Defamation of Character?

I recently E-mailed someone about a local business owner I had a conflict with. Along with my complaint I asked if they had seen that the business owner had recently been in the paper for being arrested, because I had noticed the article. As it turned out the article had not been about the same business owner but another business owner from the same town with the same name, the same business name and was in the same age range. I had no idea it was about someone else and sent an followup email about the error when I discovered it (within 12hrs.). Now the business owner is threatening to sue for defamation of character does he have a case? (I live in MA)