Posted on 03/03/2004 12:39:12 AM PST by per loin
POSTED: 6:23 am MST March 2,
2004
UPDATED: 9:51 am MST March 2,
2004
The decision on Monday means "this is the end of the case," said Bruce DeBoskey, director of the ADL's Mountain States Region.
The victors in the case are William and Dorothy "Dee" Quigley, whose lawyer, Jay Horowitz, described them as "extraordinarily delighted" with the news.
"But through the entire process we have continued to serve the community," he said. "We do remain committed to our fight against hatred and racism and bigotry and extremism and anti-Semitism."
The fight was between the Quigleys and their Jewish neighbors, Mitchell and Candice Aronson.
The Aronsons sought help from the ADL in 1994 after overhearing the Quigleys' comments on a cordless telephone, a signal that was picked up by the Aronson's police scanner.
They said they heard the Quigleys discuss a campaign to drive them from the upscale Evergreen neighborhood with Nazi scare tactics, including tossing lampshades and soap on their lawn and putting pictures of Holocaust ovens on their house.
Based on recordings of those calls, they sued the Quigleys in federal court, Jefferson County prosecutors charged the Quigleys with hate crimes and Saul Rosenthal, then the ADL's regional director, denounced the Quigleys as anti-Semites in a press conference.
But later authorities discovered the recordings became illegal just five days after they began when President Bill Clinton signed a new wiretap restriction into federal law.
The hate charges were dropped, Jefferson County paid the Quigleys $75,000 and two lawyers on the ADL's volunteer board paid the Quigleys $350,000 to settle a lawsuit.
Neither family paid the other anything, the Aronsons divorced and the Quigleys moved to another state.
Then in 2000 a federal jury concluded a four-week trial before Denver U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham with a decision the Anti-Defamation League had defamed the Quigleys.
The jury awarded them $10.5 million, which is now estimated at $12.5 million including interest.
DeBoskey said the ADL had set aside funds to pay the judgment if necessary.
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BTW, have you noticed that the mass media is virtually ignoring this?
Too busy gushing over John F'n Kerry.
Being Jewish himself.
Bad publicity? Not all that bad. It's not hurting Mel as much as it might have hurt him ten years ago. The term 'anti-semite' is losing its bite - in part because it is used so much. The ADL has been throwing the term around a lot recently. Movie reviewers too. Every day a Freepers call other Freepers anti-semitic. Of course - no one would want to be called that but it's not as devastating a comment as it once was. Over use does that.
Not around me, they're not. I've called plenty of black racists prejudiced. It's fun to watch the look on their faces here in liberal land. It's the last thing they expect to hear, a white boy calling them on their game. And Jews get the same treatment from me when they dare to crack tasteless jokes about Jesus. I won't tolerate it.
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