Jacksonville meteorologist Tim Deegan is suing Nexstar Broadcasting after a website content provider, owned by the station group, used his photo in a story about another Tim Deegan who was arrested for allegedly keeping three women as sex slaves.
The story appeared on the website of Jacksonville CBS and FOX affiliate WJAX-WFOX. At the time, news director Bob Longo told TVSpy, the station’s website content manager, Inergize-CMS systems, used the wrong picture.
According to the Jacksonville Business Journal, Deegan is suing for defamation of character and “is seeking damages in excess of $75,000.”
The lawsuit filed, filed on Nov. 7, names Nexstar Broadcasting Inc as the defendant. Nexstar’s division Inergize Digital provides digital content for various television stations owned or managed by Cox Media Group.
The suit says Nexstar falsely identified Deegan as the person who had been “arrested and charged with some of the most despicable crimes and immoral conduct imaginable.”
Deegan claims the publication of the photo caused him financial damage as well as mental suffering, including mental anguish, personal humiliation and injury to reputation.
In its response, Nexstar admits that it published the wrong photo, but that it did so “in good faith and without negligence, express malice or actual malice.”
“The publication about which Plaintiff [Deegan] complains, when considered in its entirety as required by applicable law, was not of and concerning Plaintiff, and could not be reasonably understood to refer to him,” the response says.