A $10.35 million libel lawsuit against Style Weekly set to go to trial yesterday has been resolved in favor of Del. Joseph D. Morrissey, D-Henrico, his lawyer said.
Mark S. Paullin, the lawyer, said a settlement was reached with Style Weekly lawyers late Friday and that a proposed order dismissing the suit will be filed in coming days in Richmond Circuit Court. Paullin said the settlement includes "a full, unreserved and unequivocal apology" from Richmond-based Style and "a significant cash settlement."
Morrissey had no comment yesterday.
Conrad Shumadine, a Norfolk lawyer who represented Style Weekly in the case, also declined to comment. Style's publisher, Lori Collier Waran of Richmond, said in a written statement that the newspaper will "let the apology speak for itself" but declined to acknowledge other details.
She called the suit "a distraction for our staff" and added: "We're happy to be 100 percent focused on publishing Style with the care our readers have come to expect from us."
She said she was unsure when the apology will appear. The deadline has already passed for the upcoming issue, she said.
An article headlined "Bunco Joe?" that appeared in Style Weekly in April 2008 stated or implied that Morrissey, then having recently finished his first session as a delegate in the General Assembly, had committed illegal acts and unethical behavior in connection with various business dealings, the suit alleged.
The article began with alleged assertions by Morrissey that he had been telling creditors that "he has little more than the shirt on his back."
Paullin said that Morrissey initially had sought from Style a formal apology, attorney fees, and a $100,000 payment to a charity of Morrissey's choice. Style declined and, according to Paullin, told Morrissey to sue.
"He stood up to a billion-dollar corporation; he fought them, he never backed down, and he won a tremendous victory," Paullin wrote in a news release, adding that Morrissey had lined up a bipartisan list of General Assembly witnesses who would have testified that the article damaged Morrissey's reputation.
Paulin also said in the release that Morrissey "has already stated that 50 percent of his settlement will go to charity."
Defendants included Style's parent company, TWCC Holding Corp.; Style editor Jason Roop; and the writers of the article, Amy Biegelsen and former Style writer Chris Dovi.
Dovi, a former reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, was fired from Style in February after sending an e-mail that used an obscenity while referring to a blind motivational speaker.
Paullin said there is no requirement that the settlement's terms remain confidential, but he declined yesterday to discuss them specifically.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement