Arkansas Gazette: Student files libel lawsuit against Russellville paper

[lorettalockhorn]

Page 6B of today's ARDemGaz (didn't see anything in the Courier):

RUSSELLVILLE-- An Arkansas Tech UIniversity student accused The Courier newspaper of libel in a lawsuit filed Monday in Pope County Circuit Court.
The complaint, filed by Ryan Whiteside, 20, of Russellville, says the newspaper printed an article Jan. 11 that "contained false accusations" implicating him in "the commission of a crime or crimes."
Reached by telephone, Scott Perkins, editor of The Courier, said: "I have no comment. I don't know about the lawsuit."
Perkins is named as a defendant in the suit, as is the newspaper's owner, Paxton Media Group LLC, of Paducah, KY; Publisher Neal Ronquist; and Janie Ginocchio, the reporter whose byline was on the Jan. 11 article as well as a related article Jan. 15.
Whiteside's suit said the Jan. 11 article stemmed from a police report "based entirely upon hearsay."
The lawsuit, filed by Houston, Texas, attorney H. Clay Moore and Little Rock attorney R. David Lewis, accuses the newspaper of negligence, claiming it, among other things, published a police report marked "no press," carried the story before any charges were filed and failed to contact Whiteside for a statement.
Further, the lawsuit says the newspaper used the Jan. 15 article, which reported Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons' decision not to file charges in the matter, "as an opportunity to republish all the salacious allegations appearing in the [original] article and adding others."
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

Disclaimer: I've had trouble publishing links to the Gazette before, so I've typed this (to the best of my ability) verbatim. (Mods, hope it's okay to post this here.)

My personal comment is: humph

[FDInLaw]

Page 6B of today's ARDemGaz (didn't see anything in the Courier):

RUSSELLVILLE-- An Arkansas Tech UIniversity student accused The Courier newspaper of libel in a lawsuit filed Monday in Pope County Circuit Court.
The complaint, filed by Ryan Whiteside, 20, of Russellville, says the newspaper printed an article Jan. 11 that "contained false accusations" implicating him in "the commission of a crime or crimes."
Reached by telephone, Scott Perkins, editor of The Courier, said: "I have no comment. I don't know about the lawsuit."
Perkins is named as a defendant in the suit, as is the newspaper's owner, Paxton Media Group LLC, of Paducah, KY; Publisher Neal Ronquist; and Janie Ginocchio, the reporter whose byline was on the Jan. 11 article as well as a related article Jan. 15.
Whiteside's suit said the Jan. 11 article stemmed from a police report "based entirely upon hearsay."
The lawsuit, filed by Houston, Texas, attorney H. Clay Moore and Little Rock attorney R. David Lewis, accuses the newspaper of negligence, claiming it, among other things, published a police report marked "no press," carried the story before any charges were filed and failed to contact Whiteside for a statement.
Further, the lawsuit says the newspaper used the Jan. 15 article, which reported Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons' decision not to file charges in the matter, "as an opportunity to republish all the salacious allegations appearing in the [original] article and adding others."
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

Disclaimer: I've had trouble publishing links to the Gazette before, so I've typed this (to the best of my ability) verbatim. (Mods, hope it's okay to post this here.)

My personal comment is: humph

Thanks for the heads up. . . I only get that paper on the weekends. :seeya:

[lorettalockhorn]

Thanks for the heads up. . . I only get that paper on the weekends. :seeya:


You bet! I just think it sounds like a frivolous suit at this point; how is reporting the news libelous? Did The Courier really print anything that wasn't in the police report? Weren't the allegations clearly labelled as such?

And that "no press" request (unless it's changed over the years) has nothing to do with any legality or FOI; it's just a request that can be made by any party. This boy is a piece of work. I've seen The Courier do some harebrained things over the years, but this isn't one of them. It's bad enough to have a murderer walking the streets, but I like knowing ahead of time that one of the witnesses in an upcoming trial may have charges pending against him too.

[Amy]

I would think that, if the paper has been in business for any length of time, the editor most likely crosses the t's and dot's the i's on the legal aspect of publishing the paper.

The police blotter (which in fact happens to be the title of the column in our newspaper) I think is pretty much open to the public. The city's website even has a button to click that shows who was stopped, their age, address, what they were stopped for. Where the police went for this disturbance or that.

