Judge tosses surveillance libel lawsuit
TAMPA – A law enforcement officer’s defamation suit against Tampa area television station WTSP-Ch. 10 and reporter Mike Deeson has been dismissed.
Steven Dickey, a corporal for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, filed the suit after a February 2008 story aired about a quadriplegic man who was dumped out of his wheelchair by law enforcement personnel after being booked on a traffic stop. A surveillance video of the incident shows Dickey smiling.
Deeson remarked that Dickey “appears to think it’s funny.” Dickey then sued, alleging the video was edited to make it appear that he was complicit in the incident and thought it was funny.
Hillsborough Circuit Judge William P. Levens ruled in favor of 10 Connects and Deeson, finding that the broadcast was “a fair report of a public record, Deeson’s statement was an opinion, the report was substantially true and there was no evidence of actual malice,” according to the St. Petersburg Times.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
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