In Nguyen v. Taylor, COA 11-369, decided February 21, 2012, the North Carolina Court of Appeals reviewed a judgment entered after a bench trial awarding $15,000,000 in compensatory and punitive damages to plaintiff police officers with the Greensboro Police Department. The officers were filmed arresting one of the defendants and the video tape was edited heavily and distributed by the defendants and on U-Tube. The plaintiff police officers sued for defamation and invasion of privacy claiming that the editing unfairly depicted the arrest as an unlawful arrest. The Court of Appeals upheld the award of compensatory damages but remanded the punitive damages claim back to the trial judge to specifically determine whether they had been proven by the “clear and convincing standard” required byNorth Carolina law.
Huge Defamation Verdict for Police Officers
Written by Bill Cannon, , Civil Litigation Attorneys