Besides, if they use "allege" "the reporting party said"--that type of language, it's not libel--especially if it is true. I would think, if there was a party at that house, if those people attended, if there were drugs and sex involved, and the paper was only reporting what a person alleged about other activities, he wouldn't have a leg to stand on. That, of course, is only my opinion of what I understand about libel and slander and such. ;)

[Brainstorm]

OMG !!! Sounds like the drama continues.........heres KJs friend,involved in all sorts of dubious activities,with KJ included............then is going to sue the paper????? UNREAL.................but you know the saying about giving someone enough rope???? I say let KJ,RW & their families keep up the show...........they are all making huge fools of themselves.......
JMHO

[lorettalockhorn]

Today's Courier had an article re:Whiteside's lawsuit, but I don't find it at their site. Found this reported by AP:

Police records, reporting at issue in Ark. case

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The slaying of an Arkansas beauty queen still dominated talk around Russellville when an 18-year-old woman told police she had been raped at the home of one of the men who discovered the murder victim's body.

The woman said she didn't remember everything that happened at Ryan Whiteside's house, but was sure she awoke next to Kevin Jones, who later was acquitted in Nona Dirksmeyer's death.

Arkansas State Police troopers investigated and dismissed the woman's allegations , a fact not disclosed until after the local newspaper ran a Page One story detailing the accusations against two men already involved in the high-profile murder case.

Whiteside claims The Courier newspaper and a former reporter and former editor ruined his reputation by exposing the accusations in lurid detail. The newspaper inadvertently obtained the police report but claims it had the right to publish its content.

The state Supreme Court will take up the case Thursday. A Whiteside victory could assail a backbone of journalism , a reporter's reliance on police records to tell the public a story.

"Whichever way the court decides this issue, it will be precedent," said H. Clay Moore, the Houston lawyer representing Whiteside. "That will reverberate for years to come."

In 2005, Whiteside, Jones and Jones' mother found the beauty queen's naked body in her apartment. Dirksmeyer, 19, had been beaten to death with a floor lamp and had her throat cut.

Jones, the beauty queen's ex-boyfriend, was free on $250,000 bond the night of the Dec. 28, 2006, party. The woman who said she was raped told officers she had two beers and a shot of vanilla rum but became drunk far faster than normal. She told investigators she heard someone say "just give her half a pill" before she faded to a blackout.

The woman's cousin, using information from another partygoer, told police she had heard that men gave the alleged victim a half-tablet of Ecstasy before taking her into a bedroom. The cousin said the partygoer had told her she saw Whiteside and another man having sexual contact with the woman, with Jones watching at one point.

State troopers who were asked to help investigate found the partygoer who had talked to the cousin. An investigative report shows that the partygoer told troopers it appeared the alleged victim was a willing participant with one of the men and that Whiteside wasn't involved.

Later, the alleged victim sent text messages to one of the men joking about the encounter and said she wanted "to be cool about it," the troopers' report said. Because of that, Prosecutor David Gibbons decided not to pursue charges, noting there was "no evidence at all that Ryan Whiteside or Kevin Jones ... had any sexual contact" with the woman.

But by that point, the story had made the front page of The Courier. Though officers marked the initial police report "no press" as the matter remained under investigation, the newspaper obtained a copy of it through its routine access to the department's computerized records.

In February 2007, Whiteside sued. A Pope County Circuit judge dismissed the lawsuit and Whiteside appealed directly to the state Supreme Court.

At issue is the "fair report privilege" , a legal principle that shields publishers of an accurate story about an official action or court proceeding. Court records, police reports and other official documents buttress stories by news organizations. Even if information within the documents turn out to be false, news organization largely remain covered by the privilege.

"The reason for that is because the public needs to know what's in public records," said Richard J. Peltz, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock who focuses on media issues.

But Clay says the newspaper rushed to publish the allegations because of the Dirksmeyer case, without attempting to contact his client or others. The newspaper had an obligation to restrain itself, he said.

"They were the gatekeeper," Clay said. Though police inadvertently released the woman's accusations, the newspaper "knew ... they weren't supposed to have it and they went ahead to press."

John Tull, a Little Rock lawyer representing The Courier, declined to comment. In court filings, he argued the newspaper properly cited the initial police report and acted responsibly by writing follow-up pieces when the prosecutor declined to press charges.

