PITTSBURGH – A Pittsburgh coffee house owner claims he was defamed on an area radio station’s website, when a story was published last year in which he says he was falsely accused of sexual harassment by former employees.
Joseph Davis filed suit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on June 23 versus Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Company, also of Pittsburgh.
The litigation states on Aug. 2, 2019, a story was published on the website for WESA-FM in Pittsburgh titled, “Former employees accuse coffeehouse owner of sexual harassment”, which the plaintiff says discusses false accusations of sexual misconduct made against him by individuals formerly on the staff at his coffeehouse, Biddle’s Escape.
“The article notes that it tried to reach the plaintiff multiple times for a comment, but in fact, the defendant had only reached out to the plaintiff once, and had failed to answer plaintiff’s attempts to reach out to the defendant for a comment,” the lawsuit states.
“Said article was blatantly reporting false accusations and with a proper investigation would not have reported such accusations. Upon publication of this article, the false allegations regarding the plaintiff spread throughout the community.”
The article was shared on a local sub-page of the Reddit website, where site users posted comments encouraging others to no longer patronize the plaintiff’s business. As a result, Davis says he lost between $10,000 and $15,000 in revenue per month since the article’s publication, in addition to suffering mental anguish, emotional distress and public humiliation.
For counts of defamation, false light invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, the plaintiff is seeking damages in excess of $35,000 to be determined at trial, punitive damages and other relief as the Court deems just and proper.
The plaintiff is represented by Ryan D. Very, Stephen R. Matvey and Russell K. Turner of Very Law, in Pittsburgh.
The defendant has not yet secured legal counsel.
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas case GD-20-007030
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com