The New York Public Personnel Law blog reports that a sidebar to a New York Post story, “Bored of Ed. in Rubber Rooms,” named a NYC teacher and said that he had been charged with sexual misconduct. The employee had not been charged with sexual misconduct, however, and the paper published a retraction, but the employee wanted to sue the person or persons who gave the Post that misinformation. When neither the NYC DOE nor NY Post would provide him with the name(s) of the source of the allegedly defamatory statement, he sought court intervention.
The Post was ordered to answer interrogatories limited to the issue of the name(s) of the source or sources who provided the Post with the statement that Pakter had been charged with sexual misconduct “as reported in the article and sidebar to the article entitled ‘Bored of Ed. in Rubber Rooms'” and, in addition, both the Post and DOE were directed “to preserve any documents, reporter’s notes, emails, and electronically stored information related to the statement at issue.”
The case is Matter of Pakter v New York City Dept .of Educ., 2010 NY Slip Op 32451(U, August 20, 2010, Supreme Court, New York County, Judge Cynthia S. Kern. The decision can be found at
http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/pdfs/2010/2010_32451.pdf
Hat-tip, @LawandLit