NC Republican Mayoral Candidate sues online forum participant "JOHN/JANE DOE"

[WillFranklin]

Hey DU, I was participating in a thread (I only posted one short comment) at Star News Online and look what happened because of the thread due to another user! Talk about shooting yourself in the FOOT!

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Republican Wilmington NC mayoral candidate Paul Knight filed a lawsuit Thursday against an unidentified person who posted negative comments about him on StarNews online forums.

The suit, filed in New Hanover County Superior Court, seeks at least $50,000 in compensatory damages and $50,000 in punitive damages for each statement. The defendant is identified in the lawsuit as “John Doe aka sandy.brown.realtor,” the online user name of the person who wrote the statements about Knight.

According to the suit, sandy.brown.realtor posted “liable (sic) and slanderous allegations” about alleged embezzlement by Knight of 401(k) contributions of Sea-Comm employees. The unknown defendant also posted allegations that Knight has been “sued for sexual harassment.”

In 2006, he said, an employee reported to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration that employees’ 401(k) contributions weren’t getting deposited into their accounts in a timely manner. Knight said the 401(k) program had only recently been established at Sea-Comm. He soon learned that administering the program was a complex matter for a small business. Plus, he said, a new business manager at the time didn’t make the deposits as she was supposed to. About 15 employees were affected, Knight said.


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Source: Star News Online at:

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20091022/ARTICLES/910229939

[zazen]

1. a corrupt dental office tried to sue a former patient for negative comments in the N&O

I'm not sure where it ended. The N&O interviewed her and then her comments became the target for libel. Then, she wrote about them in an online rating page about corrupt dentists (you know, the ones who promote expensive, unnecessary periodontal work), and they went after her for that too. I was so grateful she exposed their asses--it's a nasty practice around here, and I hope they're out of business now.

I always thought in a news situation, at least, the paper was liable for libel, not the individual interviewed.

And where does it end? If I'm in an internet chat room with 15 people I know, and I write in an IM something critical about someone, am I subject to being sued? Is that a public forum?

Yeesh. This is scary.

[WillFranklin]

2. In a "news" interview

The person making the allegations may be quoted. Then they are responsible for what they say as long as the news outlet does not weigh in on the validity of the remarks.