"Newspapers do not generate news: people and events do. Newspapers just report news," one filing by Tull reads. "The lawsuit is an attempt by Whiteside to be the editor of The Courier. He wants to censor what The Courier can publish and attempts to use the judicial system to do so , to circumvent the protections offered by the First Amendment."

But some of those freedoms have eroded in recent years. In New Jersey, a state appeals court ruled in November that a newspaper can be sued for libel for reporting allegations in a lawsuit that had been filed, but before any court proceedings. In 2007, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that a state inmate could sue a newspaper and police for libel over an article in which officers described him as "cunning" and a "career criminal."

In Whiteside's case, Peltz said the Arkansas Supreme Court likely would need evidence that The Courier twisted the facts in the police report "with malice." Otherwise, the law professor said the fair-report privilege should shield the newspaper.

Reporter Janie Ginocchio and editor Scott Perkins later left The Courier for positions at The Paragould Daily Press, which like The Courier is owned by Kentucky-based Paxton Media Group. Both Ginocchio and Perkins declined to comment.

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20090304_ap_policerecordsreportingatissueinarkcase .html

[FDInLaw]

A lawyer for a man named in a newspaper story about an alleged rape has asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to rule on whether journalists should be immune to lawsuits over reports based on police files. . .

Chip Chiles, a lawyer for the newspaper, told the court the press' protection is based in the First Amendment. Justices gave no indication on when they planned to rule in the case.


http://www.kfsm.com/news/sns-ap-ar--journalismprivilege,0,3154076.story


I wonder how long this will take??? :shrug:

[lorettalockhorn]

Courier libel suit up to top state court

The Arkansas Supreme Court listened Thursday to arguments over whether a Pope County Circuit judge was right to dismiss a libel suit against The Courier of Russellville, which ran a front-page article in January 2007 detailing uncorroborated accusations a partygoer made to police and which police mistakenly released to the paper.

That police were investigating the allegations got prominent play because the accuser said the events had recently occurred at the home of Ryan Whiteside, who in late 2005 was one of three people who discovered the body of Arkansas Tech University student Nona Dirksmeyer.

The frequent beauty pageant contestant, who in January 2005 had been named Miss Petit Jean Valley and who later competed in the Miss Arkansas Pageant, was found choked, beaten and stabbed to death in her Russellville apartment.

Whiteside was due to testify as a material witness in a second murder trial in the Dirksmeyer case, set to begin the week after the front-page article.

The statements in which a woman alleged wrongdoing at a party, and which had been inadvertently released electronically, also mentioned Kevin Jones, a man originally accused of killing Dirksmeyer but acquitted by a jury.

On Jan. 11, 2007, the day the article quoting from the statements was published, Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons declared that "no evidence" supported the allegations.

The newspaper reported his remarks in a second front-page article it ran the next day, Jan. 12, but didn't include Gibbons' additional remarks: "It should be noted that there is no evidence at all" that the two men had any improper contact with the woman who complained about them.

Whiteside's father complained to the newspaper about the omission, and a four-paragraph clarification included Gibbons' additional remarks appearing in the paper that Jan. 13.

Saying the articles had libeled Whiteside, on Feb. 5, 2007, Whiteside sued Russellville Newspapers Inc., which owns The Courier, along with Paxton Media Group, Neal Ronquist, editor Scott Perkins and reporter Janie Ginocchio.

The lawsuit complained that the defendants "failed to meet journalistic standards in the community for publication of criminal allegations," because they reported the allegations despite knowing that police hadn't completed an investigation, that no charges had been filed, and that the statement had been marked "no press."

However, in briefs later filed with the Arkansas Supreme Court, Whiteside's attorneys said the words "Investigation - No press" were actually on a handwritten document attached to a basic police report, but the writing didn't show up on an electronic version to which the police gave the newspaper access.

The computer system normally had restrictions placed on press access to statements, but attorneys said in oral arguments Thursday that a new, interim police chief had instructed a new secretary to make all the documents publicly available on the system.

The reporter and the editor who found the statements were so surprised to see a document that wasn't ordinarily accessible to them that they called the police information officer, who told them he wouldn't have given it to them but the chief had ordered the information released.

In a written order dated Nov. 19, 2007, Circuit Judge Dennis Sutterfield threw out the libel suit, citing the "fair-report privilege" raised by the defendants, as well as that the documents relied upon were public and were "voluntarily and legally released."

