Great article in POLITICO today. I am glad to know that what I have been telling friends and family privately was again right on as to how the political world is changes due to instant news, 24/7 infotainment passed as news, and blogs. I explain at the end of this article as to why I feel all of this is important.
The Huffington Post dispatched a reporter to Texas this summer to investigate rumors about Rick Perry’s personal life, hoping for an irresistible story about hypocrisy.
Enter L. Lin Wood Jr.
Retained by Perry’s gubernatorial campaign committee, the acclaimed libel lawyer fired off a letter to the website in August, threatening to sue if the story ran – an aggressive response even for a candidate whose aides later admitted they entered “Def Con 9” mode when long-circulating rumors began to swirl anew as Perry prepared to run for president.
The Huffington Post’s founder Arianna Huffington said recently the website didn’t spike the story because of Wood’s letter, but because there was “simply no there there.”
Still, Wood’s behind-the-scenes work for Perry – and his more public efforts last month to shoot down allegations of sexual impropriety leveled at former Perry rival Herman Cain — suggest there’s an appetite among high-profile campaigns for a more aggressive response to damaging stories. And though some Washington scandal veterans argue Wood’s confrontational approach— which blends litigation-style PR with legal threats and actual lawsuits — is better suited for Hollywood and supermarket tabloid stories, others predict the demand for those services will only expand as scandals increasingly dominate political coverage that spreads rapidly online.
“I’m not out looking for business,” Wood told POLITICO. “But I think that any candidate for public office would be well advised to have the benefit of an experienced opinion on whether a particular article or a particular accusation might rise to the level of being actionable defamation, because I’m afraid that the environment is such that this type of reporting is not going to get better. I’m afraid that it’s only going to get worse.”
Wood is also representing failed Senate candidate Jeff Greene, who lost a Democratic primary in Florida last year, and is suing newspapers over stories that linked him to a real estate scheme. In a letter sent in the heat of the campaign to the St. Petersburg Times, Wood called their story “journalistic fiction” and suggested he would file a lawsuit for “many millions of dollars unless the Times immediately corrects its libel” by retracting the story.
Wood’s past clients show his work had been mostly outside politics until recently. I predict with Wood going out on his own now in a boutique law office we might see him more on the political stage and it would be smart to hire him before the other guy does is my motto.
Wood’s past clients include Democratic Rep. Gary Condit, in the reporting of the death of intern Chandra Levy. Wood became the star Libel Litigator in the country when he made his reputation by helping exonerate Richard Jewell. Wood went on to represent clients in a host of high-profile cases, including the parents of JonBenét Ramsey, the young woman who accused basketball star Kobe Bryant of sexual assault and of course multiple lawsuits in the Anna Nicole Smith saga.
Ray Sullivan, a Perry spokesman, told POLITICO that the governor’s team decided to hire Wood in August when “we got wind that” Huffington Post — which he described dismissively as “a liberal web-based media outlet” — “seemed intent on quickly writing lies about the governor, and we were concerned about the speed at which those lies could be published online.” Sullivan characterization of the situation matches one outlined in more detail in an ebook by Mike Allen and Evan Thomas, which explained that Perry’s aides were “distressed to learn that Jason Cherkis, a Huffington Post reporter, was in Austin prowling around on a story that had been gossiped about for years in the Texas capital: is Perry gay?”
The rumors included “a detailed story about a supposed assignation with a former [male] state official,” wrote Allen and Thomas.
Wood “authored one strongly worded letter to the media outlet, which never replied and never wrote the story,” Sullivan told POLITICO. Wood “did this one thing and that’s it. We never told him to stop and he’s not billing us now as far as I know. The purpose for which he has been retained is completed,” Sullivan said.
Arianna Huffington, president of The Huffington Post Media Group, told POLITICO that the decision not to run a story had nothing to do with the letter. “We looked at what we had; we realized that it was not a publishable story, and it was over,” she said. “The story was already killed before we got the letter from Lin Wood. I never even read the letter.” She added: “If we feel good about a story or stories, we run them, no matter what the legal threat. That’s not an issue. We have a great legal department and have no problem taking on legal challenges.”
