ITHACA, N.Y. — Ithaca City Court Judge Seth Peacock has filed a defamation lawsuit against former Ithaca Police Department officer Jamie Williamson over comments Williamson made on The Ithaca Voice’s Facebook page last year.
In the lawsuit filed this year on July 11, Peacock alleged that Williamson defamed him when Williamson, a white man, posted a Facebook comment last year claiming Peacock is “the same guy who refuses to set bail on minority offenders but jumps at the chance to remand white offenders.” Peacock is Black.
The post was made in the comment section of an Ithaca Voice article about Peacock’s courtroom fight against the City of Ithaca over the administration of emergency property maintenance order (EPMO) tickets.
The lawsuit may soon be withdrawn after Williamson, who worked for IPD for 16 years including a stint as its public information officer, agreed to publicly apologize. But local lawyer Ed Kopko, who is representing Peacock in the case, said he was still reviewing the apology’s language as of Tuesday afternoon and that “other matters must be addressed” before the lawsuit is dropped. Kopko said Williamson’s comment was indicative of “wild ideas” which are “malicious, reckless and false.”
Peacock’s lawsuit is seeking undetermined compensatory, special and punitive damages as well as attorney’s fees.
Williamson sent his apology to The Ithaca Voice on July 28, condemning his comment and backtracking on its claims. It can be read in full at the bottom of this article.
Peacock’s lawsuit, filed three days before New York’s statute of limitations of defamation would have expired, alleged that Williamson’s comment was false, sought to discredit Peacock as a judge and could expose Peacock to “public hatred, contempt, ridicule or disgrace.”
Peacock has been a City Court judge since he was appointed in 2019 by then-Mayor Svante Myrick to fill a vacancy. Peacock then secured a 10-year term on the bench thanks to a comfortable victory in the 2020 election, but his tenure has pitted him against city leadership at times, including his aforementioned legal grappling against the city’s property maintenance ticket system that left more than 1,600 property tickets dismissed then reinstated. He also quietly initiated a run for Tompkins County Judge in 2024, but dropped out in February.
Upon receiving the news he was being sued, Williamson said he was initially angry at what he thought was “a crappy thing to do to a retired cop.” After “further research” he said his viewpoint changed from his original reaction, which he said was fueled by reading stories about two cases Peacock was presiding over — one in which a white defendant was remanded to Tompkins County Jail without bail, and another in which a minority defendant was released on bail.
“Turns out there is absolutely no noticeable difference in who Judge Peacock remands or releases. None,” Williamson said. “So I have come to regret making that comment. Seth Peacock did not deserve to bear the brunt of my knee-jerk reaction. I should have done some research before commenting, or better yet just kept my big mouth shut in the first place.”
Williamson said he also regrets that Peacock “suffered” as a result of his comment.
“I don’t know Seth all that well to be honest,” Williamson said. “I think I’ve maybe said 10 words to him my whole life, so I can’t really speak to his character as a man. However, I don’t need to know someone to admit that I involved them in my mistake.”
Williamson, who retired in 2021, was not an active member of IPD when he made the comment. The suit identifies Williamson as a current police officer, though he medically retired from the force after a lengthy medical leave stemming from a concussion he sustained during a 2019 foot pursuit of a suspect.
Williamson frequented The Ithaca Voice’s comment section after his retirement. His comments were typically critical of city government, particularly surrounding the Reimagining Public Safety initiative and the relationship between City Hall and the Ithaca Police Benevolent Association, as well as dissatisfaction with local media coverage of policing and crime.
Williamson was banned from The Ithaca Voice’s Facebook page in 2024 for separately violating community guidelines.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matt Van Houten declined to comment on the veracity of Peacock’s lawsuit or Williamson’s Facebook comment.
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