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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Crime Scene Defamation

LOS ANGELES -- A pair of real estate agents have sued CBS Corporation and Jerry Bruckheimer Television because they claim a writer for "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" "hijacked their complete names, physical characteristics, personal characteristics, marital relationship, ages and professions" for an unflattering portrayal on the CBS series.

Scott amd Melinda Tamkin, in a defamation complaint filed in Superior Court, alleged that writer Sarah Goldfinger decided to embarrass them after she was involved in a failed real esate transaction with the plaintiffs.

According to the suit, Goldfinger created "from whole cloth characters engaged in a reckless lifestyle of sexual bondage, pornography, drunkenness, marital discord, depression, financial straits, and possibly even murder."

Although Goldfinger was forced the change the characters' last names -- "for all intents and purposes an admission that she had stepped over the line" -- the damage was done because of dissemination over the Internet of information liking the Tamkins with the CSI characters, the suit said.

The allegedly damatory episode was called "Deep Fried & Minty Fresh" and was released in February. Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, another producer of the show, was also named a defendant along with Goldfinger.

The suit, which seeks $3 million in damages, was filed by Anthony Michael Glassman, Steven Berkowitz, and Richelle L. Kemler of Glassman, Browning, Saltsman & Jacobs.

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