Posted on 08/14/2007 7:47:15 PM PDT by MindBender26
Don Imus is facing his first lawsuit from a player on the Rutgers Women's Basketball team.
Kia Vaughn, star center for the Rutgers Women's Basketball team, has filed a lawsuit against Imus for libel, slander and defamation. Vaughn is asking for monetary damages of an unspecified amount.
"This is a lawsuit in order to restore the good name and reputation of my client, Kia Vaughn," said her attorney, Richard Ancowitz, in an exclusive interview with the ABC News Law & Justice Unit.
Today's suit refers to terms used by Imus April 4 -- including referring to women on the team as "nappy headed" -- as "debasing, demeaning, humiliating, and denigrating" to Vaughn and her fellow players. "There's no way these bigoted remarks should have seen the light of day," Ancowitz told ABC News.
"Don Imus referred to my client as an unchaste woman. That was and is a lie."
The lawsuit alleges that use of the slanderous terms was intentional and motivated by greed and financial gain: In using insults against otherwise innocent people, Imus would get higher ratings, making more money for him and his employers. Among other infractions, the suit alleges that Imus violated the players' civil rights.
Imus could be back to broadcasting as early as January. That, said Ancowitz, rewards Imus while leaving little justice for the women of the Rutgers basketball team.
"He's come out smelling like quite the rose. But what about these young women? How does Imus' victory affect their self-esteem? Where do they go to get their reputations back?"
Vaughn's lawyer said that some of the money from any damages awarded in the lawsuit would be used to create a scholarship program to study the effects of bigoted and misogynistic speech on society.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Paid for by John Edwards for President.
“I was unaware of Kia Vaughn’s name until her lawyer publicized it; Imus never mentioned any of the players by name. The lawyer has done more to harm her reputation than Don Imus ever did.”
Exactly!
I wonder when the Texas players will sue Imus because he said they are cute.
Exactly why lawyers rule this country and not politicians. It is a tyranny of fear of litigation we live under which is why we have all this political correctness thrown down our throats every single day of the week.
It`s great to have millions, but as a result you`ll have every bloodsucker coming out of the woodwork trying to get at you for the slightest reason, therefore your actions end up being controlled, you lose freedom! And even if you aren`t rich but have a business no matter how small, at anytime you could lose all of it at the blink of an eye. Case in point...
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=3119381&page=1
Blatant racist Judge who has it in for Asians, so the litigation industry allows him to destroy them financially. Even though the dry cleaners won, they still have $100`s of thousands of legal bills that will bankrupt them if they aren`t already. Matter of fact I think I remember reading that they did indeed close shop.
Where do they go to get their reputations back???
They can’t go anywhere, because they destroyed their reputations themselves with their childish “victim” reaction to Imus’ comments. More examples of people who play the victim routine and look to others for the blame and the remedy.
Because Imus is Imus and known for parodying all manner of public figures, her good name and reputation were never in jeopardy until the slip, trip and fall lawyer highlighted her and made HER the issue instead of Imus.
If she wins, Imus can sue her for “rape”.
Heck, I'd like to have a reputuation or a good name to restore...Ma Bell...
I don’t know which is worse, the ones suing or the ones who support it. We’re turning into a nation of pansies.
Walk out on any street in any city in America (other than her hometown) with her picture and ask people to identify her. Not only will they not be able to associate her with the Don Assmus insult, they won’t even know who she is.
It cannot have damaged her if nobody knows who she is.
The big problem for them is the multiple definitions problem. “Ho” is a common term within the Black community. It means much more than prostitute, and in most cases, does not mean prostitute at all.
I.e. Bitch does not necessarily mean a female dog, a nasty woman, an unmarried mother, to complain, etc. “Brother” has many more meaning than than a male sibling.
All Imus has to do is establish one non-slanderous meaning and it all falls.
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