Lin Wood’s work for Cain went differently. He began work more than a week after POLITICO first revealed that two women had received financial payouts after accusing Cain of sexual harassment. Additional accusations of harassment followed, as did an allegation from an Atlanta woman named Ginger White that she’d had a 13-year affair with Cain. L Lin Wood labeled all the allegations “lies,” urged women considering making additional allegations to “think twice” and wrote a letter to White’s lawyer asking for her phone records to “ascertain whether the decision to grant interviews was politically motivated and to determine whether she has received or [been] promised money for participating.” Wood also investigated the backgrounds of White and at least one supporter of another Cain accuser, and highlighted their financial problems, which he asserted the media had willfully ignored.
“What I find naive is the failure on the part of members of the media to be asking the tough questions of the accuser, someone who has obviously a troubled past, who has an incentive potentially financially to go out and to make these kinds of unfounded accusations,” Wood told Piers Morgan in an interview on CNN a few days after White went public about her alleged affair with Cain. “Why don’t you look at yourself, Piers, and the members of your media and recognize that you in fact and the media are participating in the deterioration of our political process?” In that interview if I remember correctly Wood never brought out the scandal consuming the U. K at the moment of illegal wire tapping which involves even Morgan’s previous employer.
Wood told POLITICO he has had “informal conversations or communications” with the lawyers for Sharon Bialek, who accused Cain of harassment, and White, “but there have been no formal demands made under applicable statutes at this point in time.”
Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon said he “really enjoyed working with Mr. Wood,” who he said talked with “several individuals in leadership positions” on the campaign. But Gordon stressed that the lawyer worked for Cain personally and not the campaign, which would have been required to disclose payments to him.
Don’t be surprised if more defamation specialists like Wood get involved in politics, Richard Painter predicted, adding “accusations – and how to deal with them both in offense and defense – is an important part of the political game. This will be more common. It is most unfortunate, but that’s the way it is.”
Political lawyers serve their clients well by trying to block damaging stories from running and by seeking to stop the spread of those that do, said Trevor Potter, who was the top lawyer for [John] McCain’s presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2008. “In my experience, it is not unusual to hire lawyers and to have them intervene with news media to essentially litigate a story in the hopes that it can be knocked down and proven unsubstantiated before it is printed,” said Potter. “And obviously, from the campaign standpoint, you don’t want to have an accuser out there doing a press tour day after day. On the other hand, if you can’t prove it’s false, that’s a political problem, not a legal problem.”
Wood told POLITICO that it’s not about politics for him, explaining “my representation of political figures in my career is not based on a political ideology.”
Though he worked on Richard Nixon’s 1972 presidential campaign (recalling he was “extremely disappointed … to learn that in fact he was a crook”) and contributed to the presidential campaigns of Republicans John McCain and George W. Bush and Democrats John Edwards and Barack Obama, Wood said “I don’t claim to be a political person.”
The principles driving his work do not “vary based on whether it’s a presidential campaign or a senate campaign or a state campaign or even a non-political attack on someone’s reputation,” said Wood, who in his late teens spent about a year covering high school football and basketball for his hometown newspaper, The Macon News. “I just happen to take the view that the rules should be the same for public figures, political candidates, and even private individuals, and that is a rule that goes back and insists upon fundamental principles of journalism being adhered to by the media.”
Ah you have to wonder if Bush would have been a one term president if John Kerry had been smart enough to hire Lin Wood BEFORE the swift boat ads took hold?
This is offense PR at it’s best, and as explained in Lin Wood’s own words he is not about political ideology. In today’s instant stories online in some cases without a scintilla of evidence I have long said we would not have had great presidents in the past like Franklin D. Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy. Wood sees where there is a need and will continue to fill that need in my opinion for years to come in the political arena. You can’t blame Wood’s belief in Nixon, I often say I voted for the guy both times and he broke my heart. Nixon is probably the single one reason I am a moderate independent that normally splits my vote today.
Be sure and read the whole story at POLITICO and the well documented links in the article that will give you a lot of background on Perry, Cain and Wood. Wonder how the democrat Jeff Greene’s litigation is going?
We encourage all of you to join other posters to discuss all of the cases we cover. Diamond Girl runs the community part of the site and remember discuss the evidence don’t attack other posters. If you read a post that upsets you just scroll past that comment http://community.rosespeaks.com/ I seldom step on the forums that belongs to the members and is in great hands with Diamond Girl and she will be having a robust discussion there that all of you are invited to join. However, as I do have time I enjoy reading and participating in the discussion.
Visit our Download Section and pick up all of the documents related to any cases we follow; we put up papers throughout the trials, and then leave them up as part of the history of the cases we cover.