The fair-report privilege provides protection from liability for news media that publish information that proves to be false as long as the information came from an official public document or a statement by a public official, the source is clearly identified and is fairly and accurately used.

Sutterfield found that the gist of the documents was accurately conveyed in the newspaper articles.

"The police reports, statements and other documents may contain untruths, but as long as the defendants gave a substantially fair account of the contents of those documents they are not liable under the fair-report privilege document," Sutterfield wrote.

On appeal, attorney Henry Clay Moore of Houston, said the case "presents a direct clash between freedom of the press and privacy rights."

Moore and attorney R. David Lewis of Little Rock argued that the newspaper had a responsibility to verify the allegations.

To that, Justice Robert Brown asked, "What is the obligation of the press to ferret out what they receive?"

Moore replied that the paper was aware that such documents weren't ordinarily released by police and as a result should have taken extra caution in reporting on them.

Justice Annabelle Clinton Imber quizzed Moore about problems of "requiring the press to do the government's work of f iguring out what shouldn't be released."

She asked if it wouldn't be an "extreme step" to punish news media for the Police Department's mistake.

Moore argued that when the public information officer told the newspaper that he himself couldn't even access the material, "That was code for 'You're not supposed to release it.'"

To that, Brown asked, "Mr. Moore, why would the police speak in code rather than just say, 'Don't publish this'?"

Moore said the police were telling the paper just that "in so many words."

Attorney E.B. "Chip" Chiles, representing the newspaper, told the justices that the circuit judge had labeled the Police Department's actions "astounding." Chiles also noted, "It is absolutely undisputed that The Courier did nothing illegal."

Chiles noted that the paper's editor, Perkins, has testified that the paper wouldn't have run the story if the police had asked them not to publish the statements although the newspaper still would have been entitled to publish them.

"Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's fair game?" Brown asked. Chiles agreed. The court didn't indicate when it will decide the appeal.

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/254198/

[upallnight]

Courier libel suit up to top state court

The Arkansas Supreme Court listened Thursday to arguments over whether a Pope County Circuit judge was right to dismiss a libel suit against The Courier of Russellville, which ran a front-page article in January 2007 detailing uncorroborated accusations a partygoer made to police and which police mistakenly released to the paper.

That police were investigating the allegations got prominent play because the accuser said the events had recently occurred at the home of Ryan Whiteside, who in late 2005 was one of three people who discovered the body of Arkansas Tech University student Nona Dirksmeyer.

The frequent beauty pageant contestant, who in January 2005 had been named Miss Petit Jean Valley and who later competed in the Miss Arkansas Pageant, was found choked, beaten and stabbed to death in her Russellville apartment.

Whiteside was due to testify as a material witness in a second murder trial in the Dirksmeyer case, set to begin the week after the front-page article.

The statements in which a woman alleged wrongdoing at a party, and which had been inadvertently released electronically, also mentioned Kevin Jones, a man originally accused of killing Dirksmeyer but acquitted by a jury.

On Jan. 11, 2007, the day the article quoting from the statements was published, Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons declared that "no evidence" supported the allegations.

The newspaper reported his remarks in a second front-page article it ran the next day, Jan. 12, but didn't include Gibbons' additional remarks: "It should be noted that there is no evidence at all" that the two men had any improper contact with the woman who complained about them.

Whiteside's father complained to the newspaper about the omission, and a four-paragraph clarification included Gibbons' additional remarks appearing in the paper that Jan. 13.

Saying the articles had libeled Whiteside, on Feb. 5, 2007, Whiteside sued Russellville Newspapers Inc., which owns The Courier, along with Paxton Media Group, Neal Ronquist, editor Scott Perkins and reporter Janie Ginocchio.

The lawsuit complained that the defendants "failed to meet journalistic standards in the community for publication of criminal allegations," because they reported the allegations despite knowing that police hadn't completed an investigation, that no charges had been filed, and that the statement had been marked "no press."

However, in briefs later filed with the Arkansas Supreme Court, Whiteside's attorneys said the words "Investigation - No press" were actually on a handwritten document attached to a basic police report, but the writing didn't show up on an electronic version to which the police gave the newspaper access.

