Court Opinion

ID: 9793310
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:45:55.060716+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:04:26.335355
License: Public Domain

Zenoff, Sr. J.,

dissenting:
The majority’s espousal of the sacred rights of speech, press and religion is shared by everyone, and no one has a corner on America’s devotion to those freedoms of the First Amendment, but since its inception, and longer, the courts have maintained boundaries beyond which some expressions become unlawful invasion of privacy.
Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 345, 94 S.Ct. 2997 (1974), cited in the majority opinion, said “there is no constitutional value in false statements of fact. Neither the intentional lie nor the careless error materially advance society’s interests in ‘uninhibited, robust and wide open’ debate on public issues.” (Emphasis added.)
Here, the news article centered on the killing of policemen in the line of duty, which in turn was sparked by the recent murder of a law officer. The policeman in our case was killed in a traffic accident. That Montesano was a passenger in the car which collided with the motorcycle officer speeding in answer to a call was coincidental. He was not chasing the car in which Montesano was riding; the death was not a criminal murder.
The majority opinion scarcely brushes the commitment of the state of Nevada that the state will help a youngster in his attempts to correct the error of his ways. Confidentiality by statute of juvenile offenses and probation reports are promises with a purpose, i.e., to provide incentive that if a youngster or culprit will straighten out and clean up his life, the state will give the security that his past offenses will be behind him and not used as a cloud over him or his family forever.
Cox, cited by the majority, involves a case then in progress. Montesano’s offense was over twenty years old, and by the time the article was written was old news. Usually, time erodes a public figure status. Wolston v. Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 443 U.S. 157, 99 S.Ct. 2701 (1979). The accident was old, was unrelated to the point of the news article and the identity of the appellant was irrelevant to the story. Gertz, supra; Wolston, supra; Briscoe v. Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 483 P.2d 34 (Cal. 1971). Major incidents may bring lasting notoriety to some criminals, but most criminal incidents are of public interest for a short while only, and then slip into obscurity. As to those, publication of an ex-offender’s name serves no useful purpose.
*657Appellant should be permitted to present his case to a jury to decide: (a) his public figure status at the time of the publication of the article; (b) whether respondents acted in a reckless disregard for the harm that might ensue; and (c) to determine the extent of Montesano’s damages, if any.