Baltimore Sun Faces Libel Suit for Housing Series |
| A Cockeysville real estate
investor has filed a $60 million libel suit against The Baltimore Sun and one of its
reporters, alleging that an award-winning series that began in December 1999 ruined his
reputation and crippled his business. James M. Stein contends that the articles identifying him as a slumlord and a "silent real estate partner" of a convicted drug dealer were inaccurate and caused "catastrophic financial loss." The suit names Jim Haner, the reporter who wrote the articles, and The Sun as defendants. It contends that the articles showed a "reckless disregard for the truth." The series of articles, used a computer-assisted analysis of more than 10,000 pages of public records to detail Stein’s 15-year record of major housing code violations and the fortune he reaped from renting substandard housing. The stories, for which Stein refused to be interviewed, also described his relationship with George A. Dangerfield, Jr., a convicted cocaine dealer who bought 33 houses from Stein and shared with Stein control of more than 100 corporations named by city officials in the lead poisonings of at least 84 children. William K. Matimow, eidtor of The Sun praised the stories as being "exhaustively researched and reported." "They were accurate, thorough and fair, and every effort was made to elicit comment from James Stein, but he declined to do so," said Marimow. - from The Sun |
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