NASHVILLE (BP) — Chief U.S. District Judge William Campbell released a memorandum on April 1 explaining his decision to grant summary judgment in almost all counts of Johnny Hunt’s suit against the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), SBC Executive Committee (EC) and Guidepost Solutions. In the judgment issued on March 31, Campbell ruled against Hunt in all claims related to Guidepost Solutions and in all but one against the SBC and SBC Executive Committee.

The suit is related to the May 2022 Guidepost Report investigation the alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims by the EC. The report included information concerning an incident between Hunt and another pastor’s wife in 2010.

Hunt claimed defamation, negligence, invasion of privacy and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress among other items in the suit filed in March 2023.

The defendants sought summary judgment from Campbell.

“Summary judgment is appropriate ‘if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law,’” Campbell wrote.

The judge ruled that Guidepost’s 2022 report did not intentionally single Hunt out but addressed issues that are of public concern.

The report “…relates to broad issues of interest to society at large, rather than matters of purely private concern,” he wrote. “Specifically, the issues the Report highlights – allegations of sexual abuse involving clergy members and how allegations of such abuse were handled ​​– are matters of public import.”

Quoting case law, the judge wrote that for a defendant to be liable for defamation, “there must be publication of matter that is both defamatory and false.”

Because the defendants did not act with negligence through the Guidepost investigation, Campbell reasoned there are no “investigatory deficiencies from which a reasonable jury could find that Guidepost failed to act with reasonable care in ascertaining the truth of the challenged statement or that the SBC and the Executive Committee failed to act with reasonable care in relying on Guidepost’s investigation and conclusions.”

The judge also granted summary judgment for the defendants in the claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress saying, “Hunt has failed to point to evidence of mental and emotional injuries as a result of any of the statements which would disable a reasonable, normally constituted person from adequately coping with the alleged mental stress. Accordingly, Hunt’s negligent infliction of emotional distress claim fails.”

The lone claim Campbell did not dismiss has to do with a tweet from then-SBC President Bart Barber, finding that: “A jury could conclude that Barber breached a reasonable duty of care when he accused Hunt of assaulting a woman in ways that would ‘constitute a felony in any jurisdiction in the U.S.’ after having been advised that the allegations against Hunt do not constitute a crime in Florida.”

A trial date of June 16 has been set.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Brandon Porter serves as Vice President for Communications at the SBC Executive Committee.)