Judge Permits Privacy Suit Against CBS

An Oakland mother and daughter can sue CBS for invasion of privacy by a television program that followed a crime-victim squad into their home for a report of alleged wife-beating, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

The April, 1992, “Street Stories” newsmagazine included a segment in which a distraught Yolanda Baugh told a victim counselor and a police officer that her husband had beaten and kicked her. Baugh said she let the camera crew in after being told they were filming for the district attorney’s office, an account that CBS disputes.

U.S. District Judge Fern Smith ruled that Baugh and her then-5-year-old daughter, Donyelle, who was also shown in the broadcast, could sue the network on a claim that it had disclosed offensive personal matters without their consent.

CBS argued that a privacy suit could not be based on an incident that was the subject of a public police report. But Smith said the telecast went beyond the police report and “disclosed Yolanda Baugh’s emotional and personal reactions to the incident.”

Both mother and daughter “have a legitimate interest in maintaining the integrity and dignity of their family unit,” the judge wrote. “The ‘Street Stories’ broadcast undoubtedly disclosed matters which reasonable people might not want disclosed.”

Smith also said a jury should be allowed to decide CBS’ claim that the broadcast was newsworthy and therefore immune from suit.