Defamation

Baltimore-based developer David S. Cordish is suing an upstate New York weekly and a freelance contributor for defamation for a pair of articles that ran in the newspaper earlier this month. Cordish filed the lawsuit against the Niagara Falls Reporter and writer Frank Parlato Jr., claiming the newspaper ran articles containing false information that damaged his reputation. One of the articles that Parlato wrote accused Cordish of improperly taking public money and creating fake companies for a theater development project, according to the court filing.

NFL must prove guilt Sam Farmer Los Angeles Times The suspension of Jonathan Vilma was not too severe if in fact he offered $10,000 bounties to any teammate who took out Kurt Warner or Brett Favre. That's clearly crossing the line. But the thing is, did he actually do that? That's what the NFL needs to prove, or risk suspicion that the league rushed to judgment. It's time for the league to lay its cards on the table, reveal what specific evidence it has against the Saints, and put the matter to rest.

G. Gordon Liddy, Watergate's macho cowboy who refused to testify during the scandal nearly 30 years ago to protect his superiors, took the stand yesterday in a style befitting his new public role - tell-all talk-radio host. Defending himself in a $5.1 million defamation case, the 70-year-old Watergate conspirator went on the charm offensive. He regaled jurors and a courtroom full of curious onlookers with his firsthand account of history and a steady stream of one-liners. Liddy at times became so animated as he testified about the events from 28 years ago that his attorney and U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sometimes cut him off because he had strayed off course.

A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge dismissed Monday a defamation lawsuit filed by Dr. Mark Midei against St. Joseph Medical Center, barring the embattled cardiologist from seeking damages against his former hospital in the scandal over unnecessary heart stent procedures he's been accused of performing. The opinion by Judge Mickey Norman was not available, but electronic court records show that Midei's case was dismissed. Lawyers for Midei, St. Joseph and its corporate parent, Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives, all declined to comment until they had read the ruling.

Medifast Inc. filed a $270 million defamation lawsuit on Thursday against a felon-turned-fraud investigator for making allegations over the past year that a subsidiary of the nutritional products company was operating as a Ponzi scheme. The Owings Mills company is suing Barry Minkow and his Fraud Discovery Institute in California. Medifast said in a statement that Minkow, who spent 7 years in federal prison for fraud he committed with his carpet-cleaning company, had issued "false and misleading reports" in an attempt to manipulate and profit from a drop in Medifast's stock price.

Your editorial of March 15 regarding my defamation lawsuit against Bill Brock suggests a lack of communication between you and anyone involved in or at the trial who was not part of the Brock entourage.In other words, you did not talk with me or my attorneys. Perhaps you have a bias or special interest which interferes with your objectivity.For example, a Sun reporter covered some of the trial, but he was the only reporter who did not report the ''jail door closing'' in the Brock TV ad against me.He did not report, among other things, the long line of state party regulars who trooped in to tell ''tall tales'' but when queried about the basis of their knowledge, had no idea.

The principal of Crofton Middle School has filed an $800,000 lawsuit against a former teacher who filed an assault charge against him last year that prosecutors later dropped. The lawsuit filed by Richard Berzinski in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court accuses special-education teacher Rose Marie Brohawn of malicious prosecution and defamation. The principal alleges that Brohawn made accusations against him in October to "deflect attention" away from herself, said his attorney, Harold B. Murnane III. Berzinski had been investigating the teacher's involvement in an incident in which one of her students was trapped inside a locker, Murnane said.

A federal appeals court has reversed the decision of a Baltimore judge and reinstated a $5 million defamation lawsuit against Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy for saying a woman procured prostitutes for Democratic politicians.Ida Maxwell Wells is a private figure and therefore is entitled to a trial on her claim that Liddy's remarks damaged her reputation, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.The decision reversed a ruling by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz, who said last year that Wells was an involuntary public figure.

THE WAY IT played out Monday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, the case of Richard N. Foltz III brings us irresistibly to a page of legal and literary lore marked, "Wilde, Oscar; defamation." A century apart, the Irish wit Wilde and the Reisterstown attorney Foltz pursued the same path, charging defamation of character over claims of sexual offense. But instead of the satisfaction of vindication, Wilde and Foltz found condemnation at the end of their legal travels. Wilde, the acerbic playwright and poet of 19th-century England, might have been forgiven for his dramatic zeal in the defense of his name.

" 'Tis: A Memoir," by Frank McCourt. Scribner. 367 pages. $26.Frank McCourt's "'Tis" is the sequel to "Angela's Ashes," a runaway best seller three years ago in which he described his childhood and adolescence in Ireland. Here, he describes his emigration in 1949 to New York, his adult years including his service in the American army, and eventually the death of his mother, the eponymous Angela. If you liked the first book I suppose you'll like this one -- but it's hard for me to know why.In both books McCourt describes his "down and out" life -- his despairing childhood built around his father's drunkenness and abandonment of the family to killing poverty in the slums of Limerick; his adulthood of shiftless, self-indulgent, self-pitying behavior marked by drunken binges and various forms of abuse of women.

