Slander lawsuit by vets’ official dismissed

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By NATE JENKINS / The Associated Press

LINCOLN, Neb. — A war of words between feuding veterans service officers didn’t rise to the level of slander or libel, a judge has ruled.

Buffalo County District Judge John Icenogle last week dismissed a lawsuit from Hall County Veterans Service Officer Don Shuda and the Lincoln-based Veterans Advocacy Group. They claimed that Bill Williams, the veterans services officer in neighboring Buffalo County, made slanderous and libelous comments about them.

Williams has told authorities that Shuda funneled business to the private, Lincoln-based Veterans Advocacy Group, which requests money from veterans for helping them get disability payments.

“I felt it was my civic obligation to repeat what I believe is extraordinary corruption in central Nebraska,” Williams said Monday. “I plan to point out what I see to authorities.”

Shuda did not return a phone message seeking comment.

According to the lawsuit filed by Shuda and the veterans group, Williams said that “Don Shuda misused his county-paid time and abused his position as a veterans service officer by actually harming the veterans and secretly obtaining financial benefits by acting as an undisclosed agent of the Veterans Advocacy Group.”

At the time the lawsuit was filed, it was illegal to charge more than $10 in fees to veterans for helping them with some initial disability claims made to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Williams alleges that veterans who have come to Shuda for help are directed to the Veterans Advocacy Group, which then requests that veterans provide the group with a “gratuity.”

Some veterans officials have described the practice as unethical.

The lawsuit said that the plaintiffs were slandered by Williams’ comment that they solicited and received nearly $426,000 from veterans.