Nineteenth Judicial District Court Judge Todd Hernandez dismissed former University student Terrance Patrick Esfeller’s February lawsuit against the University Board of Supervisors and the managing staff of The Daily Reveille on Tuesday.Hernandez dismissed the case because Esfeller was unable to prove comments posted on lsureveille.com caused permanent damage to him and his reputation. The judge also ruled The Daily Reveille was not responsible for the remarks posted on its Web site, according to the Communications Decency Act.Both parties were required to pay their own attorney fees, and Esfeller will not be allowed to refile the same case. Esfeller’s only option to pursue the case is an appeal of the judge’s decision.Esfeller said he was content with the judge’s interpretation of the Communications Decency Act but doesn’t think it was the ethical choice. He said he will likely file another lawsuit within 30 days directed against the person responsible for anonymously posting the comments he finds offensive. “There will be a lawsuit filed, that’s for sure,” Esfeller said. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this, and they will be held criminally responsible.”Esfeller also said he will not hesitate to file another lawsuit if he found more objectionable content online. Kyle Whitfield, editor of The Daily Reveille, said he is relieved the case is through and said he was always confident the Communications Decency Act was in the newspaper’s favor.”We’re much more aware now of how powerful commenting on our Web site can be,” Whitfield said. “The new policy we have in place to police commenting on our Web site is powerful enough so things like this shouldn’t happen again.”James Shelledy, director of Student Media, said other newspapers in the country are going through similar lawsuits. He said the anonymous nature of the Internet makes this a difficult problem to solve.”It’s the nature of the World Wide Web that’s the problem; it’s not The Reveille’s problem,” Shelledy said. – – – -Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]