will point out that even one of the plaintiffs mentioned above also said in passing that he had to do the same thing to discern the disclaimer. So, doing what we do, I admitted we were wrong about the presence of a disclaimer in a correction at the top of the front page in the next issue. Before that, I sent this response to Huddleston:
From Randy Keck
Hi Ed,
Obviously, the adage about assumptions applies both ways. I went and examined the sign myself and did not see a disclaimer. I went back this morning, after receiving your email, and, after getting down on hands and knees, I did see the red-on-red disclaimer.
I will issue a correction regarding my characterization of the banner in the next issue of The Community News.
As far as other assumptions are concerned, my palatial office is 600 square feet shared by 6 people at Aledo Workspace, and my luxury vehicle is a Kia Soul.
Perhaps these issues could be resolved without the personal insults your clients are so well known for using.
Since we are getting lawyers involved, I will most likely look into my options regarding Marcy Galle’s Facebook post accusing me of helping cause the death of a Willow Park resident.
To be clear, there was a mistake of fact in an article, which will be corrected. I did not vilify anyone, and if further legal action is contemplated by your clients, I will defend myself vigorously.
From Ed Huddleston:
As I said, I hate it when people I care about are in silly arguments. I have known Grand Master Kurban for decades and there is no more scrupulous man on the face of the planet. He may be the most honorable man I know. As far as your palatial offices and limousine, I remember the old car from decades ago….
I hope you can make the peace but that is not in my power. That is neither my circus nor my monkey. I know the good old boys and understand the mindset, but they chose a path that was ill advised. I hope they can make the peace as well. A couple of them are important to me and my family.
When you got down on your hands and knees to exam in the sign, I hope you did not meet Mr. Copperhead as I did.