[TheForge] Legal action, Licata...

[gblacksmith]

Andy:  Perhaps we, the smithing community, should take up a collection to
help defray Mr. Licata's legal expenses.  Grant
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andy Vida" <osan at netlabs.net>
To: "Kim George" <klgeorge at kent.edu>; "4g" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>;
<artmetal at wugate.wustl.edu>
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 11:55 AM
Subject: [TheForge] Legal action, Licata...


> 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
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