Many people have been on the receiving end of a good chatroom ribbing, but Ohio resident George Gillespie has had enough and is suing his chatroom foes for $250,000. Gillespie claims that he was humiliated by Mike Marlowe and Bob Charpentier in an AOL chatroom called "Romance - Older Men". The humiliation was so intense that Gillespie says it caused "severe emotional distress" and "severe injury."

In addition to brutal chatroom putdowns from both Marlowe and Charpentier, Gillespie claims that Marlowe overstepped the virtual chatroom bounds by driving to the plaintiff's home and photographing it - a claim which Marlowe denies. Marlowe is also accused of digging through public records for information on Gillespie. It should be noted that photographing and posting a picture of someone's home is not in itself illegal. In addition, public records are meant to be examined by anyone, hence the term "public records."

Some of the bad blood between Gillespie and Charpentier may stem from a trip Charpentier took four years ago to Kentucky. Charpentier had arranged for a blind date with a woman from the chat room - A women who was also Gillespie's friend. The date didn't go well and fireworks ensued. But Gillespie may not be just a victim that he says he is, because Charpentier may file his own countersuit for $125,000. Charpentier claims that Gillespie threatened to kill him and made crude tasteless remarks about his grandmother.

In addition to suing Marlowe and Charpentier, Gillespie is suing AOL for allowing the harassment to take place. In an interview with CourtTV, Megan Gray, a Washington D.C.-based intellectual property attorney says AOL has immunity for what goes on in its chatrooms.

A pretrial conference has been scheduled for January 31.