Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Wisconsin Blogger Sued for Defamation

No… not me.

A subdivision developer filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against a Brookfield resident contending that she defamed the builder and his venture “The Shire,” both in her role as a city alderman and in her Internet blog.

Joseph C. Niebler Sr., as president of NFI Properties LLC, contends that Cynthia Kilkenny continually made untrue and malicious statements about the Shire development, a name drawn from J.R.R. Tolkien’s’ “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Kilkenny, Niebler says, called him “the Dark Lord,” and described the development as “icky,” “a flop” and contaminated by an adjacent, closed landfill, the lawsuit says.

Kilkenny, who is no longer a Brookfield alderman, said Wednesday that she had not yet seen the lawsuit.

“I’m not terribly worried about it,” she said.

Niebler contends that Kilkenny made statements about him and the development that she knew were untrue and with malice while she was an alderman, during her tenure as a blogger for BrookfieldNow.com, and in her most recent blog, fairlyconservative.com, the lawsuit says. BrookfieldNow is produced by Journal Interactive, a division of Journal Communications

Boy, I can’t wait to read the suit.  If it seriously hinges on the plaintiff being called “The Dark Lord” and his project “icky,” then it shouldn’t go anywhere.  In any case, as a blogger, I will be following this closely.

(5) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2127 hrs
Law + Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. We were included in such a suit about two years ago. We counter sued, won, got the defamation suit dismissed.  Our adversary had already settled with the ‘deep pockets’ TV station, but now is on the hook for almost $250,000 to us. ($30,000 for us, the rest to pay our attorney fees.) They are now appealing. Another year of beans and rice.

    Posted by Steve Burri on May 27, 2009 at 2214 hrs


  2. Cindy could get hung up on the malice question.

    I think the case is a waste of time and money, but there is a big difference between bloggers who attempt to convey information and those who actively work to harm the reputation of others.

    Her best defense is going to come from her time as an alderman, not her failed mayoral candidate airing her frustrations on a blog.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 27, 2009 at 2340 hrs


  3. If people in a neighborhood were speaking this way of a neighbor they dislike to run them out of the neighborhood: wouldn’t the neighbor being attacked have a case against those who are verbally assualting them?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 28, 2009 at 0947 hrs


  4. Calling a person names does not rise to the level of defamation. Claiming that a development property is contaminated, particularly from the position of a political office, is a very different thing.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 28, 2009 at 1537 hrs


  5. Charlie -

    It would be hard to imagine she would make a statment like that without knowing something about the development.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 01, 2009 at 0736 hrs


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