[TheForge] Legal action, Licata...

[Andy Vida]

I've been in contact with Steven Licata.  Apparently Gil Hibben's wife
(?) Linda, put him in touch with one Mr. Kagin, attorney at law in
the fair state of Kentucky and Steve has retained him.  The following is
the letter from Mr. Kagin to the pseudo journalist Fiandaca.  It's a
good read.  I'm sure CBS won't be fazed by this, but maybe I will be
wrong and their collective little sphincter will tighten up and give
them some good cause to lose sleep.  We should be so lucky.

I'm very pleased to see someone taking a stand against slanderous,
verminous cretins such as the imbecile Fiandaca and the crapulous
media giant CBS.  I think this is a very important thing for not 
only we knife makers, but for liberty loving people everywhere.  
It may seem like a small thing, but I don't think that it is.  A 
line must be drawn in the sand and it looks like Steve's decided 
to do it and I congratulate him for it.  I have offered any help 
that I may afford him, particularly about knives, smithing, weapons, 
and the martial arts.  I would encourage any and all to offer all 
good aid and assistance to him.  I firmly believe that helping him 
is the same as helping ourselves.  If we don't start reeling in the
corporate state, the juggernaut will run us flatter'n a possum on
I-40 in Oklahoma in July.

Enjoy.

	-Andy

*******************************************************************
Edwin F. Kagin

Attorney and Counsellor at Law
10742 Sedco Drive, Union, Kentucky
e-mail: edwinkagin at fuse.net

P.O. Box 559                                Phone: (859) 384-7000
Union, KY 41091			              Fax: (859) 384-7324


May 15, 2004

Cheryl.Fiandaca
WCBS-TV
524 West 57 Street
New York, NY 10019

RE: CLAIM OF STEVEN LICATA

Dear Ms. Fiandaca:

Please be advised that I have been retained by Mr. Steven Licata of
Garfield, New Jersey to prosecute a claim, in Kentucky, for injunctive
relief and damages, against you, and against WCBS, for your
irresponsible, and defamatory publication of May 11, 2004, which on this
date continues to be available for public consumption in the
Commonwealth of Kentucky in both printed form and as a video readily
accessible by a home computer.

I note from your most impressive bio that you are licensed to practice
law in several jurisdictions. Please take notice that while False Light
tort litigation does not sound in your jurisdictions, it is alive and
well in Kentucky.

My client, who is not a public figure, has been falsely portrayed by you
and your station as a harmful and undesirable person who is also
negligent toward his child. My client, the son of a retired Chief of
Police, holds a BFA, Bachelor of Fine Arts, four year degree from The
School of Visual Arts, E. 23rd St., New York, NY. He has never been
arrested, and your malicious defamatory libel has caused him to be
looked upon as somehow dangerous by those in his community, something
that has never before occurred, to the point that he feels it necessary
to move.

The art objects he produces, which you so callously and tortuously
defame, are hardly the type of weapons bought by those who make
headlines in such stories as your May 15, 2004 report, "Two Women
Stabbed in the Bronx." Indeed, you would be hard pressed indeed to show
evidence of any violence of any kind attributable to collectors and
others who purchase art knives, and related artifacts, at prices of
hundreds or thousands of dollars, or to any evidence of such items
having been used in crimes. These works appear not in courts, but in
collections and exhibits.

Your obvious intent was not to praise the artist or his art, as has so
often been the case with knife makers whose work product is viewed by
knowledgeable persons and institutions, including the Smithsonian, as
something far different from hardware store pig-stickers, or grocery
store carving knifes. Steve Licata's presence in his community should be
viewed as something positive and desirable, and he and his work praised.
Instead, he has been subjected to the studied humiliation of your
report, to vilification based on ignorance, and to the slander of your
uninformed bias.

You, and your T.V. station have published in a most public, derogatory,
and condemning manner facts about my client designed by you to
gratuitously  create a false and highly misleading impression of a
craftsman artist, alleging that he offers "death for sale.' This is the
essence of the False Light privacy tort lawsuit recognized in Kentucky.
Further, you have, by your admission, filmed in his home without his
knowledge or consent. This unconscionable deliberate conduct constitutes
invasion of privacy and trespass. Your pogrom against him has generated
damages.

Please consider this a formal demand for an immediate retraction and
correction of the challenged material. Further, please consider this a
formal demand that you cease and desist forthwith from continuing
publication of the defamations herein alleged. Failing this, a lawsuit
may be filed ten days from receipt without further notice to you.

Sincerely,


Edwin F. Kagin