NC court rules on whether Durham leaders are immune to libel and slander claims

A lawsuit accusing two former Durham City Council members of deliberately spreading falsehoods about fellow member Monique Holsey-Hyman can move forward following an appellate court ruling.

Appealing a Durham Superior Court ruling that let most of Holsey-Hyman’s civil claims move forward, city officials argued the former council members were immune because they acted in their official roles.

In a ruling published earlier this week, all three members of a North Carolina Court of Appeals panel disagreed with the city

The panel ruled that the alleged conduct of former City Council members Jillian Johnson and Mark-Anthony Middleton isn’t legislative but “administrative, political or personal.”

“Defendants have failed at this stage to show that legislative immunity applies to Johnson and Middleton,” the decision states.

About the Monique Holsey-Hyman lawsuit

In the 2024 lawsuit, Holsey-Hyman alleges that Middleton, Johnson and a developer, along with the city’s planning director and attorney, spread false information, including allegations of extortion, in retaliation for her refusal to support a development project in March 2023.

A State Bureau of Investigation report found no evidence to support the allegations against Holsey-Hyman, Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry has said. There is also no evidence of a coordinated effort by city leaders to initiate allegations against Holsey-Hyman, Deberry found.

In her lawsuit, Holsey-Hyman argued there was a coordinated effort.

The allegations against Holsey-Hyman, which drew widespread media coverage, left her unable to sleep and caused panic attacks and severe migraines, the lawsuit states. She was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The allegations also harmed her reputation, causing the N.C. Central University social work professor to be passed over for awards, contracts and promotions, the lawsuit states. And she lost her bid to return to the City Council.

Johnson and Middleton are also no longer on the City Council. Johnson declined to run for a third term in 2023. Middleton lost his reelection bid last year.

History of Durham City Council dispute

Holsey-Hyman was appointed to the City Council in 2022 to fill the seat of Charlie Reece, who was moving out of the country. Chosen from about 20 applicants, Holsey-Hyman had never run for elected office. She joined a council sharply divided over development requests popping up across the city.

On March 6, 2023, Holsey-Hyman and two others successfully voted to deny a request to annex a 235-home project on 132 acres in a rural area near Falls Lake.

Five days after the vote, the project’s developer, Jarrod Edens, called Planning Director Sara Young on a Saturday morning. During that conversation, Edens told Young that Holsey-Hyman said she would support his project if he gave to her campaign, the lawsuit states. Young called City Attorney Kimberly Rehberg the following Sunday night.

Young, Rehberg, Johnson and Middleton then took steps to make the accusations public without interviewing Holsey-Hyman or Edens, whose identity was protected after Young promised anonymity, the lawsuit states.

Rehberg circulated a memorandum and a letter to council members describing the allegation of extortion, a felony, and questioned why the developer would lie about Holsey-Hyman’s statements.

Middleton demanded Holsey-Hyman’s resignation and Johnson shared her name with reporters, the lawsuit states.

Johnson and Middleton unsuccessfully pushed for the council to censure Holsey-Hyman on a separate issue involving a city staffer who, while working for the city, sent a friend an invitation to a Holsey-Hyman campaign event.

The employee said he did it on his own and was reprimanded, the lawsuit states. Still, Johnson and Middleton sought a resolution of censure, a rarely used move reserved for “extreme or outrageous” actions that were a deliberate and intentional violation of the City Council rules, the lawsuit states.

Judge rules on Durham’s request to dismiss libel lawsuit

In March 2025, Superior Court Judge Timothy Wilson ruled in favor of the city’s argument to dismiss the city attorney from the lawsuit. He denied the request to dismiss the other defendants and allowed nine of Holsey-Hyman’s 11 civil claims to continue.

The city, Johnson, Middleton, and the planning developer appealed Wilson’s ruling, arguing they were immune to the remaining allegations of slander, libel, retaliation, conspiracy, and the intentional or negligent infliction of mental and emotional distress.

Johnson and Middleton argued that their words weren’t defamatory, weren’t meant to harm, and fell far short of the kind of “extreme and outrageous” conduct required to support a claim of infliction of emotional distress.

The city could ask the North Carolina Supreme Court to review the case. City Attorney John Roseboro did not respond to questions about whether it will.

If not, the case would return to Durham Superior Court, where it must clear additional legal hurdles before it can be heard by a jury.