Negative campaign ads are nothing new and unfortunately have become a staple of most elections. But Cook County Board presidential candidate Dorothy Brown says an ad by rival Terrence O'Brien goes too far.
She's suing O'Brien for defamation because of a television ad that he had run claiming that she had forced employees to give her cash gifts.
The television commercial claims that Ms. Brown, currently a Circuit Court Clerk, "forced employees to give her cash gifts." The Chicago Tribune ran a story more than a year ago suggesting that Ms. Brown accepted cash gifts from employees as "a relic of Illinois' political patronage system."
Illinois injury lawyer Adam Lasker filed the defamation lawsuit on behalf of Ms. Brown. He maintains that while Ms. Brown does not deny she accepted such gifts, she claims that the employees were not forced. He told the Chicago Tribune: "This very clear and simple language states as a matter of fact that she did something she has never done."
She denied any suggestions of coercion, saying the gifts were purely voluntary and did not affect personnel decisions, but she said she would stop accepting gifts from now on.
The O'Brien campaign is claiming it hasn't yet seen the lawsuit. They claim that they simply pointed out stories about Ms. Brown allegedly pocketing cash from employees. They also maintain that these stories have carried on for years now.
If you would like to learn more about defamation and how it can affect you, please visit our Related Resources links.
Related Resources:
- Can I Say That? Defamation Law Made Simple (FindLaw)
- Digital Defamation: The Hot New Tort? (FindLaw's Injured Blog)
- The New York Times Is Sued for Insinuating that John McCain Recently Had a Mistress: How the Defamation Suit Is Likely to Play Out, and Why the Times Should Settle High (FindLaw)
- Chicago Injury Lawyers (FindLaw)
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