Charleston, SC Jury Awards Charleston Lawyers $3.95 Million Dollars for Personal Injuries Arising Out of Defamation Lawsuit

Amy Rothschild

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On September 14, 2007, after an eight day trial, a Charleston County jury consisting of 9 women and 3 men, ordered WSCS-TV (Cahnnel 5) and Jefferson-Pilot Communications, it's former owner, to pay $3.95 million dollars to Charleston attorneys Elizabeth and Christopher Murphy to compensate them for a smear campaign initiated by Don Feldman, the station's former news director. $3.7 million was awarded to Elizabeth Murphy and $250,000 was awarded to her husband.

The Murphys claimed that Feldman was an acting as an agent of WCSC and Jefferson-Pilot when he falsely accused Elizabeth Murphy of slandering fellow attorney and Channel 5 regular panelist Sandra Senn eight years ago.

Channel 5's attorneys tried to defend the case arguing that that Feldman worked for the station but not its parent. If the argument had succeeded, it would have protected the deeper corporate pocket. The jury decided that Feldman served both Channel 5 and Jefferson Pilot Communications such that both of them were held liable.

"Feldman claimed Murphy loudly and drunkenly bad-mouthed Senn's love life and integrity while traveling on a July 1999 flight from Charleston to Atlanta. Feldman blasted Murphy's alleged behavior in a letter on company stationery and drafted a bogus civil agreement in which she supposedly apologized for her actions. Murphy claimed the allegations plunged her into a nervous breakdown and destroyed her law career."

The Murphy's won a $9 million against Feldman during a 2003 trial but have not been able to collect anything from him. He was pennilesswhen the judgment was levied and jailed for embezzling $2.5 million from his former station.

In his closing argument, Murphy's lawyer, John E. Parker, of Hampton, South Carolina, argued that the jury should award the couple $8.7 million to reimburse them for medical bills, lost wages and other damages. Mr. Parker argued that Feldman's of Elizabeth Murphy as "a 'drunken wench' and a loose woman put an indelible stigma on her reputation and derailed her dream of becoming a promising trial lawyer."

"Parker said WCSC and Jefferson-Pilot stood by Feldman even after questions surfaced about his honesty and integrity because he was pulling in high ratings and making them money. During the trial, they continued to attack Murphy's reputation and tried to distance themselves from Feldman to escape responsibility for the harm he caused, he said."