The computer system normally had restrictions placed on press access to statements, but attorneys said in oral arguments Thursday that a new, interim police chief had instructed a new secretary to make all the documents publicly available on the system.

The reporter and the editor who found the statements were so surprised to see a document that wasn't ordinarily accessible to them that they called the police information officer, who told them he wouldn't have given it to them but the chief had ordered the information released.

In a written order dated Nov. 19, 2007, Circuit Judge Dennis Sutterfield threw out the libel suit, citing the "fair-report privilege" raised by the defendants, as well as that the documents relied upon were public and were "voluntarily and legally released."

The fair-report privilege provides protection from liability for news media that publish information that proves to be false as long as the information came from an official public document or a statement by a public official, the source is clearly identified and is fairly and accurately used.

Sutterfield found that the gist of the documents was accurately conveyed in the newspaper articles.

"The police reports, statements and other documents may contain untruths, but as long as the defendants gave a substantially fair account of the contents of those documents they are not liable under the fair-report privilege document," Sutterfield wrote.

On appeal, attorney Henry Clay Moore of Houston, said the case "presents a direct clash between freedom of the press and privacy rights."

Moore and attorney R. David Lewis of Little Rock argued that the newspaper had a responsibility to verify the allegations.

To that, Justice Robert Brown asked, "What is the obligation of the press to ferret out what they receive?"

Moore replied that the paper was aware that such documents weren't ordinarily released by police and as a result should have taken extra caution in reporting on them.

Justice Annabelle Clinton Imber quizzed Moore about problems of "requiring the press to do the government's work of f iguring out what shouldn't be released."

She asked if it wouldn't be an "extreme step" to punish news media for the Police Department's mistake.

Moore argued that when the public information officer told the newspaper that he himself couldn't even access the material, "That was code for 'You're not supposed to release it.'"

To that, Brown asked, "Mr. Moore, why would the police speak in code rather than just say, 'Don't publish this'?"

Moore said the police were telling the paper just that "in so many words."

Attorney E.B. "Chip" Chiles, representing the newspaper, told the justices that the circuit judge had labeled the Police Department's actions "astounding." Chiles also noted, "It is absolutely undisputed that The Courier did nothing illegal."

Chiles noted that the paper's editor, Perkins, has testified that the paper wouldn't have run the story if the police had asked them not to publish the statements although the newspaper still would have been entitled to publish them.

"Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's fair game?" Brown asked. Chiles agreed. The court didn't indicate when it will decide the appeal.

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/254198/

Channel 11 reported today that The Arkansas Suspreme Court ruled in favor of the courier. :patriot:

[FDInLaw]

Thanks for the heads up!
:beer:
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled that a legal principle allowing journalists to base their reports on police records protects a newspaper sued over stories it published about an alleged rape.

In a unanimous decision, justices ruled Thursday that the "fair report privilege" covered The Courier newspaper of Russellville. Ryan Whiteside, named in a story over an alleged rape that occurred at his home, argued the newspaper rushed to publish the story as it involved both he and Kevin Jones. The two men had found a beauty queen dead the year before, and Jones was subsequently acquitted of her killing. . .
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003950947

[FDInLaw]

For once we beat Loretta to the punch! :biggrin:

[lorettalockhorn]

For once we beat Loretta to the punch! :biggrin:

There's punch?!

[FDInLaw]

There's punch?!
I'd have a glass, but you never know what it might be spiked with on this thread!!! :chicken:

[lorettalockhorn]

I'd have a glass, but you never know what it might be spiked with on this thread!!! :chicken:

(I'm having trouble posting Kool Aid links today!)

Wonder if Whiteside's attorney argued about RPD using code talk to the court?

[TJEddie]

There's punch?!

Of course there's punch. With the death of the lawsuit, this has officially become a Southern funeral thread. There should also be cakes, pies, casseroles, a big platter of cold cuts, and at least one crockpot full of those little cocktail weenies in barbeque sauce. And here you come sashaying in without so much as a plate of deviled eggs in your hand......there will be talk.

[lorettalockhorn]

Of course there's punch. With the death of the lawsuit, this has officially become a Southern funeral thread. There should also be cakes, pies, casseroles, a big platter of cold cuts, and at least one crockpot full of those little cocktail weenies in barbeque sauce. And here you come sashaying in without so much as a plate of deviled eggs in your hand......there will be talk.

