By: LISA R. WILSON
Terry Hobbs, stepfather of slain Steve Branch—who was killed in 1993 with two other young boys—has filed a defamation lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court against Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines. Maines has had a history of speaking out for the three people convicted of the slayings and has alleged Hobbs was instead involved in the killings. Hobbs claims he has suffered loss of income, injury to his reputation and emotional distress due to the accusation, and is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
On Dec. 19, 2007, Maines attended a rally in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she claimed convicted killers Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley — known to sympathizers as the “West Memphis Three” — were innocent and that new evidence pointed to Hobbs as the murder suspect. Maines has also posted on the Dixie Chicks website that new DNA testing of hair from the crime scene linked Hobbs to the killings and that his behavior after the slayings indicated his guilt. Hobbs’ defamation lawsuit says that Maines’ claim is false. “I want people to know I have done nothing wrong,” Hobbs said. “I want them to hear it from me.”
Hobbs’ lawsuit says Maines’ statements are “so extreme in degree as to be beyond the pale of decency and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in civilized society.”
Defamation is defined as false spoken words or written publication which exposes a person to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or which causes him/her to be shunned or avoided, and has a tendency to injure the defamed in their trade or occupation.
In order to prove defamation, a plaintiff has to prove that what was said or written about them was false and the comments made have affected their reputation in the community or cast aspersions on them. If the information is true, or if the defamed consented to publication of the material, they will not have a case.
If you have been defamed, you may seek both actual damages to recover the harm that you have suffered, and punitive damages to punish the person who defamed you. For more information about defamation, visit LawInfo’s legal resource center for articles, blogs and answers to frequently asked defamation-related questions, or contact a personal injury attorney in your area today.
