Former Idaho Republican chair takes libel case to state supreme court
12:22 PM MST on Thursday, December 29, 2005
Associated Press
COEUR D'ALENE -- A former Idaho Republican Party chairman who sued a Spokane, Washington, newspaper for libel is taking his case to the Idaho Supreme Court.
Trent Clark has alleged that he was misquoted in a Spokesman-Review story in 2001.Clark claims he never said, "You probably cannot find an African American male on the street in Washington, D.C. that hasn't been arrested or convicted of a crime."
He says he really said, "I know of no African American males in Washington D.C. who don't have at least a couple of friends who have been arrested or convicted of a felony."
But so far, 1st District Court Judges Eugene Marano and Charles Hosack have thrown out Clark's claim, saying there was no evidence of malice and that the two statements amount to essentially the same thing.
(snip/)
http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-dec2905-libel_case.26397a3b.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Idiot Republicans never give up. Here's a story from November:
Ex-Idaho GOP leader's libel lawsuit dismissed
Decision of lower court upheld, but judge cites different reason
Taryn Brodwater
Staff writer
November 16, 2005
A libel lawsuit against The Spokesman-Review by the former chairman of Idaho's Republican Party has been dismissed.
Trent Clark filed the lawsuit against the paper in 2003, alleging that reporter Thomas Clouse misquoted him in a Feb. 2, 2001, article.
Tuesday's ruling by 1st District Judge Charles Hosack upheld a Magistrate Court decision that granted summary judgment in the newspaper's favor. Hosack, though, dismissed the suit on different grounds than 1st District Judge Eugene Marano.
(snip)
Marano had dismissed Clark's claim on the grounds that there was no evidence of malice on the newspaper's behalf. On appeal, Hosack found that the case should be dismissed because "the gist of the written quote and the gist of the alleged actual statement is substantially the same."
Clark could not be reached for comment at his Soda Springs, Idaho, home on Tuesday afternoon.
Newspaper attorney Duane Swinton said the paper was pleased "that two different judges for different reasons have dismissed the case."
(snip/...)
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:EU0l4UwVpwIJ:www.spokesmanreview.com/idaho/story.asp%3FID%3D101554+%22Trent+Clark%22+%2B+Spokane&hl=enHe's mentioned at this site as a lobbyist for Monsanto:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/lobby/profile-pf.aspx?act=agencies&year=2003&ag=018