FORT MITCHELL — John Middleton, the Republican accused of slandering one of his own party's political candidates, will fight the charges in a Kenton County court, his attorney indicated Wednesday.

        Mr. Middleton is also spurning an offer to apologize to Eric Deters in return for having the slander lawsuit dropped, said Todd McMurtry, Mr. Middleton's attorney.

        “No, he's not going to apologize,” Mr. McMurtry said. “Ultimately, this case can be won on its merits.”

        Mr. Deters, an Independence lawyer and Republican running for Kenton County Attorney, filed suit against Mr. Middleton this week for slander.

        Mr. Deters claims Mr. Middleton has spread a rumor that his late wife, Lisa, who died of cancer in 1998, actually died of a sexually transmitted disease.

        Mr. Deters says Mr. Middleton made the statement at a Feb. 15 prayer breakfast in Fort Mitchell and that people at the event heard him say it.

        Mr. Deters said he can produce evidence, including his wife's death certificate and statements from her doctors, that she died of a form of lung cancer.

        “I (will) also testify under oath that neither Lisa or I ever had a sexually transmitted disease,” Mr. Deters said in a letter he sent Wednesday to Mr. McMurtry.

        The episode has heavy political overtones.

        Mr. Middleton works in the office of incumbent Kenton County Attorney Garry Edmondson, a former Democrat who switched parties last week and is running against Mr. Deters in the May 2000 Republican primary.

        Mr. Deters has accused Mr. Edmondson of not only knowing about Mr. Middleton's spreading the rumor but of condoning his actions.

        Mr. Edmondson has strongly denied any knowledge of Mr. Middleton's comments.

        According to Mr. McMurtry, Mr. Middleton is not denying something was said at the prayer breakfast.

        While he would not get into the specifics of what Mr. Middleton said, Mr. McMurtry said the people who heard the statements took them out of context.

        According to Mr. Deters lawsuit, Mr. Middleton told Independence City Councilman Jim Kudera, who was also at the breakfast, that a drug company Mr. Deters was suing over his wife's death was planning to exhume Lisa Deters body to determine whether she died of a sexually transmitted disease.

        To keep that information from being made public in a courtroom, Mr. Deters settled the lawsuit, Mr. Middleton allegedly said.

        Mr. Kudera has signed an affidavit that he heard Mr. Middleton make those comments.

        Mr. Deters said he did settle the suit because he was remarried and “didn't want to put my family through what would have been very expensive and emotional litigation.

        “I wanted to leave the past behind,” he said.

        The basis of Mr. Deters' lawsuit deals with slander, which by legal definition are false verbal statements that damage a person's reputation or character.

        But at least part of Mr. Middleton's defense will be that under Kentucky law it is not possible to slander a dead person.

        “As for slander for your deceased wife, the law unfortunately provides you no remedy,” Mr. McMurtry said in a letter he sent to Mr. Deters on Tuesday.

        But Mr. Deters said he himself was slandered by the comments Mr. Middleton allegedly made about his wife.

        “I have a very easy case to prove,” Mr. Deters said. “It is a shame that a deceased person doesn't have a legal slander action. However, that is not the issue.

        “John should not have made the statement,” he said. “It is slander to me because Jim Kudera and any reasonable person would know the implication John was making.”

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