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Ex-Bama Hoops Player’s Defamation Suit vs. NYT Heads to Trial
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- Ex-Bama Hoops Player’s Defamation Suit vs. NYT Heads to Trial
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Former Alabama basketball player Kai Spears' defamation and false light lawsuit against The New York Times over its reporting about a fatal shooting is proceeding to trial in a case that centers on whether getting the "gist" right is good enough.
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Last week U.S. District Judge Annemarie Carney Axon denied the Times ' motion for summary judgment, reasoning that a person reading the March 15, 2023, story "A Shooting That Ensnared Alabama Players Could Have Been Deadlier," could conclude Spears might have been "complicit" or "involved" in a shooting incident on Jan. 15, 2023, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
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The story noted that Spears being at the scene "had not been previously reported" and that neither of the two bullets that struck the car of star player—and future Charlotte Hornets forward—Brandon Miller hit either Miller or Spears. That new information about the shooting was developed, the Times noted, through the information from a "person familiar with the case" who was not named in the story.
In reality, Spears wasn't involved in the shooting, and he wasn't even present at it.
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The incident featured former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles allegedly retrieving a gun from the car of Miller, who was not accused of wrongdoing, and giving it to another man, Michael Davis. Davis then shot at and killed Jamea Harris, a 23-year-old mother from Birmingham. The person believed to be Spears was Cooper Lee, the manager for the Crimson Tide basketball team.
Spears, who later transferred to Marshall University, insists the mistaken reporting has caused him anxiety and stress. Other media, including Fox News and ESPN, relied on the Times ' reporting to distribute the information, leading Spears to be "bombarded with texts, calls and mentions on social media" about his apparent involvement in a shooting.
A judge will issue summary judgment when there is no genuine dispute regarding a material fact and one side is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, thus negating the need for a trial. If there's a conflict about key evidence or testimony, a judge normally won't grant summary judgment.
The Times , which corrected its story a couple of months after publication, argues Spears hasn't produced evidence to warrant a review by jurors. The Times insists it didn't accuse Spears of committing a crime and didn't say anything about him a reasonable person would regard as "highly offensive." The Times also maintains Spears was arguably portrayed as a potential victim, with Spears "in a car struck by bullets" and in a shooting that "could have been more deadly."
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In addition, the news organization insists its statements are true in the sense that, even if some details are inaccurate, the gist or overall summation of the reporting was right.
The doctrine of substantial truth instructs that jurors should weigh whether a reader would "think differently" of the plaintiff if the story had been fully accurate. For example, if a reader is told that a person has been convicted of 35 burglaries, when the number of burglary convictions is actually 34, that type of minor error is unlikely to be deemed defamatory. That is because the inaccuracy is "peripheral to the locus of the story."
Spears, Judge Axon explained, was with Miller and other players for some time leading up to the shooting, which occurred hours after the team defeated LSU. After midnight, Spears and a friend walked to Tuscaloosa's "strip," an entertainment and retail district near the university. While there he met with Miller, and the two drove in Miller's car to a nearby Moe's Original BBQ, with Spears in the passenger seat, to meet with others.
Unbeknownst to Spears, Miles had left his gun in the back seat of Miller's car. Eventually Miller left Moe's, with Lee joining him, while Spears and a group went back to his dorm.
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Spears' proximity to the shooting doesn't mean he had any "involvement" in the shooting, Judge Axon observed. She stressed that Spears "had no knowledge" of the gun. He also didn't know that Miller and Miles were in communication or that Miles asked Miller to bring his gun. Likewise, Spears didn't know what Miller was planning to do after leaving Moe's.
A "reasonable jury," Judge Axon wrote, "could conclude that Mr. Spears was not 'involved' in the shooting," and thus she shouldn't take that question away from jurors.
Judge Axon also denied the Times ' motion for summary judgment on count two, which is Spears' claim the Times placed him in a false light. A false light claim describes a statement that is technically true—unlike defamation, which concerns a false statement—but is presented in a highly deceiving fashion and would be highly offensive to a reasonable person.
The judge reasoned that there remain factual disputes for jurors to weigh. They could conclude Spears—"who was not in the car that brought the gun to the scene, did not follow Mr. Miller to the scene, did not know about the shooting until after it happened, and did not know that Mr. Miller had communicated with Mr. Miles"—was not "involved" in the shooting.
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She also pointed out that jurors could find it problematic that Spears is described as the "unidentified passenger" in the context of a police detective testifying about Miles' gun and how the university sought to "distance itself from the shooting" and keep players' "involvement" quiet.
"A reasonable jury," Judge Axon stressed, "could conclude that the Times ' statements—placing Mr. Spears in a vehicle with Mr. Miller who transported to the scene the weapon used in the shooting—was "highly offensive" to a reasonable person.
In a win the for the Times , Judge Axon agreed with the publication that Spears has the burden of proving the alleged defamatory statements were "materially" false. In court documents, the judge explained, Spears argued he needed to prove the statements were literally false, but she stressed any falsity must be significant enough to warrant a finding of defamation, meaning a minor misstep wouldn't be enough.
Spears v. New York Times is currently set to go to trial in Alabama on Aug. 10. It's possible the parties reach a settlement before then, but if not, a trial would provide a window into the editing process of sports reporting and how decisions are made. That is true of the use of anonymous sources, a sometimes-divisive topic in newsrooms, since the source is not putting their name behind whatever they've claimed or shared.
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For more on this topic, please read " The Gist of It : The Uneasy Triangle of Sports Journalism, Deadlines & Defamation Law," which I co-authored with Samantha Chavez-Salinas and which is forthcoming in the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law .
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