MAINE
Portland Press Herald

BY SCOTT DOLAN STAFF WRITER
sdolan@pressherald.com | @scottddolan | 207-791-6304

Freeport resident Paul Kendrick has rejected the possibility of an out-of-court settlement in the defamation lawsuit against him, leaving the fate of the case uncertain, as his appeal of a $14.5 million verdict against him is on hold.

Kendrick lost at trial in U.S. District Court in Portland last summer, but an appellate court in Boston issued a ruling last month that put the entire case in question by asking whether it ever belonged in federal court at all.

Kendrick said in an email Tuesday that he wants a scheduled two-day hearing to go forward on Wednesday and Thursday before Judge John Woodcock Jr., who presided over the trial, to decide whether the federal court trial venue was correct.

Kendrick was accused of defamation after he began a widely disseminated email campaign in January…