Attorney C. William Barrett Interviewed for Washington Post Article by Erik Wemple Asserting Client’s Innocence and Wrongdoing by the New York Post

Here is the list of defendants in the just-filed suit against the New York Post over the “Bag Men” episode:

• NYP Holdings, Inc., d/b/a New York Post
• Larry Celona
• Brad Hamilton
• Jamie Schram
• Lorena Mongelli
• Kate Kowsh
• Jane Doe

Celona, Hamilton, Schram, Mongelli and Kowsh, according to the complaint, contributed to the material at the heart of the libel/invasion of privacy suit.

But who’s Jane Doe? Allow the complaint to explain: “At all times material hereto, defendant Jane Doe was an employee of the New York Post, and while acting within the scope of her employment at the New York Post, designed and/or wrote the “Headline” of the publication at issue in this case.”

Smart legalcraft right there. What made the New York Post’s presentation so objectionable, after all, was the proximity of the photo, the text addressing the feds’ circulation of the photo and the oh-so-clever “Bag Men” formulation.

C. William Barrett, attorney for one of the plaintiffs in the case (Yassine Zaimi), explains: “I think you have to assume that there are various different components that are responsible for the libel that we are alleging in our case,” he said in a chat with the Erik Wemple Blog. “So we were just trying to be as specific as possible about the instances of libel. We’re not sure of the exact identity of the person writing the headlines or taglines … If they had a hand in this, we wanted to make sure they were listed.”