Ben-GAL Sarah Jones Wins $11 Million Lawsuit Against Site For Libel And Defamation Post

by Josh Kirkendall on Aug 27, 2010 9:23 AM EDT

Meet Sarah Jones. Sarah is teacher at Dixie Heights High School that enjoys Reds games and eating at Benihana's. Along with her ultimate goal of being an influential English and Mathematics teacher in Middle School, Sarah is an accomplished five-year veteran as one of the Ben-GALS. She was selected to the 2010 Pro Bowl, on the cover the 2007 swimsuit calendar and a "Side Captain" in 2009.

In October, a sleazy website called TheDirty.com, run by sleazy people, claimed that Sarah "had sex with Bengal football players and had two venereal diseases." Former Bengals kicker Shayne Graham called Sarah to tell her about the site and after repeated requests to take the post down, Sarah and Eric Deters, filed suit.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman judged that Dirty World Entertainment Recordings, the company that runs TheDirty.com, must pay Sarah $11 million and "libel and defamation", with $1 million for "compensatory damages and $10 million was for punitive damages. He also added an annual interest rate of 0.25 percent."

As sleazy idiots they are, according to the Enquirer the post remains, and neither the company nor the poster on the website responded to the lawsuit. Score one for Sarah, who takes down a website that reportedly thrives on making crap up about people.

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11 million?!

Damn, I wouldn’t mind an online story claiming I had the clap if it got me 11 mill.

by Jaegner on Aug 27, 2010 9:39 AM EDT reply actions

Mental note: No posts about Jaegner

Blogger at CincyJungle.com -- SB Nation Cincinnati Bengals blog.

by Josh Kirkendall on Aug 27, 2010 9:42 AM EDT up reply actions

Ditto...

And no hiring anybody to post stuff about you FOR you, Jaegner (LOL)…there’s a new sheriff(’s deputy) in town!

by TheWalrus1971 on Aug 27, 2010 10:43 AM EDT up reply actions

apparently they sued the wrong company....

i just read on barstoolsports.com that due to a clerical error, they sued the wrong company. not sure what happens now

For here all are one

by bcbengalfan on Aug 27, 2010 10:24 AM EDT reply actions

So are they saying Shank Graham Cracker has

a STD too? Maybe that was his problem all along. Every time he kicked the ball, he had that all of the sudden itch..
Well, I better not start a rumor.

by WHYUS!! on Aug 27, 2010 10:37 AM EDT reply actions

So...Shayne told Sarah...

…who told Shayne? How did he find this out? He doesn’t seem the type to frequent such sites.

by TheWalrus1971 on Aug 27, 2010 10:46 AM EDT up reply actions

he was probably the one who gave her the diseases

by Diesel2405 on Aug 27, 2010 10:59 AM EDT up reply actions

i have a feeling she’ll never see the money; what people often forget when they read about these huge decisions is that the person suing almost never sees any of that money, as it gets caught up in a lengthy appeals process and ends up with either a much-lower settlement or just wasted years and money trying to get what the victim deserves.

i'm going to go america all over your ass!

by Raging Clue on Aug 27, 2010 11:05 AM EDT reply actions

Very likely you are correct. But I’ll still hope for her sake that you are wrong.

by FriarBob on Aug 27, 2010 12:14 PM EDT up reply actions

A century or two ago, the jerks would've been pulled onto the street and publicly horse-whipped.

The process wouldn’t have been judicial, but it tended to produce effective results a good deal quicker.

by no kidding on Aug 27, 2010 7:54 PM EDT up reply actions

i prefer a judicial system; and air conditioning. also, sanitation.

i'm going to go america all over your ass!

by Raging Clue on Aug 27, 2010 9:37 PM EDT up reply actions

A/c, sanitation, and judicial systems are all very nice, where they’re properly functioning. But, to take an example, it’s unpleasant to live where a sanitation system is routinely backed up and failing to do it’s job.

by no kidding on Aug 28, 2010 6:22 AM EDT up reply actions

again, better than having no sanitation system at all, and the constant threat of plague becuase dead bodies are stored in the drinking water. sorry, i just get ornery when people reference “the good ol’ days” when only white men had rights, it would be months before you’d learn news, death from disease epidemics was actually common rather than just media scare tactics, and we couldn’t sit here and debate each other about stupid minutiae on the internet all day.

i'm going to go america all over your ass!

by Raging Clue on Aug 28, 2010 10:44 AM EDT up reply actions

I didn't reference any good ol' days.

I don’t think there were any. Nor is the present one so terribly wonderful. Yes, we’ve advanced in some social areas, but we’ve regressed in others. We’ve certainly benefited from many technological blessings; but by no means have they all come without drawbacks. And certainly, there are civic values that used to be more commonly embraced in times past; such as in areas of hospitality, courteousness, and self-restraint.

My original point was simply that in times long-past, one tended to be more hesitant about libeling another person’s character. It was understood that a quick and significant punishment for such an offense might arrive very suddenly. Now I certainly prefer that justice should be served within a proper judicial setting. But a key thing is, it should be timely. Justice delayed is justice denied (… and all that).

All the same, I expect you don’t particularly disagree with me. But I thought I should clarify my position.

by no kidding on Aug 28, 2010 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions

Butterface

The Bengals need to hire some cheerleaders with at least DECENT looking faces. Please tell me that these aren’t the cream of the crop in the “Queen City”…

by Anthony Cosenza on Aug 27, 2010 12:42 PM EDT reply actions

The outfits alone are enough for me..

Some of the legs on them women go for days.

by JamesShively on Aug 27, 2010 4:16 PM EDT up reply actions

She'll never see the money

They never responded to the suit – primarily because the wrong business entity was sued. But when a party doesn’t respond and a default judgement is given, the “losing” party has more options to fight the judgement and suit. And what that site does falls under the murky First Amendment Rights, and there are laws specific to the Internet. That site only posts what people email to them, as opposed to authoring that garbage themselves…

by whodeyla on Aug 27, 2010 1:41 PM EDT via mobile reply actions

one of the articles linked notes that the site even claims that not everything posted there is true; i’m pretty sure that wouldn’t help them if they decided to fight the judge’s decision.

i'm going to go america all over your ass!

by Raging Clue on Aug 27, 2010 7:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Exactly

So that makes it a rumor. You can’t sue a website for posting rumors as that falls under the First Amendment.

by whodeyla on Aug 27, 2010 8:17 PM EDT up reply actions

well, if they’re posting a news story that they know not to be true, that is the textbook definition of libel.

i'm going to go america all over your ass!

by Raging Clue on Aug 27, 2010 9:36 PM EDT up reply actions

You're right

She will never see the money, she sued the wrong company. I hope she sues her lawyer for being incompetent.

by Brian A. Taylor on Sep 2, 2010 11:11 AM EDT up reply actions

How are you going to make a post about a cheerleader....

without a picture of the Cheerleader. lol. Just wondering. No infection photos please. I’m not too familiar with the Cheerleaders, but my aunt used to be one when Icky and Boomer played. Funny thing is that if she did give some Bengals some STDs, then they could sue her!

by DonMegga on Aug 27, 2010 4:37 PM EDT reply actions