Judge dismisses lawsuit against three newspapers, tv station

Jude Neil Ready and his son, Julio Armando Ready, who was the subject of the news items, took legal action seeking close to $2 million for libel and slander against CCNTV6, and its news presenters, the Trinidad Express and its reporter and photographer, the Trinidad Guardian and its reporter and photographer as well as the Newsday and its reporter and photographer.

In all, there were 11 defendants in Ready’s lawsuit - the first being PC Herbert Gabriel.

In a 111 page ruling on Tuesday, Justice Margaret Mohammed found that the articles and television broadcasts of the police’s discovery of Ready’s practice of putting his son in an enclosed, homemade, wooden playpen with a cover in the bar he owned in Siparia in November 2000, was not defamatory.

As it related to Newsday, Mohammed said the words complained of were not defamatory of Ready’s son.

She said he would have elicited sympathy from a reasonable reader and would not have been discredited, shunned or ridiculed, but rather would have been viewed as a victim of neglect by his caretaker.

The caretaker, in the lawsuit, said the child would be left in his care and was kept in the cage which he described as a playpen, for an hour at a time, since he would run into the restaurant area.

He also said there was a padlock on the playpen.

Mohammed said based on the Readys evidence in support of their case, the facts in Newsday’s article were true.

She said the treatment of children was a matter of public interest and concern and, having regard to this, the Newsday article was reasonable.

Mohammed also held that the Newsday article also gave Ready’s side of the story.

“In my opinion, the Newsday article was moderate in its tone and phrasing,” she said.

Mohammed also found that having established its defence of qualified privilege, the issue of malice did not arise, nor was there a conspiracy between the media houses and police to re-create the rescue of the boy.

Ready and his son, who is now 21 years-old, were ordered to pay almost $300,000 in legal costs to each of the media houses they sued.

Newsday was represented by attorneys Ian Benjamin and Jewel Ann Troja while Michael Persadsingh and Chanka Persadsingh represented Ready and his son.