Opinion ID: 2025227
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Verdict for Bob Wilson

Text: Plaintiff submits that the jury's verdict in favor of Bob Wilson was against the manifest weight of the evidence. Keeping in mind the heavy burden of proof which the United States Supreme Court has imposed upon public official libel plaintiffs, we must disagree with plaintiff's assertion. There can be no doubt that Bob Wilson failed to scrutinize the grand jury report as carefully as (one would hope) a responsible journalist would do. He even acknowledged that in the December 21, 1978, article, he had falsely asserted that a witness testified to finding Reed inside a dark, burglarized building without his flashlight on. Wilson stated that he had mixed up some details with another break-in at another place where officers were seen inside without their flashlights on. Moreover, the jury explicitly found (by special interrogatory) that Bob Wilson's December 21, 1978, article, as it relates to plaintiff, was false. We cannot, however, say that the jury's finding (also by special interrogatory) that Wilson acted without malice is against the manifest weight of the evidence. In this regard we again note, without disputing the jury's finding of falsity, that a less than thorough reading of the grand jury report could easily leave one with the conclusion that plaintiff was involved in some burglaries to some extent. The possibility of this happening is particularly evidenced by the testimony (in an offer of proof) of the assistant State's Attorney who drafted the report; the drafter indicated that he himself believed he was naming Reed as being peripherally involved. We further note that, at the request of the city editor, Randy Kirk, Wilson called the State's Attorney's office and made some effort to verify his report. Wilson testified as follows in response to questioning regarding what he asked when calling the State's Attorney's office: A. I asked  I believe I first asked the State's Attorney, Thomas Fahey, and he referred me to Craig DeArmond since Craig DeArmond conducted the grand jury and authored the report. Q. What conversation did you have with Mr. DeArmond? A. I asked Mr. DeArmond what it meant to have these  for these officers names to be included in this report. Q. What did he indicate to you? A. He said that those officers, unless their roles are otherwise spelled out, were those officers identified by two or more witnesses placed at the scene of two or more of these police burglaries. Q. Did he indicate to you that they were involved? A. Not in  not each one as to their specific acts. Although this testimony does not indicate a thorough investigation on Wilson's part, it certainly weakens the assertion that when writing the article he entertained serious doubts as to its accuracy. Plaintiff argues, however, that actual malice is clear from certain additional evidence. In this regard plaintiff points out that Wilson acknowledged looking at the log of grand jury witnesses in September 1977, when the grand jury was first convening regarding the alleged burglary ring. Plaintiff apparently deems this relevant because the grand jury report states that the accused officers were given the opportunity to testify. Plaintiff seemingly argues that Wilson must have recognized that Reed was not an accused officer since his name did not appear on the list of grand jury witnesses. We find this argument unpersuasive for several reasons. First, the grand jury met on numerous occasions after September 1977; the absence of Reed's name from a witness list in September does not exclude the possibility that he was later called as a witness. Second, one can hardly conclude that the reporter recalled the names on that log when reading the grand jury report 15 months later. Nor does evidence that he had previously heard certain officers named as being involved (and had not heard Reed implicated) indicate that, after reading the grand jury report and calling the State's Attorney's office, he subsequently seriously doubted that the grand jury report implicated Reed. Finally, contrary to plaintiff's assertion, the fact that in attempting to meet a press deadline Wilson spent only about three hours writing the article does not necessitate a conclusion that he seriously doubted its accuracy. With respect to the December 23, 1978, article authored by Bob Wilson (an article which the jury found was also false as to plaintiff), we agree that Wilson's failure to reread the grand jury report evinces some carelessness, but we cannot say that as a matter of law this failure requires a finding of actual malice.