You suh have no ideah how famous ah ayem fuh myah deviled eggs!

(Because of my secret ingredient.)

[TJEddie]

You suh have no ideah how famous ah ayem fuh myah deviled eggs!

(Because of my secret ingredient.)

Possum drippin's?

[FDInLaw]

Possum drippin's?
Don't forget squirrel!!!


http://www.travelpod.com/users/audreyandjack/worldtrip-2005.1149053580.guilin_452.jpg

[lorettalockhorn]

Possum drippin's?

LMAO Is nothing secret? Is nothing sacred?

[FDInLaw]

LMAO Is nothing secret? Is nothing sacred?
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!! You should make that your avatar!!!! (The link showed up in my notification)
:beer:

[FDInLaw]

It stinks that we can't post pics on this thread. :cool:

[lorettalockhorn]

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!! You should make that your avatar!!!! (The link showed up in my notification)
:beer:

Why do those work sometimes and not others? Grr

[lorettalockhorn]

Don't forget squirrel!!!


http://www.travelpod.com/users/audreyandjack/worldtrip-2005.1149053580.guilin_452.jpg

Ewwwwwwwww

Shouldn't the possum and the squirrel be main dishes?

I'm still laughing about the crockpot of cocktail weenies and BBQ sauce. :hat:

[upallnight]

For once we beat Loretta to the punch! :biggrin:

Ha ha! I know, I logged on to see what L had posted and was surprised when I did not find a post. I had to get back to work pretty quick but - L, I just love you! I look forward to your posts! You and FD sure keep this thread going!

[upallnight]

Of course there's punch. With the death of the lawsuit, this has officially become a Southern funeral thread. There should also be cakes, pies, casseroles, a big platter of cold cuts, and at least one crockpot full of those little cocktail weenies in barbeque sauce. And here you come sashaying in without so much as a plate of deviled eggs in your hand......there will be talk.

Got to love it!

[lorettalockhorn]

State Supreme Court sides with The Courier

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday in an unanimous decision that The Courier newspaper of Russellville was protected by the fair-report privilege over stories it published regarding an alleged rape.
Ryan Whiteside filed a complaint against the newspaper Feb. 5, 2007, after it published a story Jan. 11, 2007 — with information inadvertently obtained from a case report through the Russellville Police Department’s AEGIS system — which indicated the alleged rape of a woman occurred during a party as his home on Dec. 28, 2006.
Whiteside asserted in his initial complaint to the circuit court that the article was libelous and defamatory. After Circuit Judge Dennis Sutterfield dismissed the case on Nov. 19, 2007, and refused a new trial on Dec. 3, 2007, Whiteside appealed to the supreme court that the circuit court erred in its decision.
Whiteside claimed in his appeal that witness statements in a police report were not official public documents, nor were they legally or voluntarily released, disputing whether The Courier was entitled to the benefit of the fair-report privilege.
Associate Justice Paul E. Danielson found no merit in Whiteside’s arguments on Thursday, and ruled in favor of The Courier, a decision its Little Rock lawyer, Chip Chiles, said was a gratifying win for the First Amendment.
“Obviously, I’m pleased with the result,” he said. “I think the court decided the case correctly.”
Scott Perkins, former editor of The Courier, speaking on behalf of his then-staff, said they took their responsibility of reporting the news very seriously.
“We obtained a public document through regular means and published a fair and accurate account of that document,” he said. “We had no malice, just sound news reporting by following the public documentation.
“As news gathers, we depend on what’s released in the public domain to generate stories, tips and direction on coverage,” he added.
H. Clay Moore, a Houston lawyer representing Whiteside, said he was “terribly disappointed” for his client and the people of Pope County because he believed illegal conduct had occurred and been condoned.
“I’d just like to say there’s been a wrong against Mr. Whiteside that goes without justice, and that seems to get lost in the rush to expand the fair-report privilege in its widest scope,” Moore said.
John Tull, another Little Rock lawyer representing The Courier, said he thought the ruling confirmed that the newspaper followed proper procedure and that the circuit judge understood and properly ruled.
“I also think it’s a good decision for all Arkansas newspapers and newspapers all around,” he said. “I’ve got calls from people at newspapers all around the country telling me it was a good decision.”
In 2005, Whiteside, Kevin Jones and Jones’ mother found the nude body of Nona Dirksmeyer, a beauty queen attending college in Russellville. Jones, Dirksmeyer’s ex-boyfriend, was later charged with first-degree murder in her death. He was eventually acquitted.
Weeks after Dirksmeyer was found dead, a woman filed a rape complaint with Russellville police, claiming men at a party in Whiteside’s home took advantage of her. The woman’s cousin, using information from another partygoer, told police she had heard that men gave the alleged victim a half-tablet of Ecstasy before taking her into a bedroom. The cousin said the partygoer had told her she saw Whiteside and another man having sexual contact with the woman, with Jones watching at one point. Jones was free on $250,000 bond at the time.
State troopers who were asked to help investigate found the partygoer who had talked to the cousin. An investigative report showed the partygoer told troopers it appeared the alleged victim was a willing participant with one of the men and that Whiteside wasn’t involved.
Later, the alleged victim sent text messages to one of the men joking about the encounter and said she wanted “to be cool about it,” the troopers’ report said. Because of that, Prosecutor David Gibbons decided not to pursue charges, noting there was “no evidence at all that Ryan Whiteside or Kevin Jones ... had any sexual contact” with the woman.
But by that point, the story had appeared on the front page of The Courier, which led to Whiteside’s lawsuit against the newspaper, reporter Janie Ginocchio and editor Perkins.
The lawsuit could have curtailed reporters’ ability to use police records and other official documents. Such records comprise the backbone of reports by news organizations, which have relied on the fair report privilege for decades as a defense. Even if information within the documents turn out to be false, reporters largely remain covered by the privilege.
Both Ginocchio and Perkins later left The Courier for promotions at The Paragould Daily Press, another paper owned by Kentucky-based Paxton Media Group.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://couriernews.com/story.php?ID=20920

