A year-long conflict and defamation lawsuit between two former executive directors of the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival resulted in a $100 judgment on Tuesday following a jury trial in Cumberland County Superior Court.
The jury concluded that Malia Allen, who ran the festival from 2018 to 2020, defamed former festival director Carrie King in a series of videos published on TikTok and other social media platforms in March 2024. King was Allen’s predecessor as executive director of the Dogwood Festival, serving from 2006 to 2018.
King’s lawyer Jonathan Strange told CityView on Wednesday that he asked the jury for only a nominal judgement because the videos were online for only a few weeks and any damage they caused to King’s reputation appeared to be minimal.
“Carrie continues to work in the industry, she continues to do very well, she continues to excel at her job” in the event planning and festival sector, Strange said. If King’s ability to do her job had been harmed by the videos, he said, then he would have had evidence to seek higher damages.
However, King wants to recover attorney fees of $10,000 from Allen, Strange said. Superior Court Judge Doug Green is expected to rule on that request in the coming weeks.
King referred a request for comment to Strange.
“She’s glad that this is done,” he said. “She’s glad that the jury was able to listen to reason, was able to kind of clear her name that she’s not a thief, that all of these vile things that Malia said about her were untrue.”
Allen, who did not have a lawyer and represented herself in the lawsuit, said she feels the outcome was a victory because the judgment is only $100.
“At the very least, the jury clearly heard her side and my side, and believed me,” Allen said. “They had the opportunity to not only award her damages, but also to award her punitive damages. And they gave her zip, zilch, zero.”
Allen praised Strange. “In terms of me being a person who was representing myself, and I see how frustrating that can be for a lawyer, he was out-of-his-way kind and courteous to me,” she said.
Dozens of TikTok videos
The Dogwood Festival, which draws thousands of people downtown every April, was started in the early 1980s. It is one of the largest and most popular events in Fayetteville, with three days of concerts, vendors, midway rides and other entertainment. There is also a fall Dogwood Festival in October, plus monthly concerts in the summer. The nonprofit Dogwood Festival Inc., which organizes the events, has a volunteer board of directors plus a paid executive director.
This Dogwood Festival drama started after CityView published a news report in March 2024 explaining the organization was in debt and that a consultant had recommended numerous changes, including admission fees.
In response to that report, Allen posted several dozen videos to TikTok and other social media platforms in which she talked about her experience as the festival’s executive director and made critical comments about the Dogwood Festival organization and King.
King sued Allen in April, alleging defamation and slander. She won a court order telling Allen to remove any videos containing false statements.
Allen is now permanently enjoined from publicly making false statements about King, Strange said.
After settlement offers and an attempt at mediation failed (Allen said King asked for $5,000, and Allen countered with $2,500), the case went to trial on Tuesday.
Allen represented herself, and the jury heard testimony from her and from King, Strange said. The jury was also shown four of Allen’s videos.
King alleged that Allen made false statements in the videos. The jury was told to consider whether Allen said King was fired from the Dogwood Festival, embezzled money from the festival, took kickbacks, had been drunk while overseeing the festival’s state alcoholic beverage permit, left the festival bankrupt, and was racist.
Prior to deliberations, the judge ruled Strange proved Allen said three of those things, and the jury had to determine the consequences.
“The jury had to find … one of two things: They had to find that she knew that she was lying, or that she didn’t properly investigate whether she was lying or not,” Strange said.
The jury deliberated for nearly two hours, Allen said.
King’s lawsuit had a second claim, alleging that Allen committed civil assault with a threatening comment in a video. The jury rejected that allegation.
Allen on Wednesday said that if she had hired a lawyer instead of represented herself, she would have been better able to prove she was truthful in the videos and the jury would have sided with her. She had this evidence, she said, but with the intensity of being in a trial, “I got very discombobulated” and forgot to address it.
“The results of this trial came down to who had the money to afford it,” Allen said. “If I had had the money to afford an attorney, I believe I would have been 100% off the hook: no liabilities, no problems, no issues.”
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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