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Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Ind. Decisions - Background about today's defamation decision [Updated 11/2/05]

"Defamation suit vs. Shine dismissed: Indiana Court of Appeals throws out lawsuit against GOP chairman" is the headline to a story this afternoon by Kevin Leininger in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. (ILB coverage of the ruling, issued earlier today, may be accessed here.) Some quotes from the story:

The Indiana Court of Appeals today dismissed a lawsuit accusing Allen County’s Republican Party chairman of defaming a former candidate for prosecutor.

Even though the three-judge panel unanimously sided with Steve Shine against Mike Loomis, Judge Michael P. Barnes in his concurring opinion wrote to “express both my concern and reservation that the First Amendment shields the conduct and speech” at the center of the controversy.

Loomis, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for prosecutor in 2002, sued Shine in November 2003 after a Nov. 21, 2001, Frost Illustrated story quoted the chairman as saying Loomis, as deputy prosecutor, used the office “as a vendetta against minorities and the multicultural community.” Shine backed Karen Richards for prosecutor, who eventually won the 2002 GOP primary and general election.

According to court records, Shine said he based his comments on conversations with a police officer, a local civil rights leader, newspaper stories and the fact that most Fort Wayne Police officers being investigated by Loomis for possible corruption were black.

Loomis and other police officers, however, insisted the investigation was driven by fact, not race.

In November 2004, Special Judge Bruce Embrey ruled that, because Loomis was a candidate for political office, he was a “public figure” under the law – meaning he would have to prove Shine acted with “actual malice” to win his case. Today’s ruling of summary judgment against Loomis means the court found no factual evidence to indicate Shine acted with the necessary malice.

[Update 11/2/05] Niki Kelly of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette writes this morning in a story that begins:
Allen County Republican Party Chairman Steve Shine won a four-year dispute Tuesday over whether he defamed former county prosecutor candidate J. Michael Loomis when the Indiana Court of Appeals threw out Loomis’ case.

An Allen County judge originally said the case deserved to go to trial so a decision could be made on whether Shine acted with “actual malice” when saying Loomis used “the prosecutor’s office as a vendetta against minorities and the multicultural community.”

But the appellate court said Loomis failed to prove Shine made a defamatory statement “with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”

They ordered the trial court to grant summary judgment on all counts, which ends the case.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 1, 2005 06:57 PM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions