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Hells Angel suing Surrey blogger

Dennis Watson runs Gangsters Out, a local blog which claims to expose gangsters.
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Surrey's Dennis Watson operates the Gangsters Out Blog and is being sued by a Hells Angel.

A Hells Angel is suing a Surrey blogger for defamation of character and has already managed to get him to take down questionable posts on his site.

Damiano Di Popolo filed a civil claim in the Supreme Court in Vancouver against Surrey's Dennis Watson, who operates a blog called Gangsters Out.

In a Statement of Claim, Di Popolo, a longshoreman living in Vancouver, alleges that Watson made defamatory statements in several articles published on www.gangstersout.blogspot.ca last May.

The claim describes Di Popolo as an "honest family man" with six children and another on the way.

It points out the Kelowna Hells Angels have never been "collectively charged" in a large drug trafficking or stolen car ring, as was alleged by Watson's blog, the statement says.

"Mr. Di Popolo has never been charged or convicted of a criminal offense," the claim states.

Di Popolo is seeking general, special and punitive damages.

None of the allegations in the Statement of Claim have been proven in court.

On Tuesday, Watson agreed to adhere to an injunction and took all the inflammatory materials regarding Di Popolo off the site, and agreed not to write about him again.

"As it stands right now I agreed to not publish anything at all about him," Watson said in an interview. "But then I have to talk to my lawyer to find out the status of exactly what was agreed to."

As of Tuesday, he was unsure if the civil action was still going ahead.

He has mixed emotions about what has transpired.

"I regret that it's adversely affected my children," Watson said. "But I don't regret standing up for the truth."