A female sports reporter for 105.7 The Fan has filed an $800,000 defamation suit against WNST station owner Nestor Aparicio and two of his hosts, saying they diminished her reputation by calling her "trashy" and incompetent on-air and online. Jennifer Royle, who has been covering the Orioles and the Ravens for WJZ-FM and Mid-Atlantic Sports Network for about a year, filed the suit March 10 in Baltimore Circuit Court. The suit alleges that during her time at MASN, Aparicio, Glenn Clark and Drew Forrester made repeated statements about Royle on WNST 1570AM, on blogs and on Twitter.

The Republican candidate for clerk of Baltimore County Circuit Court is suing his Democratic rival for $2 million, contending that she defamed him in reporting to police that about 200 of her campaign signs were stolen or damaged. The suit by Richard J. Reinhardt II of Monkton does not claim that Julie Ensor directly accused Reinhardt of any offense. It argues that by saying Reinhardt signs appeared in locations where Ensor signs had been removed, Julie Ensor and her husband, Mark, "intended to charge, did charge" Reinhardt with the offenses of theft and malicious destruction of property.

Baltimore-based developer David S. Cordish is suing an upstate New York weekly and a freelance contributor for defamation for a pair of articles that ran in the newspaper earlier this month. Cordish filed the lawsuit against the Niagara Falls Reporter and writer Frank Parlato Jr., claiming the newspaper ran articles containing false information that damaged his reputation. One of the articles that Parlato wrote accused Cordish of improperly taking public money and creating fake companies for a theater development project, according to the court filing.

Medifast Inc. filed a $270 million defamation lawsuit on Thursday against an ex-felon who became a fraud investigator for making allegations over the past year that a subsidiary of the nutritional products company was operating as a Ponzi scheme. The Owings Mills company is suing Barry Minkow and his Fraud Discovery Institute in California. Medifast said in a statement that Minkow, who spent seven years in federal prison for fraud he committed with his carpet-cleaning company, had issued "false and misleading reports" in an attempt to manipulate and profit from a drop in Medifast's stock price.

Medifast Inc. filed a $270 million defamation lawsuit on Thursday against a felon-turned-fraud investigator for making allegations over the past year that a subsidiary of the nutritional products company was operating as a Ponzi scheme. The Owings Mills company is suing Barry Minkow and his Fraud Discovery Institute in California. Medifast said in a statement that Minkow, who spent 7 years in federal prison for fraud he committed with his carpet-cleaning company, had issued "false and misleading reports" in an attempt to manipulate and profit from a drop in Medifast's stock price.

The Internet is not an especially civil place. A guy in Asia can spend his evening trashing a Canadian woman's home movies; students can spread malicious rumors about classmates for the world to see; and "editors" can add all manner of falsehoods to Mohandas Gandhi's Wikipedia page, just for kicks. In most cases, these ne'er-do-wells write vitriolic comments and blog posts anonymously, there are a few fighting words and the dustup dies down with minimal damage. Other times, men and women are emotionally, mentally, physically or monetarily hurt because of words published online, with little recourse - unless they can find out who their cyberbullies are. A lot has been said recently about Vogue model Liskula Cohen and her suit to discover the identity of a blogger who called her a "skank."

The six-week-old Baltimore News, the newspaper financed by several notable politicians, is off to a rocky start.Mark J. Adams, a disbarred lawyer who was its sole editor, was fired last month and has sued the paper and its publisher, former City Council President Walter S. Orlinsky, seeking back pay and alleging defamation.In his suit, Mr. Adams paints a portrait of a fledgling newspaper in disarray and blames Mr. Orlinsky.The newspaper, distributed to 20 city neighborhoods, is backed by several investors, including former Mayor and Gov. William Donald Schaefer and former City Council President Mary Pat Clarke.

The vice president of Baltimore's NAACP chapter said yesterday during a rally for taxicab drivers that his reputation has been damaged after police arrested him, claiming to have found drugs in his car. Ellis L. Staten Jr., 44, was not charged with a crime, although officers said they recovered heroin and marijuana during a search of his vehicle Thursday near Pennsylvania Avenue and Dolphin Street. Staten said he was targeted by police because of his work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which held an organizing meeting yesterday for city cabdrivers.

I thought things had gotten a little quiet on the Roger Clemens front. With no women being romantically linked lately to the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, Clemens fired a legal salvo this week at former-personal-trainer-turned-accuser Brian McNamee by adding a charge of "intentional infliction of emotional distress" to the defamation lawsuit Clemens filed against McNamee. And Clemens wants the home-field advantage by having the case heard in Texas. Perhaps that's why there's this reported language in the legal paperwork: "McNamee's false accusations have accomplished their purpose of destroying Clemens' good reputation and making him the subject of scorn and ridicule throughout Texas."