It's taken more than 11 months, countless lawyers and one judge's ruling spanning a daunting 139 pages to clear their names.

Heidi Bernhard-Bubb, a correspondent for The York Dispatch, and Joe Maldonado, a correspondent for the York Daily Record, have stood accused since last January of making up facts (read lying) and presenting falsehoods as facts in news stories about the Dover Area School District board and its required reading of a statement on intelligent design.

Judge John E. Jones III this week -- in ruling intelligent design unconstitutional and rooted in religion -- wrote it was former Dover school board members who weren't telling the truth. Based on the lack of credibility of the board members -- specifically Alan Bonsell and William Buckingham -- Jones, in effect, validated the credibility of the reporters.

We, of course, knew the truth all along. And certainly since last January when we learned the board members' sworn depositions in this lawsuit differed markedly from what we reported they said in public meetings. (Yet no one sought a correction to those news stories at the time. Hmmm.)

But it's been tough to take -- as journalists who report facts for a living, and as people who hold truthfulness as a virtue.

And in this case, the argument absolutely defied logic -- asking people to believe that two reporters for two competing newspapers actually colluded to deceive the public on what was happening.

Sure, we're all in the same business,

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but it's a cutthroat business when it comes to competition. And that's what Bernhard-Bubb and Maldonado are -- competitors. They wouldn't get together over lunch, much less for making up a story.

The newspapers' part in this trial and ruling was, at best, a sideshow in a historic news story. We resisted being dragged into the lawsuit -- to the point the two reporters were prepared to face contempt charges rather than be forced to testify as witnesses in this trial.

In the end, the reporters took the stand only to testify to the veracity of their stories.

Clearly, the judge saw that the truth was on our side, not on the side of the former school board members who took the stand and trashed the local newspapers as liars.

As reporters, all we have is our crediblity. Elected officials, I've always believed, need their own credibility to continue their jobs. It's not a job requirement (they are elected after all), but if they don't live up their task, they'll pay the price come Election Day.

I think we saw evidence of that Nov. 8.

The York Dispatch has made no bones of its editorial position on intelligent design, yet that stance never clouded our news reporting.

We've always called it creationism (you can read the judge's opinion for the exact number of editorials). We called it creationism when the curriculum change was passed by the board, we called it creationism after the district and board were sued, and we called it creationism despite being forced to play a part in this legal challenge.

All along, we've reported the facts as they've occurred -- from those who believe intelligent design is science to board members' testimony, now discredited, that our reporting was a huge fabrication.

We're not celebrating today, as the plaintiffs are, the ruling by Judge Jones.

But we are congratulating him, for seeing through the incongruities of swom testimony, and telling our readers that no, we weren't the ones who were lying.

Lori Goodlin is editor of The York Dispatch. E-mail her at lgoodlin@yorkdispatch.com.