Recently in Defamation (Libel / Slander) Category

It started out as a sexual abuse case much like the one leveled against Jerry Sandusky. A former Syracuse assistant basketball coach was accused of sexually assaulting teenage ball boys for several years during the 1990s.

But the case has taken some strange turns and has morphed into a Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim defamation suit with key evidence being Laurie Fine sex allegations, reports the New York Post.

Investigators in the Greg Kelly rape claim say it may be a story they’ve heard before. Girl meets guy. The two hit it off and have a one-night stand. But girl already has a boyfriend. Girl tells boyfriend about sex, but says she was raped. Boyfriend pressures girl to bring a criminal charge against the other guy.

An unidentified 29-year-old paralegal and aspiring model says that Good Day New York host Greg Kelly raped her after a couple of drinks at a Manhattan bar following a chance encounter on the streets, reports the New York Post.

A mother who enters her five-year-old daughter in beauty pageants and participates in the reality television show Toddlers and Tiaras has sued three media outlets for defamation for apparently criticizing her mothering skills.

Susanna Barrett filed the Toddlers and Tiaras lawsuit against TMZ, Huffington Post, and Daily Mail after the three news outlets criticized her for having young Isabella Barrett parade around a stage singing the lyrics to "I'm Sexy and I Know It" while reportedly "gyrating," reports the New York Post.

Samira Abuzahrieh allegedly spread lies and gossip that her son-in-law, Mohammad Shoman, could not have kids and had a host of venereal diseases. As a result, the 29-year-old man from Staten Island says he lost his wife and his dignity.

Now he wants millions of dollars.

Shoman says that his mother-in-law was so determined to humiliate him that she went to the Lutheran Medical Center and demanded to see his medical records. After getting hold of the records, she started to spread rumors that the young man was infertile, had leukemia, STDs, and that he would be dead within a month, reports the New York Post.

Jersey Shore castoff Angelina Pivarnick says that she was attacked inside a Hot Topic store and is now suing the alleged attacker and Hot Topic. But the Jersey Shore Angelina fight and lawsuit could backfire on the reality TV star.

Perhaps best known for her fight against Snooki on season 2 of the MTV show, Pivarnick was apparently involved in a real-life fight at the Staten Island Mall last year, reports the New York Post. Pivarnick and her friend were shopping at Hot Topic when a group of youths approached them starting trouble. A fight broke out and one of the youths, Kelsey Balzafiore, was arrested and charged for battering Pivarnick’s friend.

An Eliot Spitzer defamation suit has been filed by two insurance executives formerly targeted by the ex-governor. In the lawsuit against Spitzer and the online magazine Slate, William Gilman and Edward McNenney are claiming a combined $90 million in damages for defamation.

When Spitzer was the attorney general of New York, he was best known for targeting corporate corruption. One target for the financial watchdog was the insurance company Marsh and McLennan who Spitzer accused of price-fixing and rigging bids, writes The New York Times. The insurance company was ultimately not convicted of any crimes, instead settling the case for $850 million.

The hotel housekeeper in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case is now suing the New York Post for libel, claiming that the Post's articles suggesting that she was a prostitute were false.

Over the July 4th weekend, the Post published a series of articles with headlines that claimed the housekeeper was a prostitute, reports The New York Times. In the articles, it was written that the housekeeper did double duty as a prostitute at the hotel where she worked, charging male guests for sexual acts and even being assigned to the hotel because the union knew that she would generate a lot of money.

So much for the brotherhood of sports journalists. ESPN basketball writer Chris Sheridan is now suing New York Post basketball writer Peter Vecsey for libel claiming that Vecsey "fabricated an entirely false and sustained tirade against Mr. Sheridan" with Vecsey "shirking any semblance of responsible journalism, and passing off vicious and malicious lies as statements of fact."

The libel charges stem from a New York Post column that Vecsey wrote criticizing Sheridan for reporting what Vecsey believed to be unsubstantiated trade rumors regarding Carmelo Anthony.

Former American Apparel saleswoman Irene Morales has recently filed a lawsuit against the company and its chief executive Dov Charney for defamation and invasion of privacy, according to Reuters. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims Charney posted nude photographs of Morales and two other women online.

Morales, now 20, initially sued Charney and American Apparel Inc. in New York State Supreme Court on March 4, claiming Charney made her perform sexual acts and threatened to fire her if she did not do so. The former saleswoman also accused the company directors of failing to prevent Charney from behaving as a "sexual predator."

Charles Kavanagh, 73, was once a high-ranking cleric in New York until he was dismissed from the clergy after former seminarian Daniel Donohue, now 46, accused Kavanagh of molesting him between 1978 and 1982 while he was a student at Manhattan's Cathedral Preparatory Seminary.

According to the New York Post, Kavanagh was defrocked by a church tribunal in 2006 for the sexual abuse scandal but has recently decided to file a defamation lawsuit against Donohue in federal court in Manhattan. The former priest claims Donohue consistently lied to reporters in an effort to get a "monetary settlement from the New York Archdiocese."