Every so often, we hear of terrible, nasty things done to bloggers. Yesterday, Wonkette pointed out that spreading malicious truths has cost John "Johnny Northside" Moore, a blogger from north Minneapolis, $60,000.

Recently, it was a lawsuit over The Real Estate Zebra that got our attention. An east coast realtor using that name for his blog and his domain was sued by a company on the west coast for trademark (well, "trade dress") infringement, since the westie had been using a similar term for himself a year after the eastie. The eastie officiated at basketball games, and he thought his blog would make decisions on real estate questions. I decided the eastie was in the right, although he ended up caving in to the westie.

Not A Clear Case

In this case, it isn't quite as clear as Wonkette would have it. The Adventures of Johnny Northside is an entertaining blog, for sure. Whether Northside's spin on the trial is the truth, though, is not quite as clear. Let's concede three facts that Johnny Northside presents about the trial:

Fact #1: On June 21, 2009, Hoff wrote "Repeated and specific evidence in Hennepin County District Court shows Jerry Moore was involved with a high-profile fraudulent mortgage at 1564 Hillside Ave. N."

Fact #2: On June 22, 2009, the University of Minnesota fired Moore.

Fact #3: After a five-day trial, the jury decided that Hoff's assertion was the truth.

Why In The World?

Why in the world, then, would the jury award Moore $60,000 in damages? Isn't truth an absolute defense against libel?

Yes, it is. The fact is, though, that Moore didn't win a judgment for libel. He won $30,000 for lost wages (tortious interference) and $30,000 for emotional distress (intentional infliction of emotional damages).

In June 2009 (familiar month, eh?), Moore sued over five allegedly biased and defamatory statements on Hoff's blog. The judge threw out four of the five statements, saying that they were opinion, or the statement of someone else. The jury agreed with the plaintiff that with respect to the last statement, the blogger had committed "tortious interference" with the relationship between Moore and the university.

Over The Top

Statements like "My U of M gopher blood boils with shame. THE SHAME!!!!!!!!" and "Jerry Moore is the last person who should be working on this kind of task and WHAT THE HELL was U of M thinking by hiring him?" could be considered over the top, I suppose.

You'll almost always find me on the side of the jury. They do a pretty good job of sifting through the bullshit, and coming up with the legal truth. Sometimes, they go even further, and decide that the law is an ass and come up with the actual truth. In this case, they did the first job. There was tortious interference, and there was deliberate infliction of emotional damages.

On the other hand, the employer in this case was the government of Minnesota. You cannot interfere in someone else's relationship unless it's a relationship between two parties, neither of which is yourself.

Fundamental Inconsistency

And there is a fundamental inconsistency between the first amendment, which says "sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me" and laws against the intentional infliction of emotional damages, which say "throwing words might be unlawful".

The SCOTUS ruling in Snyder v. Phelps, just two weeks old, said that Westboro Baptist Assholes could protest at the funeral of Matthew Snyder, because they were allowed to intentionally inflict emotional damages. They also implied, through their signage, that Matthew Snyder was gay, which makes me wonder if a libel suit would have succeeded. (I don't consider being branded a gay to be offensive, but I think I am in the minority on that.)

In any case, if you do a google search for Jerry Moore site:adventuresofjohnnynorthside.blogspot.com, there are 1024 pages found. Many of the pages have to do with the trial, but many of them do not. It appears that Johnny Northside was on a vendetta to get Jerry Moore fired from JACC before getting him fired from the University, and the blog crowed about getting Moore fired afterwards. Moore's attorney argued that Hoff should be responsible for remarks others made on the website, because he had created a "defamation zone."

The Jury Didn't Like Him

One thing is clear: the jury didn't like Johnny Northside very much. That never makes this kind of thing easier.

I don't like bullies, either, and I think Johnny Northside is a bully. I do like rants, though. If Johnny Northside had actually proven that Moore did something illegal, instead of merely being "involved" with a fraudulent mortgage, I'd be a lot happier about coming to his defense. After all, aren't victims involved with the crime?

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
bullies - emotional distress - Jerry Moore - Johnny Northside - juries - libel - malicious truths - Matthew Snyder - Real Estate Zebra - Snyder v. Phelps - University of Minnesota - Wonkette