Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Daly Loses Defamation Suit


A Florida judge threw out John Daly’s defamation lawsuit against Mike Freeman of the Florida Times-Union for a column that equated the bad boy golfer’s off-course adventures to the “thug life.” Freeman’s 2005 column contrasted David Duval and Daly, asking, “How does Daly not fail the scoundrel sniff test with fans despite possessing Thug Like qualifications. Look at the Daly blog. Domestic violence accusations? Yup. Three different kids from three different moms, making him the Shawn Kemp of golf? Yes. A former wife indicted for laundering illegal drug profits? Roger that.”
Daly sued for defamation of character, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent hiring and supervision. After Daly’s attorneys acknowledged the characterizations of Daly were true, the judge granted Freeman and the newspaper a summary judgment dismissing the suit. The judge said Daly failed to prove that any of the underlying facts were false and said the columnist was protected by the First Amendment. Daly, who is serving an undetermined suspension from the PGA Tour, is playing in Europe.

Hitting range balls while wondering whatever happened to Chris Couch.


1 comment:

markak said...

Some of my friends have told me that I am better looking than John Daly.