Perez Hilton sues Polo Molina for 'emotional distress.' Seriously?

In 2001, while in the performance of my duties as a credentialed journalist and while I was adhering to established Nashville music i industry protocol, I was inexplicably assaulted by a publicist for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

After obtaining a police report on the incident, I suggested night court-ordered mediation so that the first-time offender would not have to do jail time.

My reward for leniency was my assailant's refusal to cooperate with the Neighborhood Justice Center mediation.

I was forced to prosecute. My injuries were less severe than Perez Hilton's but, in light of my experience, I think he is doing the right thing.

Tina Wright is still employed by the Country Music Foundation. The CMF operates the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Stacy Harris
Publisher/Executive Editor
Stacy's Music Row Report
http://www.geocities.com/stacy.harris/report.html

Oh please. This was an incident that HE brought on. And he is suing for emotional distress? No judge in the right mind would grant him his money.

Polo Molina? He should be prosecuted for jumping to the head of the line.

Thank you, Polo Molina

He is such a ******. Awful

a fantastically well thought and moving response from Mathew's mother, on Hilton's claim he will donate monies from success of the intended lawsuit to the foundation....

STATEMENT FROM MATTHEW SHEPARD FOUNDATION REGARDING PEREZHILTON.COM

The Matthew Shepard Foundation was surprised to learn this morning via media reports that blogger Perez Hilton (Mario Lavandeira) has announced he plans to donate, to our organization, the proceeds of a lawsuit he is contesting over an altercation which has been widely reported in recent days.

We had no advance notice or contact from Mr. Hilton or his representatives regarding this proposal, nor any communication since he posted this plan to his website.

We do not know the details of the lawsuit, whether it has been filed, the nature of his claims or the likely outcome. But because the lawsuit presumably involves the physical attack prompted by Mr. Hilton's admitted use of an anti-gay slur, the Foundation will be unable to accept any funds obtained in such a manner.

We very much appreciate the generosity of the offer to support our continuing work to memorialize Matthew through activism in defense of sexual minorities and in favor of understanding, compassion, and acceptance. But because so much of our work involves education to reduce the use of hateful language against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, or those so perceived, it would be inappropriate for us to benefit financially from circumstances in which such a verbal attack was involved.

While we applaud Mr. Hilton's apology to the LGBT community and their loved ones for his use of such a slur, we also feel compelled to point out that use of epithets can often lead to physical violence, as it appears it may have in this case, and that the Matthew Shepard Foundation has worked for more than 10 years to bring to people's attention the consequences of hateful or inolerant language.

Judy Shepard

There are three precedents accepted in the American judicial system to allow a person to sue: (1) injury in fact, which means an invasion of a legally protected interest that is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical; (2) a causal relationship between the injury and the challenged conduct, which means that the injury fairly can be traced to the challenged action of the defendant, and has not resulted from the independent action of some third party not before the court; and (3) a likelihood that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision, which means that the prospect of obtaining relief from the injury as a result of a favorable ruling is not too speculative.

Using the above legal requirements in order to bring a lawsuit, I believe that Perez Hilton does not have sufficient standing to have a lawsuit heard in the matter regarding the "Black-eyed Peas", because he brought the action upon himself through his behavior.

I hope the court sees his suit in the above light and throws it out.

A defendant is liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress if (1) s/he intends to cause emotional distress or recklessly disregards the risk that emotional distress will result and (2) the defendant's "extreme and outrageous" act causes the plaintiff to suffer severe emotional distress. Perez may be able to prove all the required elements. However, his lawyer will have a hard time finding that Perez suffered from extreme emotional distress as a result of the assault. His lawyer will charge hundreds of dollars an hour to perez just to settle a claim worth at best a few thousand bucks. Once again, we can always thank the public for increasing the number of frivolous lawsuits in america. so thank you perez for adding to the number of cases that are already clogging our court system.