Illegal alien wins defamation case for being called a 'criminal' – set back for 1st Amendment [View All]

Illegal alien wins defamation case for being called a 'criminal' – set back for 1st Amendment

An illegal-alien day laborer who attacked a U.S. photographer at a notorious San Diego day labor site in 2006, was awarded $2,500 in damages for "defamation per se" by Judge Ronald Styn in a non-jury trial in San Diego Superior Court.

The Mexican national plaintiff, Alberto Jimenez, who was illegally in the country at the time of the attack of Los Angeles photographer John Monti, sued San Diego Minutemen founder Jeff Schwilk for defamation for calling the illegal immigrant attackers "criminals" when he forwarded an email with Monti's pictures of Jimenez and six other suspects who were at the scene of the crime.

Initially the lawsuit was filed in October 2007 and all seven men shown on the flyer sued Schwilk, Monti, and Fox News Corporation for defamation. However, Fox News and Monti were eventually dismissed from the case in 2008 and 2009 and six of the seven plaintiffs dropped their lawsuits against Schwilk in February, leaving only Jimenez vs. Schwilk for the one-day judge-only trial.

When the trial began, Jimenez was not in the courtroom to meet his accuser. Schwilk immediately asked Judge Styn for a directed verdict to dismiss the case, but the judge opted to start the trial without him and gave Jimenez additional time to appear in court as his attorney said he was running late. The plaintiff's attorney, Dan Gilleon, claimed his client was trying to get across the border and needed more time because he was a Tijuana, Mexico resident.

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2010m4d20-Illegal-alien-wins-defamation-case-for-being-called-a-criminal--set-back-for-1st-Amendment