SC appeals court revives former school board member’s Facebook lawsuit
More than two and a half years after a judge threw out a lawsuit against a Midlands mom who operated a Facebook group about her school district, an appeals court decision will allow at least some of the charges against her to be revived.
A decision by the S.C. Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled that the circuit court was hasty in dismissing a suit against Leslie Stiles brought by Ken Loveless, then a member of the Lexington-Richland 5 school board, over comments made on a Facebook group about the school district that Loveless claimed defamed him.
Former S.C. Chief Justice Jean Toal had dismissed Loveless’ suit after a December 2022 hearing. She ruled that Stiles was protected by the federal Communications Decency Act, which protects the “publisher” of a website from being held liable for comments made in an open forum by others.
The appeals court agreed with that assessment, but said Toal had not considered claims Loveless made about comments Stiles had authored herself. Loveless could still pursue his claims against Stiles for those Facebook comments, the court ruled.
“We find Loveless alleged Stiles individually authored at least some of the statements listed in the complaint, and, therefore, the circuit court’s ruling was premature,” the order reads. “Therefore, we hold it was improper to grant Stiles’s motion for judgment on the pleadings as to her statements, as the complaint asserted there were statements alleged to be defamatory and alleged to have been made by Stiles with actual malice. Accordingly, we reverse [the lower court’s ruling] and remand for further proceedings as to Stiles’s statements.”
The decision allows the case to return to the circuit court in Columbia for action on Loveless’ claims against Stiles specifically. The ruling was authored by Chief Judge Bruce Williams, with concurrences from judges John Geathers and Matthew Turner.
Loveless filed suit against Stiles in 2022 over the Facebook group Deep Dive Into D5, which Stiles administered.
“On multiple occasions, Stiles has published, approved, and endorsed posts to the Page that contain false and defamatory statements about Loveless, which defame him, harm him and his reputation, and subject him to humiliation and ridicule,” his suit claimed.
Of the posts the lawsuit claims were specifically authored by Stiles, most deal with ethics complaints about Loveless’ relationship with a construction firm that formerly worked on a new elementary school in the district. Loveless’ contracting company worked with Contract Construction on a project outside the district, at the same time Contract was building the new Piney Woods Elementary School, a project that Loveless often criticized.
Since the lawsuit was filed, Loveless was found to have violated the state Ethics Act by the S.C. Ethics Commission, which found he should have recused himself from board discussions of the project and fined him $6,000. Commissioners upheld that decision on appeal in March.
Loveless has another active lawsuit against Kevin Scully, who was sued over comments made in the same Facebook group criticizing Loveless. That suit continued even after Loveless lost his re-election bid and Scully was elected to a separate seat on the Lexington-Richland 5 school board, where he is now vice chairman, a post previously held by Loveless.
The former school board member is attempting to add other former school district officials to that suit after a federal conspiracy lawsuit against them was dismissed.
This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
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