The owner of a Dothan wedding venue who was ordered by a Houston County jury to pay a former employee $500,000 after they found he defamed her and had her arrested on bogus theft charges has been denied a new trial, according to court records.

John Donaldson, the owner of Windmill Station, requested a new trial earlier this month on several grounds, including that his attorney had an illness that affected his performance during the proceedings and that the $500,000 he was ordered to pay Gayla White was excessive.

White, a former marketing manager, event coordinator and bartender at Windmill Station, worked at the Dothan wedding venue from September 2016 to mid-June 2018.

In her complaint filed June 1, 2021 against Windmill Station owner John Donaldson, White said she repeatedly asked for tax documents from December and turned in her two weeks’ notice to on June 6, 2018, when Donaldson became “angry and threatening.”

White said she repeatedly asked for tax documents from December and turned in her two weeks’ notice to on June 6, 2018, when Donaldson became “angry and threatening.”

At the last event White worked at Windmill Station, Donaldson “grabbed her arm and told her he would press charges for stealing if she did not return a calendar” that belonged to her boss, the suit stated.

On July 9, 2018, White was arrested on charges of stealing $2,700 and booked into the Dothan City Jail. She was arrested again roughly a week later, the lawsuit alleged.

From her initial arrest until she was cleared of the charges, Donaldson “continued to make false and defamatory comments about” White, including calling her a thief and other defamatory statements that were aired on and printed in Dothan media outlets.

White suffered, and continues to suffer, “embarrassment, great worry, shame, humiliation, loss of sleep, anxiety, nervousness, physical and mental suffering, anguish, and fright” due to the false allegations, the lawsuit stated, including fear that she would never be employed again.

She requested $1 million in compensatory damages, with the Houston County jury awarding her half that amount.

Houston County Circuit Court Judge Henry “Butch” Binford found several of the arguments for a new trial “without merit” in an order entered Wednesday.

Binford said Donaldson’s attorney’s claims of insufficient evidence should have been made during the trial, not after.

And the judge did not buy the argument that Donaldson’s lawyer could not mount an effective defense because of illness.

“[T]he court was able to interact with defense counsel during the trial and at no time suspected the counsel’s cognitive abilities were diminished or limited in any way,” Binford wrote.

“Counsel for defendant was able to speak clearly and coherently, make objections, cross-examine witnesses, and, as noted by counsel for plaintiff at the June 21 hearing, called 15 witnesses to testify on the defendant’s behalf,” the judge continued.

While Donaldson’s attorney “was physically impaired to some extent, as he required a cane to walk,” Binford wrote, “this was not an unusual situation as to defense counsel, since he has been known to have used a cane previously …”