NASHVILLE (CN) - A Nashville General Sessions judge claims a TV reporter defamed him by falsely reporting that he was the subject of an "ethics investigation," in a vendetta set off by the judge's refusal to dismiss a parking ticket.
Daniel B. Eisenstein sued WTVF-TV, News Channel 5 Network, Landmark Media Enterprises, station manager Lyn Plantinga, news director Sandy Boonstra, and reporter Phil Williams, in Davidson County Court.
Eisenstein claims that on June 3, 2010 the traffic court clerk got a letter from a captain at the Metropolitan Police Department asking that a parking ticket be dismissed for Williams, without a hearing.
Williams allegedly had parked in a media parking zone/loading zone in a car not identified as a media vehicle, and got two tickets for illegal parking.
The captain asked that one of the tickets be dismissed, Eisenstein says.
The judge says this came a year after Nashville Mayor Karl Dean had sent a memo warning metro employees not to give preferential treatment to anyone by dismissing traffic citations without proper procedure.
In fact, Williams himself had criticized the General Sessions Court and Traffic Court Clerk's office in 2006 "investigative reports ... over the manner traffic and parking tickers were administered," one of which was titled, "It Appears That Somebody Knows Somebody," Eisenstein says.
"The concern expressed by defendant, Phil Williams in this report was that people who knew people in the police department and possibly other places could have parking tickets or other traffic infractions dismissed without appearing in open court," the complaint states.
"The report began as follows: 'An exclusive News Channel 5 investigation uncovers what some might call the ticket fix. Others call it wrong. Our investigation discovered that if you've ever paid a parking ticket, it may just be because you don't know the right people.'"
But when Williams was ticketed, Eisenstein says, the reporter apparently thought he knew the right people and got angry when Eisenstein decided to hold a hearing on the tickets - and on what the judge calls the "highly irregular and unique" request from the police department for a dismissal without a hearing.
Because of the "multiple reports" on Channel 5 about the handling of traffic tickets, including a June 21, 2010 Channel 5 report calling for "tighter controls over the way Metro handles speeding and parking tickets," the Traffic Court Clerk's office asked Eisenstein how to respond to the police captain's June 3 letter, the judge says. Eisenstein says the clerk's office asked him because he is presiding judge, and because the police captain's request appeared to violate the mayor's policy.
So, Eisenstein says, "It was decided that a court hearing was required to determine how and why the request contained in the June 3, 2010 letter was made ..."
This hearing was held on June 23, 2010 - before the hearing on Williams' parking tickets.
Eisenstein presided over the June 23 hearing on "the lawfulness and propriety of the request from the Metropolitan Police Department that one (1) of the defendants, Williams' parking tickets be dismissed without an open court hearing. The defendant, Phil Williams was not a party to the hearing on June 23, 2010 as it was being conducted to determine the lawfulness and propriety of conduct by individuals employed by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County," Eisenstein says.