Libel lawsuit filed by San Bernardino Sheriff's wife gets trial date

 

Bohl filed a libel suit against Valley Wide Newspapers, a collection of newspapers owned by Pryke that includes the Hesperia Resorter, in June 2000.

In various articles, the papers accused Bohl, who operates a counseling firm, of using her relationship with Penrod to win Sheriff's Department counseling contracts and leaking deputies' confidential psychiatric information to the sheriff. 

Bohl has denied the allegations while Pryke, in an earlier statement, has called the articles "factually accurate."

Bohl's attorney, John Rowell, could not be reached for comment.

In court documents filed for last Monday's hearing, each side lobbed allegations against the other in the latest phase of the contentious dispute.

Barham wrote that Rowell had not made a good enough effort to resolve the request for the additional details from Pryke.

"Rowell's one and a half page letter and his offer to conduct a meet and confer on the same day that his client was being deposed is hardly evidence of a good-faith effort to resolve the discovery dispute," Barham wrote.

But Rowell, in his response to Barham's opposition to the motion, said Pryke repeatedly defied orders to provide the information.

"This is not the first time that Pryke has refused to respond to discovery. It is not the second time. It is not the third time," Rowell wrote in a response to Pryke's opposition.

"This motion, if granted, would represent the ninth time that Mr. Pryke has been ordered to provide responses and/or sanctioned for failing to comply with this court's discovery orders," continued Rowell.

While the judge denied Rowell's two motions, he did sanction Pryke $2,625 at the hearing, court records indicate.

mike.cruz@inlandnewspapers.com