By Delayna Earley
The Island News
A former interim superintendent was required to make an apology statement to a Beaufort County Board of Education member during the Oct. 15 school board meeting due to a request from the jury in a recent defamation case.
Herbert Berg, who served as interim superintendent for Beaufort County from 2018 to 2019, was required by a jury to make a formal and public apology to school board member William C. Smith as part of the jury’s verdict dismissing claims of defamation in the lawsuit Smith brought against the Beaufort County School District, the Beaufort County Board of Education, Herbert Berg, David Grissom, Christina Gwozdz and Richard Geier.
Smith accused Berg of written defamation, or libel.
The jury dismissed Smith’s claim but requested that Berg “make a formal apology to be presented at the next general session board meeting.”
The apology is also supposed to be published in local papers to apologize for inaccuracies that were previously printed about Smith regarding a concealed weapons permit.
In the apology, Berg says that on Oct. 3, after three years of litigation and a trial that lasted for three weeks, the claims brought forth by Smith were rejected by a jury.
Smith had accused the defendants of “various claims including defamation, conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and various state Constitutional violations.”
The claims made against Berg specifically speak to the contents of an email sent from Berg to Gwozdz on June 25, 2019, in which Berg says that Smith does not have a concealed carry permit.
In his apology, Berg claims that he was concerned of a “security issue for the District’s staff and Board members” since there had been four separate workplace harassment complaints from District employees about Smith.
“Unbeknownst to me at the time, Smith possessed a CWP,” Berg said in his apology. “Even if the email is not actionable written defamation, I apologize for making that error,” Berg said.
Per the request by the jury, the full apology made by Berg can be found below.
My name is Herbert Berg. I served the District as its Interim Superintendent from 2018 to 2019. I am proud of the District’s accomplishments during my time as its Interim Superintendent, and those accomplishments that have occurred since my departure, including the successful 2019 bond referendum.
About two years after I left the District, in June 2021, Board Trustee William Smith brought a lawsuit against the Board, the District, Board Chair Dr. Christina Gwozdz, Board Trustee Colonel Richard Geier, the District’s Director of Security David Grissom, and me. In his lawsuit, Smith accused the defendants – including me – of various claims including defamation, conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and various state Constitutional violations.
On October 3, 2024, after over three years of expensive, time-consuming, and stressful litigation, and after a trial in Beaufort that lasted nearly three weeks, each of Smith’s claims against every one of the defendants, including me, were rejected by the Court and/or the jury.
One of Smith’s claims against me personally was a claim for written defamation, or “libel,” concerning an e-mail that I wrote and sent to Dr. Gwozdz on June 25, 2019. While the jury found that Smith did not prove his claim against me for written defamation, the jury indicated that it “would like for Dr. Berg to make a formal apology to be presented at the next general session board meeting.” The jury also indicated that there “needs to be a published version in the local papers [apologizing] for the inaccuracies that were previously printed about Mr. Smith regarding the CWP.”
Prior to sending the e-mail to Dr. Gwozdz on June 25, 2019, I had received four (4) separate workplace harassment complaints from District employees against Smith, who had joined the Board in January 2019. One of the claims rejected by the jury was Smith’s claim that I conspired with the employees to fabricate their claims of harassment against him.
Also prior to the e-mail of June 25, 2019, the District had received messages concerning Smith’s conduct from the Beaufort Police Department and the State Department of Education. I also received a report that Smith had unsuccessfully attempted to enter school buildings during evening hours.
Because of these circumstances, I was concerned that there may be a security issue for the District’s staff and Board members, especially since the Board was scheduled to discuss the employee grievances against Smith at the Board meeting on June 25, 2019. Before the meeting, I asked David Grissom if he could find out whether Smith possessed a concealed weapons permit (CWP). Grissom contacted a law enforcement colleague and found that he [Grissom] could not do so. When he reported this to me, I mistakenly thought that Grissom told me that Smith did not have a CWP. I reported this inaccurate information in my e-mail to Dr. Gwozdz, in which I stated.
After I left the District, this e-mail was released to local media pursuant to a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Over six months after I left the District, the e-mail was discussed in articles published by the Island Packet. In one of these articles, Smith accused me of “pull[ing] that info illegally.” At trial, the General Counsel of the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) confirmed that SLED has no record of any inquiry concerning Smith’s CWP records.
Liz Farrell also wrote an opinion editorial in the Island Packet on January 28, 2020, in which she opined that “Smith has a responsibility to the public to directly and appropriately address this issue. If he can’t do that, then he should resign.” Of course, Ms. Farrell presumably expressed her own opinion.
While I was contacted about the article by District staff, I did not speak with Ms. Farrell about it, and I do not necessarily join in her opinion.
To the extent that any media report was based on the inaccuracy in my e-mail of June 25, 2019 concerning Smith’s possession of CWP, I apologize for the inaccuracy.
In sum, I am proud of my District service, and wish the Board, its members, and the District and its employees well in their future endeavors. I especially thankful for the outcome of Smith’s lawsuit, and hope that it permits the Board, its members, and the District and its employees to move forward successfully.
Delayna Earley, joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
