person, saying only that his source had been informed by someone at Planned Parenthood, and that the person at Planned Parenthood "does not like [Ms. Touhy]." R. at 61. When pressed, however, Mr. Abrams told Ms. Touhy that his source was Shannon Flowers, an acquaintance of his. Id. Mr. Abrams represented that Ms. Flowers heard the information from someone at Planned Parenthood, but that he did not know who the source at Planned Parenthood was. Throughout the conversation, Ms. Touhy asked whether Kim Frazier, Mr. Abrams's girlfriend both before and after his marriage to Ms. Touhy, was involved in any way. Mr. Abrams told Ms. Touhy that Ms. Frazier had nothing to do with how he found out about Ms. Touhy's diagnosis.
Despite Mr. Abrams’s assurances that Ms. Frazier was not involved in disseminating news of Ms. Touhy’s health condition, Ms. Touhy continued to harbor suspicions. Adding fuel to the fire, Ms. Touhy and Ms. Frazier exchanged a number of hostile email messages in August 2004. In one message, Ms. Frazier disparaged Ms. Touhy for having contracted herpes. See id. at 100.
Late in 2004, Mr. Abrams and Ms. Touhy spoke again – and for the first time since their conversations in February. Asked once more to reveal how he heard the news of Ms. Touhy’s diagnosis, Mr. Abrams now claimed that his source was indeed Ms. Frazier, and that Ms. Frazier received the information not from someone at Planned Parenthood, but from her friend Kim Whitlock, who
worked as a pharmacy technician for Walgreen in nearby Oklahoma City –
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