Jewell Settles Lawsuit Against College Paper

Richard Jewell will drop his defamation claims against Piedmont College in exchange for an undisclosed amount of money, lawyers for Jewell and his former employer said Tuesday.

Jewell’s defamation lawsuit will continue against the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which the former Olympic Park security guard’s lawyer, Lin Wood, called “the real culprit.” Lawyers for the north Georgia school, where Jewell once worked as a campus policeman, issued a written statement confirming the settlement. “This settlement is not an admission by any party of any wrongdoing,” the statement said.

Lawyers said official notice of the deal will be filed in court this week.

In his Fulton State Court lawsuit, Jewell said the newspaper libeled him and school officials slandered him in articles and statements about his job performance and personality. Of the Piedmont defendants, president Ray Cleere declined to comment Tuesday and former spokesman Scott Rawles could not be reached.

Wood called the newspaper “the real culprit of the false portrayal of Richard Jewell to the world.” The Journal-Constitution first identified Jewell, 34, as a focus of the investigation into the fatal bombing last summer at Centennial Olympic Park. The U.S. Justice Department cleared Jewell in October.