PAPER ASKS JUDGE TO DISMISS SUIT
Former airport director says Daily Press coverage of audit was damaging personally, professionally
MORE INFORMATION: The Daily Press ran many stories in early 2017 about the commission’s decision to guarantee a $5 million loan from Towne Bank to a startup airline in 2014. When People Express Airlines collapsed, the commission used $4.5 million in taxpayer money to pay off the debt. Read more at dailypress.com.
NEWPORT NEWS — The Daily Press is urging a federal judge to toss a defamation lawsuit by the former head of the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, contending the paper’s news coverage was fair and accurate.
The newspaper is asking Senior U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. to dismiss the federal lawsuit by former airport Executive Director Ken Spirito, saying its reporting about Spirito’s shredding of documents at the airport early last year was based heavily on a Virginia Department of Transportation audit.
In his lawsuit, Spirito said text messages between airport employees — and
ensuing news coverage in the Daily Press about the messages — gave the false impression that he was destroying evidence related to the then-pending state audit.
Spirito says he wasn’t destroying evidence at all, but simply shredding “old, duplicate airline presentations” that remained on his office computer after the paper versions were destroyed. In another case, he says, a disgruntled former employee simply made up a document shredding claim whole cloth.
The resulting implication that he was doing something improper, Spirito contends, has destroyed his aviation career and “shattered” his good name and standing in the community.
In its motion to dismiss the suit, the Daily Press says the document shredding references came directly from the state’s audit report and a related supplement. “In other words, the Daily Press did exactly what a newspaper is supposed to do — report facts of public concern and importance,” attorneys Hunter Sims, Johan Conrod and Lauren Rogers wrote in the motion.
Though Spirito says the “innuendo” is clear that Spirito was destroying crucial evidence, the Daily Press says it never purported to know what was being destroyed.
The newspaper also responded to Spirito’s contention that a June editorial libeled Spirito. The Daily Press says the editorial is “protected opinion” under the law and doesn’t mention document shredding, which is the basis for Spirito’s defamation claim.
“As the Court can see from even a cursory review, the editorial deals with misappropriation of public funds and the fact that the (Peninsula Airport Commission) operated with little to no transparency, leaving the public in the dark about an egregious misuse of public funds,” the motion states.
Spirito led the Newport News airport for eight years before being put on leave in March 2017 and fired three months later.
Named as defendants, in addition to the Daily Press, are the Peninsula Airport Commission, airport accounting specialist Lisa M. Ortiz, airport finance and administration director E. Renee Ford, former airport supervising janitor Wilmer K. Thomas Jr., Newport News City Councilwoman — and airport commissioner — Sharon P. Scott.
Spirito initially filed the lawsuit against the airport commission and the employees in Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court in January. But a judge tossed that suit in April, ruling that the defendants did not act with “reckless disregard” for the truth — a crucial part of defaming a public official such as Spirito.
The former executive then filed a nearly identical lawsuit in federal court in May. He added the Daily Press as a defendant at the time, calling into question a news story, front page graphic and editorial from early June 2017, shortly after the audit was released.
In its separate motion to dismiss the federal case, the Peninsula Airport Commission says its employees were right to report that Spirito was shredding documents — and that Spirito and his lawyer, David Littel, are now going “judge shopping” for a better ruling.
“Every citizen has the right to truthfully report on the fact that an executive officer of a public agency destroyed documents during an audit and an investigation,” airport commission attorney Conrad M. Shumadine wrote. “Moving the lawsuit from the state court to the federal court does not change that.”
The text messages in question came against a backdrop of intense scrutiny into the airport’s financial practices after the Daily Press ran many stories in early 2017 about the commission’s decision to guarantee a $5 million loan from Towne Bank to a startup airline in 2014. When People Express Airlines collapsed, the commission used $4.5 million in taxpayer money to pay off the debt.
The audit included redacted versions of the text message exchanges, with the newspaper later getting the unredacted versions.
Documents show that on the morning of March 2, 2017 — about five weeks into the state audit — Ortiz texted Ford, “Wow Ken is shredding shredding shredding.”
“Unbelievable!” Ford wrote back. Ortiz: “Seems kind of weird.” Ford: “This is getting out of hand!”
In another text message exchange, Thomas, the former janitorial supervisor, texted Scott that he had walked in on Spirito destroying documents, then was “let go about 2 weeks later without a write-up.” In the lawsuit, Spirito says Thomas fabricated the shredding allegation.
A jury trial is scheduled for April 2019. Spirito has asked for unspecified damages to be determined by the jury.