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These changes in policies and procedures will take effect immediately. In recent days, we have seen another local office holder bring a lawsuit against this same television station and reporter for sensational reports that allegedly strayed from the truth. I have retained an attorney, Mr. Bryan Lewis. Should WTVF make unsubstantiated allegations against me or my office, I am prepared to take action to defend my honor as well as my stewardship of this office. If Mr. Williams wants to run this office then I suggest he offer himself for election. Until then, I will continue to make good decisions for the people of Davidson County. It is appropriate for a reporter to raise questions about the use of public funds but I wont be bullied by allegations of impropriety where none exist.
put the gratuities I receive into that scholarship fund or make contributions to community charities on a case by case basis. If Mr. Williams or WTFV does not approve of the Tennessee law I recommend they lobby the General Assembly to have it changed.
The Andrews Agency did a great job, helped us get the word out at a very low cost and we returned more than $400,000 in fees and revenue to the general fund that can be used for schools, fire and police and for other government services.
helping with visitor experiences, design and consulting on projects in Clinton, Nashville, Parsons, Madison, Tullahoma, with the Tennessee Army National Guard, and many other locales. We needed their expertise to evaluate our visitor experience options in relation to providing new services for in-the-lane-renewals and their work has been exemplary. A summary of some of their work is attached as an addendum.
News Articles about Law Suit Against WTVF and Phil Williams
http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/judge-files-libel-lawsuit-against-wtvf-channel5-reporter
Judge Daniel B. Eisenstein filed suit against WTVF-Channel 5 Wednesday afternoon in Davidson County Circuit Court, claiming the station libeled and portrayed him in a false light.
He is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, as well as the retraction of what he believes were defamatory and libelous statements included in stories the station aired in February of this year and last summer. The suit lists the stations parent company, Landmark Media Enterprises, station manager Lyn Plantinga, news director Sandy Boonstra and reporter Phil Williams as defendants. Reached for comment, Boonstra said, We take something like this very seriously, but we stand by our stories." Boonstra said she didnt want to comment any further, as she'd not yet had a chance to thoroughly review the lawsuit. Plantinga declined to comment. Messages left for Williams seeking comment were not immediately returned. WTVF-Channel 5 attorney Ron Harris, of Neal & Harwell PLC, told The City Paper, NewsChannel 5 disputes the allegations made against it and its reporter. We dont believe theyre valid claims, and well seek to dismiss the lawsuit at the appropriate time.
According to Eisensteins suit, WTVF-Channel 5 ran a false and libelous story in July 2010 that asked in its headline, Is Another Nashville Judge Under Ethics Investigation? The suit claims the station broadcast the story maliciously, and that the defendants knew the assertion was false or had obvious reasons to doubt the accuracy of an assertion that Eisenstein was under investigation. In February of this year, the station ran a story that questioned why Dr. James Casey an unlicensed psychologist, as the story pointed out was allowed to work with and treat mentally ill offenders as part of the Mental Health Court for Davidson County, which Eisenstein oversees. The judge didnt speak on camera for the story, reported by Williams. In the lawsuit, however, Eisenstein states that he didnt hire Casey as a licensed psychologist but contracted with him for work that didnt require a license, something he claims he made very clear to WTVF-Channel 5 in letters through his attorney to the station prior to the storys broadcast.
Eisenstein claims the investigations that led to those stories resulted from a June 2010 hearing he presided over regarding two parking tickets reporter Williams received one day in May 2010 for parking in a media parking/loading zone without properly identifying his vehicle.
After police learned that the vehicle belonged to Williams and that he had been at police headquarters as it related to his job as a reporter, a police captain wrote a letter to the Traffic Violation Bureau explaining what happened. The captain asked that one of the tickets be dismissed and that Williams be heard in court on the first ticket. But that request apparently raised a red flag for Eisenstein, who claims in the suit that it appeared to fly in the face of a memo signed by Mayor Karl Dean in May 2009 regarding the unauthorized dismissal of traffic citations outside of court. On June 23, 2010, the judge held a hearing on the lawfulness and propriety of the request, according to the suit, during which he questioned Metro police employees on why a request was made to dismiss one of the tickets issued to Williams who in the past had written stories critical of the General Sessions Court and traffic court, claiming some people could get out of tickets depending on whom they knew.
Eisenstein decided the two tickets should be decided during the traffic docket on which they were regularly set to appear. He made no determination on them or whether police employees acted improperly.
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Williams later paid both the parking tickets before the July court hearing. Eisenstein goes on to claim in the suit that Williams or someone acting upon his direction provided a recording of the June 23 hearing to the disciplinary counsel for the Court of Judiciary of Tennessee in an effort to have the Court of Judiciary conduct an investigation of the Plaintiff, Eisenstein.
The judge claims following that series of events, Williams started working on an investigative story about Eisenstein out of retaliation, leading to the subsequent stories he claims are false.
