Nick Sandmann's Family Launches Attack on Media After Fake News Smear Campaign
Following the media’s horribly distorted, biased reporting of a minor confrontation between a group of Catholic high school boys and a Native American activist, which helped fuel a hateful online lynch mob against the students, many have called for lawsuits to be filed against the media figures and outlets that perpetuated the false story.
One such lawsuit could be coming in the near future. The family of Nick Sandmann — the young man at the center of the media-fueled controversy — has reportedly hired a high-profile attorney who specializes in defamation, libel and slander lawsuits against the media.
The Sandmann family have retained the services of an Atlanta-based attorney named L. Lin Wood, who has quite a history of defending individuals and families wrongly accused and smeared by the media, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Thursday.
The news was announced in a release from the law firm of Hemmer DeFrank Wessels. Todd McMurty, an attorney with that firm, has already served as the family attorney for the Sandmanns.
“Todd McMurtry, the family’s legal counsel, conducted an extensive search to find a nationally-recognized attorney skilled in the fields of libel, defamation, and the First Amendment,” the news release stated.
Wood has developed quite a reputation representing wrongly accused clients in high-profile cases, such as the brother of murdered child beauty pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey in a defamation suit against CBS.
Wood also represented Richard Jewell in a libel suit against The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, after that paper wrongly accused Jewell of being the perpetrator of the 1996 Olympic Park bombing.
McMurty, who will continue to serve as co-counsel to the Sandmann family, informed the media, “Mr. Wood brings an unrivaled record of success in the courtroom, having represented such clients as the family of JonBenet Ramsey, former Rep. Gary Condit and Richard Jewell in lawsuits against the media.”
“Mr. Wood visited with the family today in northern Kentucky. He is committed to bringing justice to 16-year-old Nick Sandmann and his family. Further announcements should be expected in the next few days,” McMurty added.
McMurty was asked if the hiring of Wood should be seen as a signal that the Sandmann family intended to pursue lawsuits against the media. In an email reply, McMurty said, “The Sandmann family has no further comment this evening other than to say all options are on the table.”
Local Cincinnati media outlet WCPO reported that the hiring of Wood came in addition to the family’s hiring of the top public relations firm in the state of Kentucky to help push back against the onslaught of inaccurate media reports about the teenage high school student.
Wood, who had once been nicknamed by CBS anchor Dan Rather as the “attorney for the damned,” was described by The Washington Post in 2011 as a “trial attorney who has carved out a successful career representing the high-profile and falsely accused, often seeking eye-popping damages for those he believes have been libeled or slandered in the press.”
That article from The Post came as Wood represented then-Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who was pushing back against vague and slanderous accusations of sexual harassment that nevertheless ultimately compelled him to drop his 2012 presidential bid.
“Wood has a three-decade-long career prosecuting, and defending, celebrity clients, sometimes winning mega-settlements on their behalf. He is a fierce advocate,” The Post further noted at that time.
The media was quite obviously in the wrong as they helped perpetuate the false reports about the Covington Catholic boys which resulted in harassment and death threats, not to mention unjustifiable smears of their reputations.
The fact that the Sandmann family has hired a top attorney with a history of successful suits against the media would seem to suggest that they intend to seek retribution against the media that sought to destroy them.
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