Libel suit in 'alleged rape' story answered by newspaper

The Courier in Russellville has filed an answer to a suit charging it with libel in stories about an alleged rape. The reply, in Pope County Circuit Court, denies most of the allegations in the libel suit and asks that the claims be dismissed with prejudice. The reply also claims that the reports in the stories are covered by the fair report privilege and that the plaintiff's claims are barred by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and by Article 2, Section 6 of the Arkansas Constitution. The libel suit, by Ryan Whiteside of Russellville, claims he was libeled by two stories about an incident at his residence Dec. 28, 2006. The stories were a Jan. 11 article headed "Arkansas State Police looks into alleged rape," and another article on Jan. 15 reporting that the prosecuting attorney had decided not to file charges but repeating all the names and details of the previous article. Among the claims in the original suit that are denied in the reply are: * the article "is libelous because it is false and tends to be reasonably calculated to cause harm to the plaintiff's reputation;" * the plaintiff is a "private individual" as that term is defined under Arkansas law of defamation; * that the defendants "failed to meet journalistic standards" including "(a.) publishing the story before the police had completed their preliminary investigation; (b.) publishing a police report that had been marked 'no press;' (c.) publishing the story before charges had been filed; (d.) failing to interview the source of the hearsay in the Report; (e.) failing to contact the Plaintiff for a statement; (f.) reporting statements as facts without clearly identifying them as allegations and twisting facts to imply greater involvement and culpability of Plaintiff in the alleged criminal activity." In addition to The Courier (Russellville Newspapers, Inc.), the libel suit names the corporate owner, Paxton Media Group, Neal Ronquist, publisher; Janie Ginocchio, the reporter and Scott Perkins, editor of The Courier. The reply was filed Feb. 20 by Quattlebaum, Grooms, Tull and Burrow, PLLC of Little Rock. It was responding to the original suit, filed Feb. 5 by H. Clay Moore of Houston, Texas, and R. David Lewis of Little Rock.