Attorney Robert L. DeLaney, of Tune, Entrekin & White PC, is representing Eisenstein in the matter.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/judge-sues-wtvf-investigative-reporter-over-retaliatorystory_b13730
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING, NASHVILLE
A Nashville judge is suing WTVFs Phil Williams, alleging that the veteran investigative reporter conjured up a negative story about him after the judge failed to dismiss a parking ticket that Williams had received. Judge Daniel B. Eisenstein is accusing WTVF of running false and libelous stories about him last year, including one that intimated that he was the target of an ethics investigation. According to the lawsuit, Williams received two parking tickets one day in May 2010 while parked outside of police headquarters. Williams had parked in a media parking space and, when police later realized that he was there working on a story, a police captain wrote a letter to the Traffic Violation Bureau asking that one of the tickets be dismissed. Eisenstein decided not to dismiss the ticket and Williams ended up paying both of them. Less than a month after Eisensteins decision, Williams produced an investigative report that floated the question of whether the judge was under an ethics investigation.
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At the time of the story, Eisensteins lawyer insisted that he was not under any such investigation but Williams pressed on, quoting a court filing that hinted that the judge may be under investigation. Adding another layer of intrigue to Eisensteins lawsuit is the fact that Williams has made a name for himself reporting on so-called ticket fixing by local judges and police officers. In 2007, Williamss series The Ticket Fix was honored with a national Emmy and WTVF ran a series of investigative reports in 2009 about another major ticket-fixing scandal in which government workers and local celebrities were having their traffic tickets dismissed. The suit lists Williams, station manager Lyn Plantinga, news director Sandy Boonstra, and WTVFs parent company Landmark Media Enterprises as defendants. Eisenstein is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, as well as a retraction. A lawyer for WTVF told Nashvilles City Paper that the station disputes the allegations. We dont believe theyre valid claims, and well seek to dismiss the lawsuit at the appropriate time, the lawyer said. Heres the aforementioned WTVF report, Is Another Nashville Judge Under Ethics Investigation?
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110701/NEWS/307010064/Judge-sues-NewsChannel-5over-stories
Davidson County General Sessions Court Judge Daniel B. Eisenstein has sued NewsChannel 5, claiming that stories by investigative reporter Phil Williams contained false and libelous reporting that damaged his reputation. Eisenstein accuses Williams of pursuing a vendetta against him after Eisenstein held a hearing to question a request from a Metro police captain to dismiss a parking ticket Williams received outside of Davidson Countys general sessions and criminal courts.
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The judge says elements of Williams stories such as assertions that Eisenstein is under an ethics investigation and used federal money to hire an unlicensed psychologist for the Davidson County Mental Health Court are false. We do dispute the allegations that have been made, said NewsChannel 5s attorney Ronald Harris of Neal & Harwell. NewsChannel 5 is not aware of anything thats false or inaccurate in the news stories. The stories, Judge uses unlicensed psychologist for mentally ill and Is another Nashville judge under ethics investigation? were broadcast earlier this year
http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=11951
A Tennessee judge is accusing a television news reporter of having a vendetta against him and broadcasting a series of defamatory stories after the judge refused to dismiss the reporters parking ticket. In a complaint filed on Wednesday, Davidson County General Sessions Judge Daniel B. Eisenstein alleges that Nashville, Tenn., television station WTVF and reporter Phil Williams broadcast false and defamatory stories about the judge after he refused to dismiss a parking ticket Williams received. After not getting out of the ticket, Williams was motivated purely by animosity to investigate Eisenstein and the mental health court system overseen by the judge, the complaint says. The news stations attorney, Ron Harris, did not immediately return a phone call for comment. The stations first story reported on whether Eisenstein was under an ethics investigation by the state. In the story, Williams reviewed court documents in which an ethics investigator looking into another matter expressed concerns that his efforts might cause Eisenstein to ostracize the investigators daughter, who is a lawyer. In his complaint, Eisenstein said that he was never the subject of an ethics investigation. The closest the judge came to being investigated was when Williams or someone working for him contacted the state and asked that they start an investigation. In the second story, Williams focused on whether Eisenstein hired an unlicensed psychologist to treat patients as part of the mental health court, a program partly funded by federal money. The report, based on paperwork filed with the federal government, said Eisenstein hired Jim Casey to work for the program even though Casey was unlicensed. It also featured an interview with a program participant who said Casey was her psychologist. In his complaint, Eisenstein said he initially sought to hire Casey for a position in the program and filed paperwork with the federal government to that effect. But once he learned that Casey was unlicensed, he did not hire him for the position. Instead, Casey was retained as an independent contractor who provided support and guidance for the program but did not treat individuals without being supervised by a licensed psychologist. The records
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filed with the federal government were never changed to reflect what had occurred, meaning the information Williams used in his story was inaccurate, according to Eisensteins complaint. In the complaint, Eisenstein takes particular issue with the portion of Williams story in which he said the judge had nothing to say. The judge, through his attorney, sent a number of letters to the news stations attorney to explain the discrepancy regarding the federal records and to answer Williams questions. In the complaint, Eisenstein says any suggestion that he had nothing to say about the story is "absolutely false." According to the complaint, the dispute began in May 2010 when Williams received two parking tickets from the police department for parking in a media parking spot without proper identification. At a hearing, Eisenstein determined that the ticket would not be dismissed before it came before the court on its merits. Williams ended up paying both tickets.
Aaron Mackey, 5:44 pm
Copyright 2011 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
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