Lawyer Sues Norfolk Station for Defamation

Portsmouth attorney Sterling Weaver is suing WAVY for defamation, claiming the station maligned him in a story about his arrest on an assault charge.

Weaver is seeking $5 million, according to the lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court.

WAVY has denied the allegations.

In a Feb. 6 newscast, WAVY reported that Weaver had been indicted on felony assault and misdemeanor sexual battery charges for an alleged incident involving a female deputy in a Portsmouth courtroom.

The deputy accused Weaver of inappropriately touching her.

During that report, WAVY also said it "did some digging into Weaver's past" and discovered that he had been convicted of assault and sentenced to 30 days in jail for grabbing a prosecutor by the throat in 2006, according to the lawsuit.

The station, however, failed to report that Weaver appealed that case to a Circuit Court judge who dismissed it after Weaver remained on good behavior for a year, the suit says. He did not serve jail time in that case.

Weaver, who is representing himself, says in the lawsuit that he was lying on the floor of the Portsmouth City Jail after his February arrest when he heard WAVY's newscast about his case.

Really?! This guy was laying on the floor of jail cell? That's got to be like licking the seat of a public toilet. GROSS!

The lawyer claims that the report "falsely portrayed the plaintiff as being a previously convicted criminal" and the reporting was done "with a reckless disregard of the truth." He called the report "scandalous, malicious and defamatory."

Well..... OK then. 

H/T Pilot-Online