Follow Us On Face Book and on Twitter and see who Rose Speaks is following.
The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
I did not see it but have found some video clips of L. Lin Wood and Piers Morgan going head to head in what appears to be at times a heated exchange.
Did any of you actually catch the whole show? I saw replays on CNN of them talking about how heated Piers Morgan called attorney L Lin Wood naive and surely Morgan did not think what he was saying? With part of it clipped out and then Wood’s southern gentleman voice coming back with “I’m sorry you find me naive” and then slapping Morgan down. Wood was on Morgan’s show to defend his client GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain.
My question is did Morgan do this for ratings as taking on Wood with no holds bar and no fear of a lawsuit, or was it a Brit that had no idea what is going on in our legal system?
I wish I had seen the whole hour, I don’t know if Lin Wood was the guest for the full hour or not, do any of you? If so give us your play by play of who won this “debate”.
I also wonder if Wood has found a new set of clientele, remember Jeff Greene suing some media in Florida for endorsing his opponent and then trashing Greene? It is certain I believe, as some in the news is saying that if we had 24/7 infotainment/news back in the 30′s, 40′s, 50′s and 60′s we would not have had great presidents like Franklin D Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy. So what is the balance on the public or voters right to know, and what is private and/or personal lives? I understand why Newt Gingrich was outed in the late 90′s; because while he was leading the charge for President William Clinton’s impeachment over consensual sex that Clinton did not feel he needed to bare all to the voters, especially when President Clinton was on the way out to retirement. While we were learning that Gingrich had abandoned a wife who was dying with cancer for a mistress he had for years. So it was good-bye to Gingrich the Speaker of the House at the same time.
I can’t find this on the CNN site but you can view it at You Tube here:
The thought of throwing rocks if you live in a class house comes to mind on that.
Wood also addressed the 24/7 infotainment/news craving for all things personal and private and what that appears to be doing to candidates in this day and time.
I think I see Lin Wood carving out that a politician does not have to openly share what is a very private life UNLESS it all checks out before you air it. Should the infotainment/news be allowed to fill the airwaves for 24/7 with rag magazines type gossip?
I am leaning towards Wood going for it. How is that Democratic US Senate Candidate Jeff Greene lawsuit going? The backlash on this is would it give the U. S. Supreme Court Justices a pass on conflict of interest? Or will it affect how the Court might rule on something like this coming before them?
Here is one more video I found, might be a copy because I did not have the chance to watch it before this post.
So tell us your thoughts, remember that anyone who can afford it can bring a lawsuit, but are these “news tidbits” out of line because they could be based on gossip and not facts? I did find the full interview transcript on the CNN site.
We encourage all of you to join other posters to discuss all of the cases we cover. Diamond Girl runs the community part of the site and remember discuss the evidence don’t attack other posters. If you read a post that upsets you just scroll past that comment http://community.rosespeaks.com/ I seldom step on the forums that belongs to the members and is in great hands with Diamond Girl and she will be having a robust discussion there that all of you are invited to join. However, as I do have time I enjoy reading and participating in the discussion.
Visit our Download Section and pick up all of the documents related to any cases we follow; we put up papers throughout the trials, and then leave them up as part of the history of the cases we cover.
I HAVE A LOT OF DOCUMENTS TO PUT UP ON THE STANCIL FORD SHELLEY AND GAITHER B THOMPSON II CRIMINAL CHARGES IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND WILL HAVE THOSE UP TOMORROW FOR ALL OF YOU.
Follow Us On Face Book and on Twitter and see who Rose Speaks is following.
The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
In the last two weeks Lin Wood has been busy; “writing the book on starting a law firm in two weeks.” With two attorneys he has mentored over the years, Katherine V. Hernacki and Stacey G. Evans Wood has created the “boutique lawfirm” of Wood, Hernacki & Evans on May 9, 2011.
A major break-up you ask? No Wood moved his firm across the street and will continue to share previous cases with Bryan Cave attorneys. (I. E. the Estate of Anna Nicole Smith, the Estate of Richard Jewels and the defamation case of Jeff Greene). Both firms hope to share future cases as well.
So why did Lin Wood leave? “I spent most of my life as a plaintiffs’ lawyer. I don’t know that I ever got that out of my heart and soul, I’m not sure I’m the kind of trial lawyer that is comfortable in a 1,000-person law firm. I spent 28 years making compensation decisions in five seconds or less. It was a big learning curve to join Powell Goldstein and more so when the firm combined with Bryan Cave.” Wood went on to tell the Fulton Daily Report in an interview “Is Bryan Cave losing the person I believe is the best trial lawyer they have? Of course, but there are some great trial lawyers there who are aggressive and I want to continue working with them. I will call them when I have a significant matter and need a significant support team—and I hope they will call me.”
So what propel this to happen in just two weeks? A big whistleblower case that posed conflicts at at Bryan Cave which presented “actual and strategic conflicts”.
Wood is joining qui tam lawyers Marlan B. Wilbanks and Ty M. Bridges on a suit alleging fraud against DaVita Inc., the largest kidney dialysis chain in the U.S., which Wilbanks said could potentially be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Wood said Wilbanks and Bridges needed “a first-class trial lawyer” to help them with the case. “It was the case that broke the camel’s back,” he said. “I had to leave the law firm to do it.”
When asked if Bryan Cave would recruit another high-profile trial lawyer to replace Wood? “Lin is one of a kind,” said Thomas R. McNeill, the firm’s Atlanta managing partner.
When Wood, 58, gave up his own firm to join Powell Goldstein in 2006, he told the Daily Report that he expected to end his law career as a partner there. “I wanted to. But life is an adventure,” he said. How very true isn’t it?
We agree with L. Lin Wood and are glad it was an amicable parting because there really is just one L. Lin Wood, and it is good to see him return to his roots as a plaintiff’s attorney. We will continue to highlight cases that Wood is part of, he is simply the best at what he does.
Follow Us On Face Book and on Twitter and see who Rose Speaks is following.
We will be listening to all of our readers about new cases. Do you have a tip for us on a case to follow? If so Contact Us, a link appears at the top of all pages; ALL TIPS ARE OF COURSE CONFIDENTIAL. If you would like to do some articles for Rose Speaks.com send us that information and we will give you our rules for guest writers.
The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
What do we do as the cases involving Anna Nicole Smith fade into the sunset where they belong? Folks while it might appear nothing is happening here on the site there are a lot of exciting things happening behind the scenes.
We will NOT be covering any child murders (I. E. Casey Anthony or Haleigh Cummings cases). We will have links to the sites we like the best for updates, but I just can’t write about missing and murdered children.
We will be listening to all of our readers about new cases, see the “contact Us” link at the top of the page and that will be included also in all future articles.
Right now we have the following cases:
1. All Things Anna Nicole Smith: That will be until the end of the criminal trial of Howard K. Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich; the South Carolina Suit of the Estate vs. Ford Shelley, G. Ben Thompson, Susan M. Brown, etc. In fact see the calendar in that a status report is due this Wednesday September 22, 2010 on the Motion for Sanctions; the Appeals court on the Estate vs. Marshall and keeping up with the Supreme Court starting when they announce the cases they are taking next month.
2. All Things Michael Jackson: This will include the criminal case, the probate and associated cases with the Estate, Joe Jackson’s civil suit in federal court and Katherine Jackson civil suit on behalf of the Estate and Jackson’s children in the Los Angeles state Court.
3. The Cynthia Sommer case in federal Court and things going on in the San Diego D. A. office, Bonnie Dumanis, which has some strange occurrences in what appears to be a trend that I can only describe as witch hunts.
4. Any and all Defamation cases that draws our attention as in right now it is L. Lin Wood and his client Jeff Greene in Florida.
5. The Nancy Grace case heading to a jury trial in October 2010 that involves the tragic suicide of a mother, Melinda Duckett, and the question of did Nancy Grace pushing her in an interview caused the woman to commit suicide and more importantly did it close the door to law enforcement and their investigation?
7. The Nancy Novack murder case that involves millions of dollars and the “accidental death” of her mother-in-law, Bernice Novack, in Florida and then the brutal murder of her husband, Ben Novack Jr., in New York, with questions about why it took the federal government using a little known across state lines domestic violence law to finally get Nancy Novack and her accomplishes including now what appears to be a plot to kill a witness.
8. The Honorable Sharon Keller here in Texas, which is going before a new panel of judges today on her public warning for not following execution day policies, the “misplacing and forgetting over 2 million dollars of assets and now the legislature announced intention of impeaching her.
