‘Kato’ Kaelin Settles Libel Suit With Tabloid
Brian “Kato” Kaelin has settled a libel suit against the tabloid National Examiner over a headline that read: “Cops Think Kato Did It.”
Kaelin was seeking $15 million from Globe Communications, the parent company of the National Examiner. Kaelin’s lawyer, Gary Bostwick, would not disclose the amount of the settlement, which he said was reached several weeks ago but was entered into court records Friday.
The paper’s story said police think Kaelin lied on the witness stand during the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
A federal trial judge originally dismissed the libel case, saying the story itself was not libelous or malicious.
But in a landmark decision, a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled that a headline alone could be libelous. The court said a reader could reasonably interpret the Examiner’s headline to mean that the police think Kaelin committed the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
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