Wilmington’s Edward Teach Brewing filed a civil lawsuit in New Hanover County Superior Court Thursday seeking more than $25,000 in damages from a person it accuses of tampering with its products in at least two local stores.
The person named in the lawsuit is Erik Van Peterson, a former employee of Edward Teach who is now an employee at Wilmington’s Flying Machine Brewing. The lawsuit states that Edward Teach believes Peterson was “acting in his individual capacity … and not in any official capacity of Flying Machine Brewing.”
The StarNews has reached out to Peterson but has not yet received a response.
The lawsuit, filed by Edward Teach Brewing’s attorney, Thomas Varnum, accuses Peterson of affixing labels containing QR codes to Edward Teach products at two Harris Teeter stores in Wilmington. The QR codes, the lawsuit says, linked to Facebook pages containing what the brewery says is defamatory statements about its owner, Gary Sholar.
In late December, a Facebook post by the mother of a Wilmington musician accused Sholar of inappropriate conduct toward the musician while she was playing at Edward Teach in November. The post went viral and resulted in a boycott of Edward Teach products by some patrons and businesses.