Judge Dismisses Former Anchors Defamation Lawsuit

Alycia Lane, a former KYW-TV station news anchor filed a lawsuit against KYW-TV and CBS for defamation.  She claims that KYW-TV did not investigate her complaint that her colleague, Larry Mendte, hacked into her email account.  In August 2008 Mendte pleaded guilty to hacking Lane’s email account.  According to the news, “he also reportedly sent damaging messages to others from her email account.”  Mendte was fired from his job and sentenced accordingly.

Judge Dismisses Lane’s Case Against KYW-TV and CBS

According to DailyMail, “the judge claims that Lane lied during her testimony, hiding highly relevant information.”  Lane had told the court that she emptied her computers hard drive before she filed the defamation lawsuit in 2008.  However, lawyers for CBS allege that she actually deleted her hard drive after filing her lawsuit.  According to the news, “because the email messages were important to the defamation claims, records from Lane’s computer were important to the case.”  Thus, the judge presiding over her case dismissed all her claims against KYW-TV and CBS.

What is Defamation?

There are two main types of defamation: libel and slander.  Libel is written defamation whereas slander is spoken defamation.  In order to prove that a person was defamed, they must prove a number of elements: (1) the statement must be defamatory, meaning it adversely affects their reputation, (2) the statement must be concerning plaintiff, meaning people who hear it must know it is about plaintiff, (3) the defamatory statement must be made to a third person, and (4) it must cause damages.  Moreover, slander requires that proof of special damages (economic damages), whereas libel does not.

Have you ever been defamed?  To learn more about defamation click here.