Consultant Awarded $1.5 Million Judgment Against Donald Watkins

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A longtime Alabama political consultant has been awarded a $1.5 million summary judgment in a case against prominent Birmingham businessman Donald Watkins. Joe Perkins filed suit against Watkins in response to opinions the defendant posted in 2017.

The allegations against Watkins involve comments posted by Watkins first to Facebook and later to a website in response to news stories about the alleged sexual assault of a female University of Alabama student who later committed suicide.

Watkins’s posts reportedly included allegations about a conspiracy to silence the UA student. Most allegations relied on what Watkins described as "anonymous sources."

Among these allegations, Watkins claimed that Matrix, LLC and Perkins had undertaken various unethical, and even criminal, actions to silence the family of the now-deceased student and sully her reputation.

"Watkins never identified his ‘anonymous source,’ nor provided any verifiable evidence that the ‘source’ even existed," Perkins’ attorney, Cason Kirby. "We demanded Watkins retract his false statements, but he refused, so we sued him for five claims of defamation."

Watkins filed a counterclaim alleging that Matrix and Perkins had disparaged him by calling him "a financially broken, desperate man suffering from psychological and behavioral problems."

After significant discovery, including testimony from Watkins himself, as well as a former publisher of the Tuscaloosa News, Kirby and co-counsel Todd Campbell moved for summary judgment on all claims and counterclaims, which Watkins opposed.

Court findings include:

• Matrix and Perkins established that Watkins’ statements were false, and Watkins was unable to provide any evidence of the truth of his allegations.
• Matrix and Perkins established, through uncontested admissible evidence, that Watkins was liable for defamation per se — and was negligent in his failure to even attempt to verify his allegations.
• Watkins failed to prove that Perkins made the alleged statement about Watkins; therefore, the court did not reach a determination on the truth of the statement.

Watkins, who is currently serving a 27-month prison sentence for seven counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy, still has the right to appeal the judgment against him.