A federal judge has dismissed a convicted felon's $75 million libel lawsuit against OC Weekly and a veteran staff writer after concluding the accusations had no merit.
In his Nov. 6 ruling, Judge George H. King declared that Delecia Ann Holt, a convicted thief and failed Orange County and San Diego County Republican congressional candidate, filed a frivolous lawsuit alleging that an Aug. 2011 article by Matt Coker used falsehoods to “sadistically” cause her “to suffer ongoing emotional and physical stress.”
Holt failed to identify any alleged falsehoods, according to King.
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Coker's article outlined Holt's criminal woes and convictions for a series of thefts including stealing a Mercedes Benz and defrauding Orange County hotels.
From her cell at the Central California Women's Facility at Chowchilla, Holt alleged in August that it was Coker's lengthy news report on her illegal behavior that wrecked her public persona–not her crimes.
King apparently wasn't amused by the weakness of Holt's case. He also rejected her attempt to claim pauper status to get taxpayers to pay the cost of the lawsuit filing fee. He ordered her to pay $350 to the court clerk at the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
