Catherine Crier files Internet defamation case in her old court

Catherine Crier (pictured), a former Dallas 162nd District Court judge who left the bench to launch a career as a television journalist, returned to her courtroom this week -- in a manner of speaking. In a petition filed May 20 in 162nd District Court, available on courthousenews.com, Crier, represented by former U.S. District Judge Joe Kendall, claims that an unknown Internet user, "John Doe, a/k/a Internet Protocol Address 75.16.196.192," knowingly added false and defamatory information to her Wikipedia page. "If you were a public figure and someone did you like this, you would want to know who did it," says Kendall, a partner in Dallas' Kendall Law Group. Kendall says Crier will ask 162nd District Judge Lorraine A. Raggio to issue a supboena to the Internet provider ordering AT&T to identity of the owner of the specified Internet protocol address. In her petition, Crier claims that "Doe" engaged in some damaging cutting and pasting. She alleges that "Doe substituted Ms. Crier's last name for that of disbarred Texas lawyer Catherine Shelton. Doe then copied a November 26, 2007 Dallas Morning News article about Ms. Shelton, changed the last name to Crier, and posted that article on Ms. Crier's Wikipedia page." Crier, who has worked as a correspondent for the Fox News Channel, ABC, Court TV and CNN, is now writing a book, Kendall says. Her own Web site says she is also engaged in developing film, TV and documentary projects. She was elected 162nd District Judge in1984 and re-elected the next term, but she then left for her television career. In her petition, Crier seeks unspecified damages for lost wages, emotional distress and mental anguish, among others things. Also check out the story on the Dallas Observer blog.
-- Miriam Rozen