In the wake of Bubba Copeland’s suicide, the influential Alabama think tank that once owned 1819 News issued a statement declaring it has no “legal, editorial or financial affiliation” with the website.

“In response to erroneous reporting by several national publications, the Alabama Policy Institute (API) would like to highlight that 1819 News and API formally separated on December 31, 2022. There is no legal, editorial, or financial affiliation between the two entities,” the think tank said in a statement Friday.

AL.com’s reporting of Copeland’s suicide has stated that 1819 News is a website that was once owned by API.

The think tank launched the website in October 2021. In January, 1819 News announced its “formal independence” from API.

Jeff Poor, editor-in-chief of 1819 News, told AL.com Monday he did not have a response to API’s remarks.

Copeland, the mayor of Smiths Station and a pastor at First Baptist Church of Phenix City, took his own life Nov. 3 in Lee County, two days after 1819 News published photos of him wearing women’s clothing and makeup.

An additional 1819 News post on the same day Copeland killed himself, accused him of using the names and photos of local residents, including a minor, without permission in posts, including the real name of a local businesswoman in a fictional story about a man who develops a deadly obsession with taking over her identity.

At Copeland’s funeral on Friday, held a day before his wedding anniversary, the late mayor and pastor was remembered as a “larger than life figure” devoted to his family and church but also struggled with depression.

“The tragedy … will be compounded if we, his friends, do nothing,” said longtime Copeland friend David White, adding that the late mayor’s attackers and critics “will move on to feed their voracious appetites on someone else.

“If the next time a friend becomes the focus of hate, may we all speak up a little sooner and a little louder to at least say, ‘this is my friend.’ If we can do that, then we may say we learned,” White said.