CalCoastNews posted list of accusations. Now former SLO attorney wants an apology
Former San Luis Obispo attorney John Belsher demanded a public apology from CalCoastNews reporter Karen Velie after a 4,200-word document listing a variety of accusations was briefly posted to the CCN website and Facebook page this week.
Belsher claimed the document — which was published online for a short time Monday morning before being taken down without explanation — was defamatory toward him.
He sent Velie a letter on Thursday demanding a “sincere apology and retraction” within 10 days, or he would consider suing her and CalCoastNews for defamation. Belsher shared the letter with The Tribune when asked for comment about the document.
“I do not wish to allow you a platform to promulgate your continued manipulation of ‘facts’ according to your overall goal of character assassination for the purpose of selling clickbait,” he wrote.
Titled “Lawsuit Bernat info,” Velie’s lengthy document was posted sometime before 10:30 a.m. on Monday and taken down shortly after. It summarizes Velie’s wide-ranging grievances against a number of people while appearing as a possible legal defense in the defamation lawsuit against her by Jody Bernat, Belsher’s wife.
It lays out her suspicion that “several media groups” — including The Tribune, Paso Robles Daily News and KVEC — “have conspired to destroy my reputation and ruin my business CalCoastNews for financial gain in violation” of several laws, including “the Sherman Act, the First Amendment, libel and slander laws, and laws against torturous interference with business.”
Those allegations center around The Tribune’s investigation of an alleged conspiracy that Velie, Paso Robles Councilman Chris Bausch and others spread rumors about former Paso Robles city manager Ty Lewis to drive him out of his job as the city’s top administrator.
The document did not appear ready for publication, with an unfinished headline and multiple typos and incomplete sentences throughout.
It contained many of the same legal arguments made in court records in the defamation case against Velie — including a dispute over where she lives, claims of threats against her life, and allegations that evidence in the case was doctored.
Attorney Saro Rizzo is named in the document as giving Velie legal advice.
It also names local radio host Dave Congalton as a source for claims about The Tribune. The document repeats several unfounded stories about The Tribune that Velie has made in the past, despite repeated requests that she correct her reporting.
When asked about the statements attributed to him in the document, Congalton said, “no comment.”
All in all, the document lists allegations against a number of people, including local radio host and Tribune columnist Clive Pinder, Paso Robles Daily News publishers Steve and Beth Brennan, Lewis, several Tribune journalists, and Belsher, who stated his opinion simply in his retraction demand to Velie:
“You are guilty of defamation.”
Velie did not respond to The Tribune’s requests for comment.
Former SLO County attorney says CCN reporter published false information
Belsher, who now lives in Arizona, was mentioned multiple times in the document in his capacity as Bernat’s husband and former lawyer on her defamation case until he resigned from the California State Bar in January, as well as the former business partner to Ryan Petetit-Wright, who was convicted of bribing late Supervisor Adam Hill to approve or sway other supervisors on real estate development projects by their company, PB Companies.
Amid the “numerous fantastic assertions” made in the document, Belsher argued in his retraction demand that multiple allegations against him “are not proven nor true.”
Three times in the document, Velie claimed that Belsher told her in January 2025 that “he would be working with the Tribune to let the public know how awful I am” and disparage her reporting.
However, it appears she couldn’t locate her alleged evidence.
“I am looking for the email, social message post or text message, having trouble finding it,” Velie wrote.
Belsher said he has had no contact with Velie outside of two other retraction demand letters he has sent in the past.
“You admittedly have no evidence to support these falsehoods,” Belsher wrote in his most recent letter.
Finally, the document claimed some of Hill’s involvement in corruption “included Belsher” and said he had “a history of allegedly manipulating evidence.”
Belsher was not charged with any criminal violations relating to his business dealings, but he was ordered to pay a $3.6 million judgment to two former investors after he was found liable by a SLO County judge for fraud and breaching his fiduciary duty as their attorney.
That judgment was fully settled and paid in full, Bernat said.
As for the allegations of him manipulating evidence, Belsher said there are no court rulings or findings supporting her claims.
“She is simply casting aspersions,” he told The Tribune.
Belsher’s letter demanded a retraction despite the fact that the article was taken down almost immediately after it was published.
But that didn’t matter to him, and his letter asserted it was public for enough time to have “circulated among several prominent followers of your publication.”
“Even a negligent posting of falsehoods is defamatory,” Belsher wrote. “The intent to disparage my reputation is obvious from your direction in the posting and your history of personal attacks on me.”
Belsher clarified to The Tribune that by demanding a retraction, he was requesting a public correction and apology be published as a separate online posting.
Bernat, who has started a GoFundMe to help hire lawyers and pay her legal fees in the defamation actions, backed up her husband against Velie’s claims.
“None of it is true,” she told The Tribune.
But Bernat said she did gain something from the document: an inside look into Velie’s legal strategy.
“I think she’s made a mistake,” Bernat said. “She’s showed us all her cards, and they’re bad ones.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 10:40 AM.
