Mark Lunsford Drops Lawsuit in a Deal Brokered By Bubba the Love Sponge
For weeks, the two have traded insults, criticisms and threats of litigation: the activist father whose daughter was killed by a pedophile and the shock jock who suspects him of exploiting his daughter's death.

But this morning, Mark Lunsford and radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge Clem seemed to bury their respective hatchets, as Lunsford's attorneys agreed to suspend efforts toward filing a lawsuit against the Citrus County sheriff's office in exchange for talks brokered by Clem's lawyers aimed at improving the department's procedure for investigating missing children cases.

The agreement, announced on Clem's show at 7:50 a.m. this morning, also ends weeks of on air sniping in which the shock jock accused Lunsford of using his 9-year-old daughter Jessica's 2005 rape and murder to build his own personal fame.

"Mark Lunsford has already proven what he's about...all of a sudden he files notice of a lawsuit and he's an awful person?" said Lunsford's attorney, Eric "Rick" Block, who criticized Clem's producers for spreading misinformation about their efforts and not speaking with him directly about facts related to the case. Lunsford was not present in Clem's radio studio this morning, represented instead by his Jacksonville attorneys.

"I don't want to get into Mark Lunsford as a person," said Clem, who agreed to stop insulting Lunsford on air as part of the settlement. "I got 700 emails we can go through talking about what he has done and not done...(but) that would be counter-productive."

The truce seemed in danger of dissolving on air this morning...(read the rest of this story on TampaBay.com)