A Portland attorney who claims he was defamed by Willamette Week is suing the newspaper for at least $18 million.
In a
lawsuit filed last week, Robert L. Wolf
claims that Willamette Week continued to refer to a 16-year-old girl he had sex
with as neurologically damaged, even though the newspaper had promised in
writing not to refer to her as having "brain damage" because the newspaper
didn't have evidence of that.
The incident which became the subject of the Willamette Week articles stemmed from a $200,000 settlement Wolf had negotiated in 1988 for the girl, who'd been in a car accident in 1987.
Afterward,
Wolf and the 16-year-girl rode in a limousine together. He served her wine and
the two engaged in sexual intercourse in the back seat, according to the Oregon
Supreme Court, which suspended Wolf's law license for 18 months.
Wolf was charged in 1988 with two misdemeanor sex offenses for having sex with the girl, but he avoided prosecution by entering into a diversion program, and the counts were dismissed.
Wolf filed the lawsuit last Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. In it, he claims that Willamette Week published one or more articles from 1988 to 1996 that "falsely referred to the girl as 'brain damaged.'"
Wolf demanded a retraction, and in response, editor Mark Zusman wrote a letter in April 1996 agreeing not to refer to the girl again as brain damaged or use words to that effect, according to the lawsuit and a copy of the letter filed with the suit.
But in March 2004, Willamette Week printed an article stating that Wolf had sex with a 16-year-old girl who had been in a car crash and "suffered neurological damages."
It's not clear exactly how much Wolf is asking for in his suit, but he's seeking at least $18 million and possibly as much as $58 million for alleged defamation, false light, breach of contract, fraud and intentional infliction of severe emotional distress. The statute of limitations may have run out on some of those claims, because the article was published nearly five years ago.
Wolf and his attorney couldn't be reached for comment, but Wolf said in a voicemail that he would have time to talk about the case in a few days. Willamette Week publisher Richard Meeker said it would not be appropriate for him to comment.
The girl, now a woman, filed a $4 million lawsuit against Wolf in July 2004 claiming he had sexually abused her and she'd suffered significant problems over the years because of that abuse. That suit appears to have been settled in recent days, but attorneys involved in the suit couldn't be reached for comment.
It's unclear if the apparent settlement is related to the lawsuit, but last week the woman signed an affidavit saying she wasn't suffering any "cognitive impairment, brain damage or mental defect" when she had sex with Wolf, who was 38 at the time.
--Aimee Green,
aimeegreen@news.oregonian.com