[lorettalockhorn]

Courier libel suit dismissal affirmed

A Pope County judge's dismissal of a libel suit against The Courier of Russellville for reporting on rape allegations mistakenly released by police and later deemed unfounded was affirmed Thursday by the Arkansas Supreme Court.

"It is clear from the record that the circuit court based its order granting summary judgment in favor of the newspaper on the fair-report privilege," wrote Associate Justice Paul Danielson on behalf of the high court.

The privilege states: "The publication of a defamatory matter concerning another in a report of an official action or proceeding or of a meeting open to the public that deals with a matter of public concern is privileged if the report is accurate and complete or a fair abridgment of the occurrence reported."

Attorneys for Ryan Whiteside, a Russellville resident who sued the newspaper for libel, argued that witness statements inadvertently released by the Russellville Police Department before being investigated didn't constitute official documents.

The newspaper, surprised about obtaining the documents that are normally considered confidential, contacted a police spokesman who didn't ask the newspaper not to report what it had obtained.

It turned out that an interim police chief working with a new secretary had made the documents available, unaware that they were normally withheld.

The next day, on Jan. 11, 2007, The Courier reported the contents of a written statement that a cousin of an alleged rape victim gave to police. The cousin hadn't attended a party at Whiteside's apartment but told police that someone else, who had been there, relayed allegations to her that a rape had occurred at the party. However, the woman who the cousin said relayed the allegations later denied ever making them and denied that she was a witness to a rape.

The newspaper was interested in the allegations because Whiteside had become wellknown after he and two other people discovered, in late 2005, the body of Arkansas Tech University student Nona Dirksmeyer, who had been choked, beaten and stabbed.

Also, at the time the article appeared, Whiteside was due to testify in a second murder trial over Dirksmeyer's death. The first trial resulted in a jury acquitting Kevin Jones, who was Dirksmeyer's boyfriend and a friend of Whiteside's.

The libel suit, filed against Russellville Newspapers Inc., Paxton Media Group, former publisher Neal Ronquist, theneditor Scott Perkins and reporter Janie Ginocchio, was dismissed Nov. 19, 2007, by Circuit Judge Dennis Sutterfield.

In the Supreme Court's ruling, Danielson wrote, "Case law from various jurisdictions supports the principle that, generally, information released by the police, including reports and records, is considered to be a report of an official action subject to the fairreport privilege."

The newspaper published a second article on Jan. 14, 2007, quoting a letter that Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons wrote to state police saying no charges would be filed because of conflicting information and a lack of evidence.

http://www.nwarktimes.com/adg/News/254790/