BOSTON (AP) – A federal appeals court has thrown out a $1 million defamation verdict against a weekly newspaper that labeled a Maryland attorney a child molester, and ordered a new trial.
The case stemmed from a 2003 article in the Boston Phoenix, an alternative newsweekly, detailing the custody battle between Marc E. Mandel and his estranged wife, Sarah Fitzpatrick.
In 2004, a Massachusetts jury found that the article, also published on the newspaper’s Web site, falsely stated that the Towson, Md., attorney had abused his daughter from a previous marriage. The jury awarded Mandel $1 million.
The Phoenix appealed to the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. In its decision, the appeals court said the lower court determined too quickly that Mandel, a former Baltimore County prosecutor, was a private figure rather than a public one.
The distinction, the court said, “has potentially profound consequences in a defamation case,” including determining what the plaintiff must prove in order to recover damages.
The First Amendment has stricter standards on libel for public figures.
“We have no real choice but to vacate the jury verdict and order a new trial in which the facts bearing upon Mandel’s status can be fully and fairly aired,” the court said.
The appeals court judges said Mandel presented “strong evidence” that the paper wrongly labeled him a child molester. The court also said the Phoenix reporter failed to review pertinent documents or contact several people who would’ve shared an opposing view.
A message left at the Phoenix news office in Boston, and an e-mail and phone message left for Mandel’s lawyer, Stephen Cullen, in Maryland weren’t immediately returned.
Mandel won custody of the couple’s two children in 2002, but Fitzpatrick took them to Massachusetts, triggering a bulletin from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Mandel’s attorney had said.
AP-ES-08-03-06 1940EDT
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