Opinion ID: 1188714
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: robinson newspapers publications

Text: The West Seattle Herald, apparently not a daily paper, published its first story on January 5, 1977, a week after charges were filed against Mark. The story stated that Mark had been charged with defrauding the state of $200,000 in bogus Medicaid drug prescriptions and that state officials call [this] the largest Medicaid fraud case the state has ever found. Clerk's Papers, at 80. The story also quoted the deputy prosecutor's statement, published by several of the other respondents, that Mark had submitted voluminous amounts of forged and false prescriptions. Clerk's Papers, at 80. The remainder of the article printed information contained in either the information or the affidavit of probable cause. In several articles published from January to September 1977, the Herald and The Federal Way News, another Robinson newspaper, covered the details of Mark's arraignment, trial, and sentencing. [1] Some of these stories recounted some of the material printed in the January 5 story. They added nothing new, however, except that the June 12, 1977, story in the News reported that the jury had convicted Mark of about $2,500, but added that a DSHS investigator stated that he still believes Mark may have gotten away with `a quarter of a million dollars' in phoney billings. Clerk's Papers, at 94. Mark sued Robinson Newspapers for defamation. In a 1-page per curiam opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's order granting respondents a summary judgment, explaining that the recently published decisions in Mark v. KING Broadcasting Co., supra , and Mark v. Fisher's Blend Station, supra , were controlling.