There are several others we are looking at but if any of the readers know of a good one, preferably just beginning, in filing of court papers let us know, we accept all tips and keep them confidential.
The Member only Forums is are NOT accepting any new memberships, however we are going to be opening up a new “Community” ran by Diamond Girl that will be easier to join and have a lot of discussions on a lot of cases. We have been working with her for several weeks as we develop that. We hope that will be a very busy community with a chance to the members to have good debates.
We are also working on a permanent document download area for court documents on all cases and that will be up this week with the first listings of documents probably starting with All things Michael Jackson and Anna Nicole Smith.
We will still have our featured guest columnists John J. Nazarian and Daniel DiCriscio and hope now others will write for us as cases they are interested in began.
There are a lot of new happenings at Rose Speaks. We do thank all of you for staying with us as readers and/or posters for the last 3 years that we have been around and hope you are around for the new cases as they come along.
So stay tune, we think a lot will be happening this week and the weeks to come. There are a lot of changes behind the scenes but we hope you will enjoy the finished site and the new directions we are heading.
NEW PAPERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA COURT IN ESTATE OF ANNA NICOLE SMITH VS. FORD SHELLEY, G. BEN THOMPSON, SUSAN BROWN ET. AL.
August 21, 2010 Status Report of Estate of Anna Nicole Smith vs. Susan M. Brown for Contempt and Sanctions; hearing set for September 28, 2010 at 11:00 A. M. via phone.
Ken, Rose and all of your administrators and moderators here at Rose Speaks!
The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
In a New York Time’s interview Jeff Greene, the billionaire who unsuccessfully challenged Kendrick Meek for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, is preparing to sue the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald, claiming stories the newspapers published cost him his bid for the United States Senate.
Mr. Greene lost the Democratic primary last week to Kendrick B. Meek, who will face Gov. Charlie Crist, an independent, and Marco Rubio, a Republican, in November.
During a bruising primary, Greene faced a series of questions about parties aboard his yacht and fraudulent real estate deals. Greene has singled out two news articles that were printed in the Times and the Herald, and an editorial in the Times.
During the interview with the New York Times on Tuesday, Greene said; “I want to send a message to every newspaper in the country: Do your homework. I deserve to have the record corrected, and they deserve to be punished”.
In one article, The Times reported that Greene was party to a real estate deal that left 300 California families homeless and a partner of his in jail. The other left the impression that boxer Mike Tyson, who was the best man at Greene’s wedding, used drugs while on Greene’s 145-foot yacht the Summerwind. Even thought the paper later ran a front-page correction clarifying that Tyson said he had not used drugs on the yacht.
Greene will seek at least $500 million in damages, famed libel attorney L. Lin Wood has told the paper he plans to file file a formal complaint in state court in Miami-Dade County today, September 1, 2010..
With money not a problem to hire the very best, Greene hired L. Lin Wood, a prominent libel lawyer who has won settlements for other public figures who claimed they were defamed by the news media, including Richard A. Jewell, the security guard cleared as a suspect in the 1996 Olympics bombing in Atlanta; Howard K. Stern the lawyer and boyfriend of model Anna Nicole Smith as well as the estate of Anna Nicole Smith in recovering alleged stolen property the day after her death; John and the late Patsy Ramsey the parents of JonBenet Ramsey, former U. S. Congressman Gary Conduit in a battle with author Dominick Dunne involving Coduit’s intern Chandra Levy’s death; Beth Holloway Twitty, mother of Natalee Holloway, and the victim of an alleged rape involving Kobe Bryant the famous basket ball player..
Neil Brown, the editor of St. Petersburg Times in an email to the New York Time stated; “The Times’ coverage of Mr. Greene and his business transactions has been thorough and fair, and the reporting is well-documented in public records”, while defending the newspaper of any wrongdoing.
Sandra S. Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center said; “even with an admission of error, Jeff Greene is going to have to prove that the articles were published with actual malice.”
This folks is going to be the libel suit of all times, as always L. Lin Wood’s hand picked legal team filed the Original Complaint late today in the In the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County, Florida. The suit states in part that the papers and reporters listed in the suit, …”[Defendants] abandoned journalistic integrity and ignored the fundamental canons of journalistic conduct while wholeheartedly embracing the publication of false and defamatory articles about Greene with Constitutional actual malice. As a result, Defendants crossed the threshold from speech protect by the First Amendment to enter the arena of actionable libel for which they must be held legally accountable.” The suit further states that reporters and papers, “not only published the articles with the goal of destroying the personal, business and political reputation of Green, Defendants also urged that Green be criminal investigated by the FBI in connection with serious crimes.” This billionaire, Jeff Greene, has the money to stay in this suit with only the best libel and defamation lawyer, L. Lin Wood, right up and through any trial. Like I said before the primary, the papers should have done a front page correction on all of the issues and addressing all of the points that Wood presented in his two letters to the papers before the Florida primary with. the corrections but also made it clear they might be a tad bias as both newspapers endorsed Greene’s opponent, Kendrick B. Meek in the primary last week.
The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
Per CNN: Florida Senate candidate Jeff Greene is a billionaire real estate investor who has spent millions to fund his primary campaign against fellow Democrat, Rep. Kendrick Meek. Now, one week before Florida’s primary elections, Greene is preparing to spend his money on a lawsuit against two Florida newspapers if they don’t publish lengthy retractions to damning articles they recently published about him.
Famed Bryan Cave LLP defamation attorney L. Lin Wood is the attorney Greene has chosen to represent him in what is shaping up as a very expensive battle with the St. Petersburg Times and the Miami Herald. The papers have a working partnership and often share resources to cover state news.
Times editor Neil Brown said last week after receiving a letter dated August 11, that no retraction is forthcoming, and Greene is expected to follow through, potentially as early as Friday, August 20, 2010
Both papers have endorsed Greene’s opponent, Meek in the Democratic primary for Senate Florida’s primary elections will be held Tuesday, August 24.
The allegations leading up to the threat of a defamation case is based on that one of the stories, first published on August 8, the Times reported that in 2006, Greene had sold California property to Delbert McConville, who is now in jail facing conspiracy and money laundering charges. Greene admits to selling McConville 300 condos, but insists that his connection to McConville ends there and that he was not a party to the dealings McConville engaged in that led him to jail.
Then we have the article stating links between Mike Tyson and Greene even going as far as to tying in a Sport’s Illustrated Article interview of July 28 where Tyson allegedly describes Greene’s 145-foot yacht, the activity on the yacht; including it was lavish, and teeming with naked, drunken parties. Greene denies those claims. Tyson–who is a close friend to Greene and was best man at his 2007 wedding–spent a month aboard Greene’s yacht, Summerwind, during the summer of 2005, however the Sport’s Illustrated Article does not name Greene. Sport’s Illustrated would not comment to CNN.
In the August 16 letter to the Miami Herald executive editor Anders Gyllenhaal, attorney L. Lin Wood, said the stories are “replete with false, misleading and defamatory statements of fact concerning Mr. Greene.”
Greene is threatening to open his wallet wide to wage this legal fight. “It will be a substantial lawsuit, because I am a high net-worth individual who does earn a lot of money,” Greene said at a press conference last week that was recorded by the Miami Herald, “and if my reputation is damaged, the St. Petersburg Times will be held accountable.”
Neil Brown has stated; “The Times’ coverage of Mr. Greene and his business transactions has been thorough and fair, and the reporting is well-documented in public records,” Brown said in a statement published on The Times’ political blog. “Our story is accurate, balanced and we stand by it.”Mr. Greene is welcome to submit a letter to the editor if he wishes to take further exception.”
An aide to Greene told CNN that this is no political bluff and that “recklessly disregarding the truth is actionable and Jeff plans to take action.”
The South Florida Law Blog says in their article today; “to paraphrase Steely Dan, Lin Wood is a major dude. He previously represented accused Centennial Olympic Park bomber Richard Jewell, the parents of Jon Benet Ramsey, Howard K. Stern, and has been involved in many other high-profile defamation cases. The article goes on to muse that; “if the Herald will retain our own silver fox, Sandy Bohrer, …if so we are looking at a powerhouse match up.”
Rose Speaks.com will follow this suit for sure if it is filed in Federal Court which it might not be as all of the parties are located as entities or citizens of Florida. If it is file in state Court if the Sunshine state shares the filings as they have on other high profile cases then we will followed the case as well.
This is going to prove up to be an interesting fall season if Wood slaps both papers with defamation suits in the next few days.
Be sure to participate in our MEMBERS ONLY FORUMS, get the most out of the site by learning your way around in the forums where you can safely discuss things you do not want to see copied and pasted on another site.
The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners.