Stephanie Porter-Nichols provides a timely reminder that an indictment is not a conviction and that people’s lives can be devastated by media accusations that are inaccurate. The following is an update to a case first reported in March 2009:
A Chilhowie woman is suing the Smyth County News & Messenger, claiming that she was defamed by a March 2009 article about her since-dismissed criminal indictment on a charge of identity theft.
Melissa Trail is seeking $1.35 million in damages that she maintains she suffered as a result of the article, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Smyth County Circuit Court. The claim comes on the heels of a related suit filed by Trail earlier this month against General Dynamics, her former employer, seeking $10.35 million.“This case calls to mind Mark Twain’s famous quote that ‘a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes,’” Richard Hawkins, the lawyer representing Trail, states at the outset of the lawsuit.
On March 25, 2009, the Smyth County News & Messenger reported that Trail had been indicted on charges that she distributed the “names, salaries, and Social Security numbers of hundreds of General Dynamics’ employees in the midst of a strike” that began in the spring of 2008. The article proceeds to note that the information was posted on “strike shacks” around the defense contractor’s Marion plant.
The grand jury indictment, however, charged only that Trail unlawfully “obtain[ed] identifying information with intent to distribute,” citing the code section related to divulging Social Security numbers. In August, the criminal charge against Trail was dropped.
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