Jan. 10, 2008 ยท A Georgia state court of appeals affirmed a summary judgment finding in favor of the Savannah Morning News on a libel claim lodged by a former public official.
William Torrance, a former city manager in Vidalia, Ga., first sued the paper after it ran a series of articles examining the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s probe into the death of a peeping Tom who victimized Torrance’s daughter.
Torrance specifically complained that the articles reported that he had been “let go” as the city manager of Vidalia, that there were allegations that he had abused drugs, that he had illegally wiretapped a conversation with a state investigator and that he nailed his daughter’s window shut after it had been used as a means of entrance by her boyfriends.
As a public official, Torrance faced the rigid demands of the actual malice standard, a hurdle the court of appeals concluded that Torrance could not overcome. In arguing that a jury should at least hear the case, Torrance offered evidence that he believed contradicted the facts presented in the series and indicated that the paper’s reporters treated him with ill will.
