When Denver police cleared Benjamin Seibert of a charge that he was stalking a woman after she found his picture on her cell phone, Headline News' Nancy Grace continued to air the picture and left the story on her social media sites, according to a defamation lawsuit filed in Denver on Monday.
At the end of January a Denver woman put her children to bed. When she returned to her kitchen, she found a picture of Seibert on her phone. She assumed the man broke into her house while she was tending to her children, took the selfie and left. The frightened woman called the police.
Metro Denver Crime Stoppers Inc., also named in the suit, posted the picture, and Grace picked up the story, broadcasting the photograph and calling him a "creepy stranger" adding, "this is a textbook serial killer's calling card," according to the suit.
Apparently a mutual friend of Seibert and the woman whose cell phone received the picture had accidently sent the woman the picture. After Mr. Seibert sent the police a letter from his home in California explaining he wasn’t in Denver at the time, thepolice cleared him.
Grace's accusations on her show on HLN lit up social media sites, where Seibert was lambasted as a pervert, sicko and a menace.
"Based on the public's ugly response to Mr. Seibert, all defendants made publications that brought hatred and contempt upon Mr. Seibert and so the publications amount to defamation," said the suit, filed in Denver District Court.
(...)Police, viewers and media told Grace that the broadcast was false, but she continued to publish it, according to the suit.
The lawsuit claims Mr. Seibert has repeatedly tried to get Grace to issue a retraction and take the picture off of her Facebook and Twitter accounts. To back up his claims, the suit will point to other cases in which, according to Mr. Seibert's lawyers, Grace made “outrageous and defamatory” comments on television, and notes that several courts admonished her for unethical conduct during the nine years she was a prosecutor.
“Based on the history we’ve researched regarding Ms. Grace, we’re pretty confident there are other victims,” Seibert’s attorney, John Pineau said, urging others to come forward to help Seibert’s case.
This is not the first time Grace has been sued because of her on-air actions.
Grace blasted Melinda Duckett in the media after her son went missing in 2006. Duckett agreed to talk to Grace for help in finding her son. Grace blasted her on air, implying she murdered her own 3-year-old son. Duckett committed suicide the following day. Grace settled with the family of Duckett for $200,000.
Toni Modrano, whom Grace dubbed "Vodka Mom," committed suicide after Grace went on-air pouring Vodka into a cup and calling her the "Vodka Mom." Modrano wrote a suicide note before she committed suicide. In 2013, her family received an undisclosed settlement that may have been in the millions.