A New York federal appeals court has rejected a Connecticut woman's claims that media outlets libeled her by refusing to delete stories about her arrest after charges were dismissed.
The ruling by the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pertained to the August 2010 arrest of Lorraine Martin. The court said her arrest's deletion from legal records doesn't make news accounts of the arrest false or misleading.
The news reports quoted police as saying they arrested Martin after confiscating 12 grams of marijuana from her Greenwich home.
According a The New York Times op-ed column by Bill Keller in 2013:
Lorraine Martin, a nurse in Greenwich, was arrested in 2010 with her two grown sons when police raided her home and found a small stash of marijuana, scales and plastic bags. The case against her was tossed out when she agreed to take some drug classes, and the official record was automatically purged. It was, the law seemed to assure her, as if it had never happened.
Martin filed a lawsuit afterward in Connecticut. The nurse claimed libel, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy.
A lower court rejected the lawsuit.
Also, in 2013, UConn journalism professor Marie Shanahan wrote:
Whether we like it or not, the World Wide Web has created a situation where every time a news organization includes someone’s name in an online post, caption or tweet, that news organization is influencing someone’s reputation, in perpetuity. Litigation stemming from the publication of online arrest stories and mugshots is ongoing. The fear is that if our industry doesn’t come up with best practices to deal with these issues, one may eventually be legislated for us.
Martin's attorney, Ryan O'Neill, said they are disappointed, and are considering an appeal to the Supreme Court.
This report includes information from The Associated Press.
