The State - News from Sept. 15, 1986

A judge has overturned a jury’s $1-million libel verdict against the San Jose Mercury News, saying that a former city councilman failed to show convincingly that the newspaper was guilty of constitutional malice. Ex-Councilman Claude Fletcher, who sued the newspaper for a series of 1984 articles about his business activities, said he will appeal the “unbelievable decision” by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Frank Cliff, who also granted the newspaper’s motion for a new trial. The case stemmed from articles by reporter Scott Herhold that raised questions about Fletcher’s financial interest in a Milpitas firm that sought a $1.6-million, low-income housing insulation contract from an anti-poverty agency on whose board Fletcher sat.