Via Ken Avidor's Bradlee Dean Info, an interesting development in the defamation lawsuit Bradlee Dean and You Can Run International filed against MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, The Minnesota Independent and Andy Birkey:
from the D.C. Courts, dated June 25th:
Memorandum and Order Granting in Part Defendants' Motion for Attorneys' Fees and Denying Plaintiffs' Combined Motions for Reconsideration and Sanctions Entered on the Docket 6/25/12. Signed in chambers 6/25/12. Electronically filed via CaseFileXPress on counsel for the parties 6/25/12. Plaintiffs shall pay to Defendants fees and costs in the amount of $24,625.23 within thirty days.
Dean brought the lawsuit against Maddow and the rest last July. In April, the Hollywood Reporter reported that Rachel Maddow Demands Dismissal of $50 Million Defamation Lawsuit:
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has hit back hard against a $50 million defamation lawsuit brought by heavy metal rocker-turned-radio host and conservative preacher Bradlee Dean. Maddow and NBC Universal are looking to punish Dean for bringing an allegedly meritless suit by filing an anti-SLAPP motion to end the case and force him to hand over legal fees.
According to court papers filed this week in D.C. federal court, the defendants say, "With this lawsuit -- his second -- Dean seeks to move one step closer in his self-described mission to stop the 'radical gay agenda.' The law does not permit him to use the judicial process in this fashion."
Does the court's decision to make Dean pay the legal fees signal an eventual dismissal of the lawsuit? Bluestem doesn't have an attorney on staff, so we won't venture an opinion about the decision in June. However, Julie Hilden at Verdict writes The Defamation Suit Against Rachel Maddow: Why It Should Fail. Check it out.
Image: Bradlee Dean, by Ken Avidor.
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