Thursday, May 24, 2012

Phaedra Parks Suing Vibe for $30 Million


Phaedra Parks is suing Vibe Magazine for defamation of character for publishing Angela Stanton's book, "Lies of a Real Housewife: Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil..."

Documents secured by Court House News Service state,
In 2000, Parks says, she represented Atlanta rapper Drama for a probation violation. Drama introduced Parks to his-then girlfriend, Angela Stanton, and Parks represented her at a sentence-modification hearing, but "plaintiff has never had any formal or informal employment relationship with Stanton," the complaint states.
It continues: "Plaintiff has never participated in any criminal activities with Stanton. "Plaintiff did not socialize with Stanton on any regular basis and does not consider (and never has considered) her to be a close friend or confidant.
"Stanton is a convicted felon and has served multiple terms in prison.
"Around February of 2010, Stanton began a personal crusade of false attacks against plaintiff.
"Specifically, Stanton began posting false and defamatory accusations about plaintiff on Twitter and otherwise made false and defamatory statements about her to third persons in the community.
"In March of this year, defendant published and promoted Stanton's false and defamatory accusations on the Internet, and as a direct result, Stanton's personal and unfounded vendetta against plaintiff went viral on the Internet.
"Defendant interviewed Stanton and broadcast her false and defamatory accusations in articles and videos on its websites.
"Defendant eventually published Stanton's accusations in a book available for online purchase by the public.
"Defendant's publications of the online interviews and the book concerning plaintiff imply, as a whole, that plaintiff is an attorney who has engaged in criminal activity and is worthy of public scorn and contempt.
"The false statements published by defendant are defamatory per se and damages to the reputation of Plaintiff are presumed as a matter of law."
 Phaedra is seeking $5 million in compensatory damages, $25 million in punitive damages, attorney fees and a published retraction from Vibe.