Texas Blogger Jailed for Contempt in Case Filed By Anna Nicole Smith's Mom
A Texas real estate agent who blogged about celebrity Anna Nicole Smith’s mother spent the weekend in jail after being cited for contempt by a state-court judge.
Lyndal Harrington, 53, of Houston lied when she said a computer she was ordered to produce for forensic examination in a defamation case filed by Smith’s mother, Virgie Arthur, was stolen in a burglary, District Judge Tony Lindsay ruled. The judge released Harrington after the weekend, with orders to produce the computer by July, reports the Houston Chronicle.
An apparently tearful Harrington was wearing orange jail garb in court yesterday. “I can’t turn over something I don’t have,” she told the newspaper afterward.
Harrington was sued by Arthur over false and defamatory comments she allegedly made about Arthur on her Rose Speaks blog, as Arthur was seeking custody of her daughter’s baby after Smith died of an accidental drug overdose.
Bloggers, who often don’t understand that they can’t say anything they wish with impunity on the Internet, increasingly are the target of such lawsuits, experts tell the newspaper.
“They are surprised they can be held responsible for the loose, hyperbolic language often used in private speech that they post on a public platform,” says Dave Heller of the Media Law Resource Center in New York. The group keeps a growing list of lawsuits against bloggers on a web page.
Earlier related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Anna Nicole’s Mom Files Against Lawyer, Website”
ABAJournal.com: “Anna Nicole Smith Baby Inherits Unknown Amount”
ABAJournal.com: “Paternity Decided for Anna Nicole’s Baby”
