The editor of a weekly paper in Everett admitted in a new court filing that he invented false articles about the city’s mayor and published them with “ill will” and “reckless disregard” to unleash a “Holocaust” of bogus press.

In a joint pre-trail memorandum, Joshua Resnek, the editor of the Everett Leader Herald, admits to targeting Mayor Carlo DeMaria so he would be wounded heading into reelection. He failed.

The defamation case is set for trial Jan. 21.

“Mr. Resnek admits that he acted with ill will in publishing articles about Carlo DeMaria and wrote articles and editorials about him because he did not want Mr. DeMaria to win reelection as Mayor in November 2021,” the filing states.

It adds: “The words Mr. Resnek wrote were entirely his and he has taken responsibility for same, and will do so again at trial. Mr. Resnek wrote what he wrote because he believed Mr. DeMaria was bad for the City of Everett and he was motivated by the fanciful notion that he could bring about Mr. DeMaria’s defeat in the election for Mayor.”

With a 51% to 48% margin, DeMaria with 3,735 votes, cruised to his sixth term in 2021, another local paper wrote.

DeMaria is bracing for a trial to win back his good name from the weekly paper’s peppering.

“Resnek and (owner Matthew) Philbin believed they were succeeding in their mission, and they congratulated one another, gleefully,” the pre-trial document states. “Resnek described his attacks on Plaintiff as administering “the Holocaust” to him.”

The mayor, the filing adds, ” suffered significant emotional distress, causing him to suffer from, among other things, chest pains, heart palpitations, sleeplessness, abdominal pain, acid reflux, and a worsening of his depression and anxiety, as well as other diseases and conditions, including pre-existing ones that defendants’ conduct greatly exacerbated.”

Resnek and Philbin’s attorneys did not return messages left by the Herald.

DeMaria’s lawyers write that the “sexual assault allegations … allegations of racism and misogyny … and corruption and financial impropriety” spread to other publications, yet were all part of the Herald-Leader’s campaign to smear the mayor.

Resnek has said under oath that he had invented stories to attack the mayor.

“The factual allegations you’ve just leveled at me, okay, for printing or making statements about the Mayor, I regret. I regret, I’m embarrassed by some of it, and I apologize to the mayor for it,” Resnek said during his deposition.

A judge earlier ruled that DeMaria is entitled to real estate attachments up to $850,000 on defendants’ assets to cover the damages the mayor “has demonstrated a likelihood that he will recover” in his defamation action against the Leader Herald and its owners.

Writs of attachment allow for pre-judgment security against real property for the minimum amount of likely damages to cover the likely future damage award. That’s the case here, where the defendants’ own insurance company has filed a lawsuit asserting it does not have any obligations to them due to their intentional misconduct.

Everett Leader Herald editor and publisher Joshua Resnek during a deposition. (Courtesy image)