Opinion ID: 2321515
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Fair Reporting Privilege Applies to Respondents' Reporting of the Supplemental Discovery Memorandum and Piscatelli's Trial Testimony

Text: In the present case, the fair reporting privilege applies to Respondents' reporting of the excerpt from the supplemental discovery memorandum and the summary of Piscatelli's trial testimony. As to the supplemental discovery memorandum, Respondents wrote in the two articles: On Oct. 27, [the prosecutor] disclosed in a memorandum to the defense that Pam Morgan [Convertino's mother] has stated that an unknown man approached her at a benefit in Binghamton, New York, held for her son's child shortly after his murder. The man advised her that Nick Piscatelli was behind her son's murder, he covered his tracks and hired someone to kill him. The memo does not indicate when Morgan shared this information with investigators, but she told City Paper during a Nov. 30 phone interview that the event was held in May 2003, just weeks after the murders. .... At the benefit, this guy comes up to me and he says he knows who was behind my son's murder, Morgan recalls. I didn't know Nick [Piscatelli] at that point. .... [The unknown man] came in, talked, and left, she continues. I was like, Whoa!.... One of the things she shared with the police had to do with Piscatelli. About a month after the killings, in May 2003, a benefit was held near Binghamton to raise money for Convertino's young daughter. About 500 people showed up, and while it was going on, Morgan says she was approached by a man she'd never seen before and hasn't seen since. He said that Nick Piscatelli was behind my son's murder, Morgan recalls, that [Piscatelli had] hired someone to do it, and that he'd covered his tracks. These statements fall within the purview of the fair reporting privilege. In Chesapeake Publishing Corp., we concluded that information in a court case file is covered by the fair reporting privilege, if the reporter's account of that information is fair and substantially accurate. 339 Md. at 302, 661 A.2d at 1177. Here, the supplemental discovery memorandum was part of the Miller criminal case file and, despite not being offered in evidence at trial, was a public record that may be reported without liability for defamation, so long as the report is fair and accurate. Respondents' summary of Piscatelli's testimony during Miller's trial was: Take, for instance, the motive that Convertino's boss may have had. Convertino was hired to manage Redwood Trust by Nicholas Piscatelli, a successful Baltimore real-estate developer. Piscatelli meticulously restored a historic downtown bank building that had survived the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 to house his posh nightclub. Convertino, witnesses testified at Miller's trial, was planning to take his proven skills as a scene-maker to one of Redwood Trust's competitors, Bohager's Bar and Grill, when the murders happened. More specifically, Convertino was scheming to take a P. Diddy event that was scheduled to happen at Redwood Trust on April 13, 2003, to Bohager's instead; after the murders, on April 11, P. Diddy appeared at Redwood Trust, as originally planned. What's more, Piscatelli suspected Convertino of stealing not just shows, but money from Redwood Trust. The fair reporting privilege embraces post-trial recounts of trial testimony. Rosenberg, 328 Md. at 680-81, 616 A.2d at 874-75. In Rosenberg, the defendant in the civil suit was an expert witness in a child custody hearing who testified that the father abused sexually his daughter. Rosenberg, 328 Md. at 669, 616 A.2d at 868. As Rosenberg exited the courthouse, he was interviewed by a local television reporter, to whom he offered a summary of his testimony. Rosenberg, 328 Md. at 670, 616 A.2d at 869. Rosenberg's statements were found ultimately to be not defamatory because the fair reporting privilege protected them. Rosenberg, 328 Md. at 682-83, 616 A.2d at 875. In the present case, Respondents summarized in the 2007 City Paper article Piscatelli's testimony at Miller's trial. The fair reporting privilege applies to it.