A former Bloomsburg PA radio personality suing television stations, political activists and others over what he says was a smear campaign will not be allowed to keep secret his current work information or the documents he submits to the court, a judge has ruled.
According to the Press-Enterprise, 30-year-old David Reilly, WHLM 930 AM, sued WBRE and WNEP TV stations last year, along with 15 other defendants. He said they falsely labeled him “a racist, bigoted Nazi” over his coverage of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
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| David Reilly |
That video, along with a previous interview of the rally’s organizer on WHLM, ignited protests outside the radio station that ended with Dave Reilly leaving his job at the station, which is owned by his father, Joe Reilly.
The defendants rebutted Reilly’s claims in their court filings, with the television stations saying their reporting on protests outside the radio station’s Main Street studio was accurate and a matter of public concern. The representatives for the protesters have said their opinions should not be held as defamation.
The lawsuit, filed in March 2018, remains in the discovery or fact-finding stages.
In some of the most recent filings, Reilly’s attorney, Sean Summers of York, had argued that as part of fact-finding, Dave Reilly should be allowed to submit work records and his current status of employment confidentially to prevent “unreasonable annoyance, embarrassment, oppression and expense” from making the information public.
The defendants jointly objected to that request. It’s a legal protection usually reserved for cases involving trade secrets and other limited business information, they said.
Senior Judge David E. Grine denied the petition seeking to enforce any confidentiality agreement as the lawsuit progresses in Columbia County Court.
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