The Lawsuit
From James Donahue’s Journal
I was named in a lawsuit after writing a police and court story involving a former worker for a Deckerville lumber company who was arrested and charged with defrauding his employer. It was a complex case in which the man was accused of stealing building material from the lumber yard and using it for an expansion of his home.
The Michigan State Police made the arrest. I believe the fellow was initially charged with extortion or else grand larceny of more than $10,000 in material. The troopers gave me the story the morning after the arrest and I filed the story based on the police report I was allowed to read. The man was arraigned that same day in District Court. Because it was a major criminal case I was there to cover the court appearance. As I recall, the man stood mute and the judge set his bond and posted a date for a preliminary examination. Consequently I wrote a follow-up story which was published the next day.
A day or two after that, I was informed that there had been new information in the case and that the police were dropping charges against the man they originally arrested and brought before a court. Apparently the investigating officer had not done a thorough enough job and made the arrest based on inaccurate assumptions. The fiasco cost that worker his job and because of our news story, it ruined his reputation in the area.
It was hard to blame the man for what he did after that. Apparently the police are in some way immune to being sued for damages in Michigan, so the accused hired a lawyer and filed suit against the Times Herald and James Donahue for publishing defaming stories that were inaccurate and defamed his character. He wanted revenge and we were the only ones that were involved in what happened to him that were open for litigation.
Those were the days I really missed the wisdom of my old editor at Benton Harbor, Bert Lindenfelt. I also appreciated the excellent training I had received under Lindenfelt’s direction. The “trainees” at Port Huron, however, went into panic mode. They put me through a ringer, forcing me to get copies of the police and court records, and proving the accuracy of the two stories I wrote. I had followed proper newspaper protocol and even followed up with a third story about the police blunder and the decision to drop the charges.
Our lawyers met with me to take depositions. That was a harrowing few hours spent being grilled by our own legal counsel, as if I were on trial. They looked at every possible angle of the case, trying to determine if there was anything I had done in researching and writing the three stories, that might be found libelous. In the end I emerged from the ordeal without blemish. It seemed that it was the police that were to be blamed for everything that happened to this man, and they were protected from having to answer for their misdeeds.
Weeks passed as the slow wheels of the justice system moved that case into the courts and a judge finally reviewed all of the facts. It never came to trial. The District Judge determined there was no merit to the case against me or the Times Herald and dismissed the suit.
From James Donahue’s Journal
I was named in a lawsuit after writing a police and court story involving a former worker for a Deckerville lumber company who was arrested and charged with defrauding his employer. It was a complex case in which the man was accused of stealing building material from the lumber yard and using it for an expansion of his home.
The Michigan State Police made the arrest. I believe the fellow was initially charged with extortion or else grand larceny of more than $10,000 in material. The troopers gave me the story the morning after the arrest and I filed the story based on the police report I was allowed to read. The man was arraigned that same day in District Court. Because it was a major criminal case I was there to cover the court appearance. As I recall, the man stood mute and the judge set his bond and posted a date for a preliminary examination. Consequently I wrote a follow-up story which was published the next day.
A day or two after that, I was informed that there had been new information in the case and that the police were dropping charges against the man they originally arrested and brought before a court. Apparently the investigating officer had not done a thorough enough job and made the arrest based on inaccurate assumptions. The fiasco cost that worker his job and because of our news story, it ruined his reputation in the area.
It was hard to blame the man for what he did after that. Apparently the police are in some way immune to being sued for damages in Michigan, so the accused hired a lawyer and filed suit against the Times Herald and James Donahue for publishing defaming stories that were inaccurate and defamed his character. He wanted revenge and we were the only ones that were involved in what happened to him that were open for litigation.
Those were the days I really missed the wisdom of my old editor at Benton Harbor, Bert Lindenfelt. I also appreciated the excellent training I had received under Lindenfelt’s direction. The “trainees” at Port Huron, however, went into panic mode. They put me through a ringer, forcing me to get copies of the police and court records, and proving the accuracy of the two stories I wrote. I had followed proper newspaper protocol and even followed up with a third story about the police blunder and the decision to drop the charges.
Our lawyers met with me to take depositions. That was a harrowing few hours spent being grilled by our own legal counsel, as if I were on trial. They looked at every possible angle of the case, trying to determine if there was anything I had done in researching and writing the three stories, that might be found libelous. In the end I emerged from the ordeal without blemish. It seemed that it was the police that were to be blamed for everything that happened to this man, and they were protected from having to answer for their misdeeds.
Weeks passed as the slow wheels of the justice system moved that case into the courts and a judge finally reviewed all of the facts. It never came to trial. The District Judge determined there was no merit to the case against me or the Times Herald and dismissed the suit.