In Asbury Park, darkness on the edge of town

By: Joe Strupp It's not unusual for a reporter and a public official to find themselves embroiled in a defamation lawsuit. But when it's the reporter doing the suing and the official on the defensive, that's when things get strange. Add to the confusion a judge's ruling that the reporter is a public figure, which could limit her ability to seek malice and set a dangerous precedent for journalists in the future, and you've got a real eye-opener.

Such a drama is unfolding in New Jersey, where Carol Gorga Williams, a veteran reporter with the Asbury Park Press of Neptune, N.J., is claiming that former Ocean County (N.J.) Deputy Public Defender Robert L. Tarver tarnished her reputation by spreading lies that she was having an affair with a source on her beat. In a civil lawsuit filed in Monmouth County Superior Court, Williams contends the rumor allegedly spread by Tarver and his former attorney caused Williams to lose the coveted Ocean County courthouse beat, while also hurting her reputation. "It has been a horrible, horrible experience for her," says Richard Ragsdale, Williams' attorney. "It has had a devastating effect on her career."

But Tarver's attorney, Bruce Rosen, claims the rumor had no effect on Williams because her editors did not believe it and, he says, reassigned her to a new beat as a promotion. "We don't know how she was damaged," Rosen says.

Williams, who remains at the paper covering the city of Long Branch, N.J., did not respond to requests for comment, nor did former Press editor Ray Ollwerther. But the paper's current editor, William "Skip" Hidlay, says Williams requested her current beat and "this has not affected her work in any way."

The uproar dates back to July 27, 2001, when Williams, who had been the paper's Ocean County courthouse reporter for five years, wrote a story about an investigation into allegations that Tarver had falsified time records for his job. Four days later, according to the lawsuit, Tarver spoke with Peter Garcia, then-acting head of the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, which oversees each of the state's county public defender offices. During that conversation, which Garcia taped, he allegedly told Tarver that another attorney in the Ocean County Public Defender's office, Gerald Boswell, was having an affair with Williams.

Tarver went on sick leave several months later and eventually resigned from his post. He is now an attorney in private practice who also serves as a legal analyst for CNN and Court TV.

On Jan. 16, 2002, Tarver's attorney, Linda B. Kenney, who also happened to be a part-time legal columnist for the paper, faxed a letter to Williams' direct supervisor at the time, Fred Simmonds, along with a transcript of the Tarver/Garcia conversation that alleged the affair. "You may wish to investigate whether or not the coverage in this matter has in any way been incomplete because of this allegation," the letter stated. "I bring it to your attention to do with as you see fit."

Williams, in her lawsuit filed Jan. 9, 2003, contends that Tarver and Kenney sent the information in an effort to have Williams fired in retaliation for her coverage of the Tarver investigation. It also claimed she underwent a "humiliating interrogation" by three editors after the letter and transcript were received. Although editors told Williams at the time that they did not believe the allegations, they removed her from her courthouse beat in February 2002 because her objectivity had been called into question, the lawsuit states.

"That left the impression in the public eye that she had done something wrong," Ragsdale says. "She is banned from doing a story that she developed." The lawsuit also claims Williams suffered emotional and physical distress as a result, even taking time off work to seek treatment.

The most recent wrinkle in the case occurred in April 2003 when Superior Court Judge William Gilroy ruled that Williams, by virtue of being a well-known reporter at the Ocean County courthouse, would be considered a public figure. At the same time, the judge dismissed one of the counts against Tarver and Kenney, which sought to prove negligent defamation.

The public-figure designation drew mixed reactions. While Ragsdale believes he would still be able to prove reckless disregard for the truth, Rosen sees the public figure label as a plus. "If she is a public figure, you can't just say this was negligent," Rosen says. "You have to prove actual malice. You have to show that we knew this was a lie." Ragsdale disagrees that Williams should be treated like a celebrity journalist just because she is a reporter in that area. "She is not Bob Woodward," he observes.