Judge sues ABC, WFAA over child-custody story. He says broadcast on local trial slandered him

The Dallas Morning News Copyright 1996

Tuesday, August 20, 1996

NEWS

Tracy Everbach Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News

A Dallas judge has sued ABC News and its local affiliate over a story broadcast last year about a child custody case tried in the judge's court.

State District Judge Harold C. "Hal" Gaither Jr. filed the slander lawsuit Friday, alleging that the news show 20/20 broadcast false and defamatory statements about him in August 1995. He seeks payment of unspecified damages.

Judge Gaither named as defendants: ABC News; Capital Cities/ABC National Television Sales; 20/20 reporter and anchor Hugh Downs; and 20/20 executive producer Victor Neufeld.

Also named as defendants are local television station WFAA-TV (Channel 8), which broadcast the show in August and rebroadcast it in December; and Ward Huey Jr., vice chairman of A.H. Belo Corp. and president of its broadcast division. Belo owns WFAA and The Dallas Morning News, among other media businesses.

ABC News spokesman Dana McClintock said Monday that the network had not been served with the lawsuit and could not comment.

Michael J. McCarthy, A.H. Belo's senior vice president, general counsel and secretary, was unavailable for comment Monday on behalf of WFAA and Mr. Huey. The company had not been served with the lawsuit.

Judge Gaither's lawsuit says that the television broadcast unfairly accused him of "being partial and discriminatory" in his handling of the 1990 child custody case. A Dallas County jury in the judge's court took away parental rights from a couple after the father was accused of fondling their 4-year-old daughter in public at a Plano school gymnasium.

The Albanian Muslim couple's son and daughter have since been adopted by another family. The couple, Sabahete and Sadri Krasniqi, were featured on 20/20 saying they believed their children had been wrongly taken from them and placed with a Christian family.

The judge took exception to a statement that Mr. Downs made on the show: "Judge Gaither believes the children are better off in a Christian home."

The judge's lawsuit maintains the broadcast statements "were entirely false." Judge Gaither "never stated or expressed his personal opinion that the children at issue were 'better off in a Christian home,' nor that the case involving the Krasniqi children involved religious bias or prejudice," the suit says.

After the show aired, a group of Dallas Muslims protested outside the judge's office.

Judge Gaither says that his reputation has been damaged by the broadcast. He also maintains that he and his family have suffered from violent threats and he has been forced to take extra security measures.

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Word Count: 410 8/20/96 DALLASMN 14A END OF DOCUMENT


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