By admin 
Three friends who were with Nolan Xavier Wells before he died on Horn Island plan to sue the Rev. Al Sharpton for defamation.
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Their attorneys notified the civil rights activist and Baptist minister in an intent-to-sue letter filed Friday, but gave him time to “retract and delete every false and defamatory statement about them, including not limited to those specifically identified” in the letter.
Mississippi attorney Tyler Cox represents the three friends — Warren Hudson, Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour — along with high-profile defamation and media law attorney Edward Andrew Paltzik.
In the intent-to-sue letter, the attorneys allege that Sharpton defamed the trio during a July 14 interview with TMZ and in other remarks he made in the aftermath of the 18-year-old student-athlete’s death.
The claims included alleged defamatory remarks made during the convention for the National Association of Black Journalists and other remarks during a virtual prayer vigil on the National Action Network on Aug. 19, the day of Wells’ 19th birthday.
During the TMZ interview, Sharpton questioned the circumstances surrounding Wells’ death and accused the three friends of potential wrongdoing.
Sharpton discussed Wells’ cellphone, which was retrieved from the friends after they returned from Horn Island without Wells. He said the phone’s photos and text messages had been erased.
“All of his photos, text messages, everything on the phone had been erased,” Sharpton said.
He questioned why Wells was missing without his cellphone and said there were “too many unanswered questions” surrounding the case.
“One, he’s missing without a cell phone,” Sharpton said. “Two, you lie about whether or not you had the cell phone and the (Nolan’s) keys. And three, everything is erased from the cell phone. That’s too many unanswered questions for us not to say that something is amiss here.”
In addition, the attorneys pointed to additional remarks from Sharpton, including “I was first of all, stunned at the fact that this young man is going out, he and three friends, he Black, they white and a day later his mother and them start searching for him, no one comes forward. And then they find out after two days, that they claim his body was washed up and that they had given his cell phone and his keys to one of the three friends saying he didn’t want to go back from Horn Island with them.”
“Have they brought these three young men in for questioning under oath?”
The attorneys pointed out those statements and others identified that the three young men he was referring to in his remarks were Hudson, Pitalo and Seymour.
“You falsely accused these three completely innocent young men of extremely serious wrongdoing that constitutes multiple felonies under Mississippi law, including, but not limited to: Murder, hindering prosecution in the first degree and tampering with physical evidence,” the letter said.
“There can be no doubt that you were intentionally referring to Warren, Jax, and Morgan, as evidenced by your multiple references to Nolan’s “three friends.”
“Your remarks,” the lawyers wrote, “were intended to accuse them of infamous crimes, publicly claim them as criminal, identify them as enemies, endanger them, and subject them to threats, ridicule, and scorn.”
The attorneys also pointed out that just after midnight on July 5, the mother of a Wonsley family friend, arrived at Pitalo’s house “with a group of people,” most of whom the three young men didn’t know. The group, the letter said, “let themselves into the house without permission, demanding Nolan’s cellphone and his whereabouts.”
Pitalo’s parents weren’t home at the time.
“After 2:24 a.m. July 5, Nolan’s stepfather, Elmore Wonsley, went to Jax’s house seeking Nolan’s keys,” the letter said.
Wells had stayed there the previous night with a group of about 15 to 20 people and had left his keys on a video game console in Pitalo’s bedroom, something he didn’t know when he first searched the home for Wells’ keys and couldn’t find them.
After a call to the same friend’s mother who went with the group to get Wells’ phone, her son told Pitalo where to find the keys.
According to the account, Wells’ dad, Elmore Wonsley, was accompanied by a group that refused to leave and demanded answers about Nolan’s whereabouts.
Pitalo and his brother called 911 when the group “became disruptive” and “refused to leave the property.”
No foul play?
Sharpton also questioned how authorities could initially say they did not suspect foul play, though the family’s attorney, Ben Crump, said early-on that the parents were frustrated because investigators had not told them whether they believe foul play was involved in their son’s death.
In later remarks, Crump’s story about authorities initially saying there was no foul play changed.
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Sharpton, however, said early on, “How do you know that (that there was no foul play) when you just brought a body out of the water?” he said.
Sharpton said a legal strategy could include depositions of the three friends.
“What we can do, though, is go through state court and sue and depose these young men on what they were doing,” he said.
He said he would continue to support Wells’ family and mobilize people around the country to keep public attention on the case.
Sharpton also raised race as a factor at another juncture, saying some members of the Black community believe authorities would have treated the circumstances differently if the races of Wells and his friends had been reversed.
“If there were three Black guys and a white kid was missing, they would have held them probably in custody and suddenly had them seriously under scrutiny, in my opinion,” he said.
Sharpton said the Wonsley family did not want to make the case about race though they are unable to disregard that, because Wells’ three white friends are alive while Wells is dead after the group spent Independence Day together.
He also said he has heard from parents through his civil rights organization, the National Action Network, who have become concerned about their children spending time with people of other races.
“People are just naturally becoming very apprehensive, and we shouldn’t have to live like this,” Sharpton said. “And unless there is a signal sent from the justice system that do some real justice in these cases, they will only intensify people’s fear of even having social settings with people of different races for their children.”
In addition, Sharpton said that Wells’ parents, at “a certain time” realized their son was missing and “started calling around, and they found that he had not come back with the three friends, and that’s where it gets cloudy.
Test messages and calls to the Coast Guard, others
In the letters, the attorneys cite text messages and call logs they say show Hudson began taking action as soon as he and his friends realized Wells had not returned from the island.
Around 10 p.m. July 4, the friends began calling others and realized Wells still had not returned home. None had heard from him or knew his whereabouts. At about 11:07 p.m., Hudson called Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, to tell her Wells had not returned with the group.
Wonsley told Hudson that her son was not home and that she had not heard from him since the evening of July 3. Wells had stayed overnight with his friends July 3.
Hudson told Wonsley that Wells’ cellphone had remained with the group on the return trip and was secured in another friend’s vehicle.
Hudson also told her he was calling the U.S. Coast Guard “out of an abundance of caution.” He made the call at about 11:13 p.m. July 4.
According to the attorneys, Hudson remained on the call for more than 20 minutes, providing a description of Wells, what he was wearing, his last known whereabouts, when the group left the island and other information to aid the search.
The attorneys said Hudson and Wonsley exchanged text messages beginning at 11:15 p.m. The messages were provided to the Sun Herald earlier in the week.
About a minute after ending the Coast Guard call, Hudson called Wonsley again to tell her he had spoken with the Coast Guard and provided details about where the group had been on the island and where they last saw Wells. The Coast Guard later called Hudson back for additional information, which he provided.
At about 1 a.m., Wonsley called Hudson and told him the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department would contact him so he could provide additional information to a sheriff’s deputy and investigator.
Inviting civil litigation
Among the remarks Sharpton has made since he became vocal about Wellls’ death, he also invited the attorneys to file civil litigation filed against him over any remarks in the Nolan Wells’ case.
“I want them to sue me first,” Sharpton said. “I want to depose your (Benjaman Hudson’s) son.”
“If you sue, the plaintiffs are deposed,” Sharpton said. “Let’s go to civil court, any kind of court you want to go to, because you can’t make this make sense.”
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“We’re happy to grant your wish,” the attorneys for Wells’ friends said.