Minn. TV station liable for $1 million in defamation suit

In what may be the largest defamation verdict in Minnesota history, a jury found that a Minneapolis TV news station acted with "constitutional malice" and awarded a naturopathic healer $1 million.

The jury found that the ABC news affiliate, KSTP, acted with reckless disregard for the truth when it ran a report more than two years ago about healer Susan Anderson and advice she allegedly gave her client, Cheryl Blaha.

In the March 2009 news report, Blaha said that Anderson recommended that she stop taking an anti-anxiety medication. Blaha said she took Anderson's advice, which eventually led her to a suicide attempt.

When the station interviewed Anderson, then known as Wahl, the healer denied telling Blaha to stop taking the medication. The station ran the story and nearly two years later, Anderson filed a defamation suit against KSTP, Cheryl and Eric Blaha.

After a five-day trial, the jury found the station liable and awarded Anderson $100,000 in past and future lost income, and $900,000 in past and future damage to reputation.

"This case was about not paying attention to the truth," said Anderson. "I've been bullied my whole life practicing holistic health, and this time I decided enough is enough."

According to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, naturopathic medicine is "based on the belief that the human body has an innate healing ability." Healers teach patients to use "diet, exercise, lifestyle changes and cutting edge natural therapies" to combat disease, the association's website states.

The verdict is believed to be the largest defamation verdict in Minnesota history, according to local legal experts.

"It's a very big award, much bigger than any lawyer can remember from a defamation case around here," noted Bill McGeveran, a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Law. “Every media lawyer around the state is going to sit up and take notice.”

The jury found that Blaha's statements about Anderson's advice were false, and that the station was both negligent in failing to verify them, and acted with "constitutional malice" -- meaning that the broadcaster intentionally or recklessly disregarded the truth or falsity of the allegations. According to Anderson's lawyer, Patrick Tierney, there was no medical record of the alleged suicide attempt, and, in fact, Blaha's doctor testified that he had been the one to recommend she go off her medication.

Tierney also said that KSTP had access to Blaha's medical records before reporting the story, and yet did not report the contradiction between the medical records and Blaha's statements. "The medical records not only did not substantiate the allegations, but directly contradicted them," Tierney said.

The reporter, Jennifer Griswold, was not named in the suit. Griswold, who still works for KSTP, declined to comment on the jury's verdict.

Because the jury found that the station acted with constitutional malice, Anderson was entitled to request punitive damages. Anderson requested $15 million, attorneys for both sides said. The jury declined to award any punitive damages.

The station has one month to challenge the verdict or damages in the trial court. Depending on the resolution of these challenges, the station may then appeal to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, said Paul Hannah, the station's attorney. Among the issues Hannah plans to pursue are whether the evidence presented to the jury was sufficient to support their verdict, and whether the 9-to-1 disparity between the reputational damage and lost income awards is so great as to warrant a new trial.