Judge Dismisses Libel Case Against Governor

A Los Angeles judge late Friday dismissed a libel suit brought against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his campaign by a former stuntwoman who leveled election eve charges last fall that he had twice assaulted her.

In an 11-page opinion, Superior Court Judge Robert L. Hess ruled that Rhonda Miller’s decision to hold a news conference to level her accusations put her in the role of a limited public figure. Therefore, Hess said, Miller’s attorneys had to offer “clear and convincing” evidence that Schwarzenegger and others knew Miller had no criminal history when the campaign sent an e-mail to reporters suggesting they check her background in criminal court records.

Records showed criminal cases under the name Rhonda Miller, but not the Rhonda Miller who had leveled the charges against Schwarzenegger.

“The evidence before the court establishes that Mr. Schwarzenegger neither knew of nor approved the text of the disputed e-mail before it was sent,” the judge wrote.

Moreover, the judge said, there was no proof that Schwarzenegger’s campaign communications director, Sean Walsh, or others knew Miller had no criminal record when they attempted to respond to her accusations of being accosted by Schwarzenegger.

“This case presents an arguable failure to further investigate where a reasonable, prudent person might have done so; however, the court is not persuaded that it presents a purposeful avoidance of the truth,” Hess said.

Attorneys for the governor and the campaign hailed the ruling as a vindication of their arguments that Miller’s lawsuit, filed in December, was without merit.

“Our position has always been the same: that Arnold Schwarzenegger should never have been sued in this case,” said his attorney, Martin Singer. “As we have stated from Day One, this lawsuit was not filed on the merits. It was filed to try and hurt him.”

Added Neil Shapiro, a Monterey, Calif., attorney representing Walsh and the campaign: “We argued all along that she was a limited public figure and had to prove that Sean Walsh knew what he said was false. And she didn’t prove it.”

But Miller and her attorneys, criticizing the ruling, vowed an appeal.

Calling the decision “very unfair,” Miller said in a statement: “I think I should have the right to have my day in court.”

Attorney Paul Hoffman argued that Miller had never been given the opportunity to prove her accusations because the judge greatly limited the amount of evidence that could be collected in the preliminary stages of the case before it could be presented to a jury.

“He said, ‘You don’t have any evidence on Gov. Schwarzenegger,’ and yet he wouldn’t let us take his deposition. Then he said we didn’t offer clear and convincing evidence that the campaign knew what it was saying was false, but he didn’t allow us to depose other people in the campaign,” Hoffman said.

“I think we had more than enough to move this case forward,” the lawyer added. “And if the courts are going to interpret the [law] this way and not allow any significant discovery ... they might as well repeal the libel laws of the state of California.”

The lawsuit arose from events that began with a news conference that Miller held Oct. 6 with attorney Gloria Allred in which she accused Schwarzenegger of twice having accosted her on movie sets.

The first incident, she alleged, occurred in January 1991 during the filming of “Terminator 2” in Ontario, Calif. She said the actor pulled up her T-shirt, sucked on her breasts and took a photograph of them, taping it to the ceiling of a makeup trailer. He allegedly said he did it so he could “see [them] all day.” During that encounter, Miller said, Schwarzenegger also used sexually explicit language.

Three years later, during the filming of “True Lies,” Schwarzenegger grabbed her and felt her breasts before becoming angry when she hit him in the head, she alleged.

Over the years, Miller said, she had considered suing Schwarzenegger over his alleged conduct, but feared that doing so would hurt the careers of the director and producer on the films. Early last year, she contacted the Screen Actors Guild, but was told that the statute of limitations for reporting the allegations had expired.

It was only after Schwarzenegger denied allegations of similar sexual misconduct reported by the Los Angeles Times, Miller said, that she decided to go public with her accusations.

Her allegations, coming the day before the election, prompted a retort from Schwarzenegger’s campaign.

In addition to issuing a categorical denial of her claims, the campaign sent an e-mail urging reporters to check Miller’s name on an Internet site of Los Angeles Superior Court criminal records. The e-mail implied that Miller had a criminal background and went on to chastise Allred. “We have to believe that as a lawyer, Gloria would have thoroughly checked the facts and background of the individual she presented at a news conference today,” the e-mail said.

Reporters checking the court’s database found that the Rhonda Miller who accused Schwarzenegger of assault had a different birth date from the Rhonda Millers who had felony convictions. Still, the suggestion that Miller had a record quickly made its way to talk radio and TV shows, where she was vilified.

In court documents, campaign officials acknowledged that they had no evidence Miller had a criminal record before sending out the controversial e-mail. Court records also revealed that the campaign had sent an earlier e-mail to a producer at NBC News, where the governor’s wife, Maria Shriver, worked as a reporter.

In written responses to questions posed by Miller’s attorneys, Schwarzenegger said he had no recollection of her before the election and knew nothing of her allegations until watching the evening news the night before the election.

The governor also said, in written responses, that he did not give anyone in his campaign instructions on how to answer Miller’s claims and had no role in sending the e-mail to reporters.

In his ruling, Hess accepted the governor’s statements and dismissed the arguments by Miller’s attorneys that the e-mail went far beyond the realm of a fair rebuttal.

“Ms. Miller’s account was presented less than 24 hours before the polls were to open, a circumstance which (planned or not) minimized the time for effective response,” Hess said.

“Under all the circumstances, Ms. Miller’s veracity, her motives for making the accusations at that time and in that manner, and her character -- and not simply whether she had reported the incidents accurately -- were legitimate issues for comment and criticism,” Hess wrote.

But Miller’s attorneys disagreed, insisting that they had no hope of getting to the truth without a chance to depose the governor.

“President Clinton was required to give his deposition for acts which occurred while he was president,” Allred said, noting that the events in this case occurred before Schwarzenegger was elected.