David Pakter's Mind Redux

David Pakter wins one against the New York Post.

From David:

Never Surrender To Brute Force -

To do so only emboldens that force to act with ever greater degrees of Brutality.
Some of America's Teachers Unions have finally started to understand this fact.

But sadly, far too few.
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The Battle Against the Faux Chancellor, Joel Klein, Esq. continues.

The NYC Dept of Education, which never allows itself to miss an opportunity to indulge in despicably obscene behavior, may have gone too far this time and a NY State Supreme Court Justice does not intend to allow them to get away with it.

The Wheels of Justice Continue To Turn in David Pakter's quest to make certain that Joel Klein, Esq. and his hired thugs are called to account and made to answer for their past actions. - All of them.

"Though the Wheels of Justice grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding fine".

Please Remember fired UFT Reporters, Betsy Combier and Jim Callaghan -

......United in Courage - to tell the Truth, let the cost be damned.

...and the thousands of UFT members the Union failed to protect.

David Pakter - Still Standing
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New York Public Personnel Law
Newspaper ordered to disclose the source

of alleged inaccurate information it published

to the individual suing for alleged defamation

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Newspaper ordered to disclose the source of alleged inaccurate information
it published to the individual suing for alleged defamation

Matter of Pakter v New York City Dept .of Educ., 2010 NY Slip Op 32451(U, August 20, 2010,
Supreme Court, New York County, Judge Cynthia S. Kern [Not selected for publication in the Official Reports]

The Court's decision is posted on the Internet at:

http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/pdfs/2010/2010_32451.pdf ____________________________________________________________________________________________

David Pakter, a school teacher employed by the New York City Department of Education [DOE], was charged with misconduct and removed from his classroom teaching duties and assigned to one of the DOE'S reassignment centers also known as the "rubber rooms"

On March 21, 2010, the New York Post published an article titled "Bored of Ed. in Rubber Rooms".

A sidebar to this article featuring "notable rubber room residents" included Pakter and stated that he was charged with sexual misconduct.

Pakter, however, had not been charged with sexual misconduct and the Post subsequently ran a retraction.

Pakter, believing himself to have been defamed and intending to bring a lawsuit against the person or persons who provided the Post with the inaccurate information, asked the Post and DOE to identify the source of the incorrect statement.

When his request was denied, Pakter filed a petition in Supreme Court seeking a court order to compel the disclosure of the name or names of the person or persons involved with providing the information and any documentation that he had been charged with sexual misconduct. He also asked for a court order compelling the Post and DOE to preserve all "notes, emails, and electronically stored information" concerning the event.

Judge Kern ruled that Pakter was entitled to "pre-action disclosure of information" as to the identity of the source or sources who provided the Post with the statement as he had made a "strong showing that a cause of action exists" for a cause of action for defamation alleging a false statement, published without privilege or authorization to a third party.

Further, said the court, such pre-action discovery is permitted in cases, such as here, where an individual having a valid claim for defamation needs "to identify the unnamed source or sources who provided defamatory information to a newspaper in order to bring an action against them."

The Post was ordered to answer interrogatories limited to the issue of the name(s) of the source or sources who provided the Post with the statement that Pakter had been charged with sexual misconduct "as reported in the article and sidebar to the article entitled 'Bored of Ed. in Rubber Rooms' " and, in addition, both the Post and DOE were directed "to preserve any documents, reporter's notes, emails, and electronically stored information related to the statement at issue."

The decision is posted on the Internet at:

http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/pdfs/2010/2010_32451.pdf

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on September 13, 2010 (boomark / email ).