But you can just delete it from the Internet - right?

Sucks to be you Doctor Roger Nicosia -- from Florida's TC Palm:
Martin County doctor sues website, four people claiming defamation in blog entries over 2009 boating accident.
Two years after Robert Murphy lost his legs while diving offshore, the Martin County emergency room physician operating the boat that caused the tragic accident took legal steps to protect his reputation.

Monday, he sued four people and a website with claims of libel, slander and emotional distress.

In a four-count lawsuit, Roger Nicosia sued Charlotte County resident Lisa Rollins � a friend with Murphy who witnessed the Jan. 9, 2009 accident � along with Duval County resident Christopher Bartlett, John Etzler of Seminole County, Philip A. Grogan of Palm Beach County and Spearboard.com, a Website Grogan operates through Enterprise Publications.

Nicosia's complaint seeks in excess of $15,000 in damages, and a permanent injunction to stop the defendants from defaming him on the Internet and from posting blog entries that are "false, defamatory and misleading."

Shortly after Murphy lost his legs, a groundswell of the popular diver's supporters turned to the Internet and blogs to rail against Nicosia and criticized his alleged behavior that day.

"As a result of the accident," the lawsuit stated, "defendants began a full-blown pursuit to destroy the reputation, livelihood and good name of Nicosia, both personally and as a physician through written and spoken means."

Messages left for Rollins were not returned Monday, and attempts to reach the other defendants were unsuccessful.

During a criminal trial in August, a judge found Nicosia guilty of violating navigational rules, a second-degree misdemeanor. He was sentenced to six months of probation, and ordered to pay a $250 fine and $900 for the cost of prosecution. Records show he's appealing his conviction and a court order to pay $15,000 in restitution.

Nicosia's attorney, Robert J. Elder III of Stuart, on Monday said despite evidence presented at trial, his client has been "attacked relentlessly by Mr. Murphy's supporters" online and across the Internet.

"Their behavior is so egregious and it's so malicious that it was imperative that we do something to prevent further damage to Dr. Nicosia," Elder said. "What they've done is attempt to incite a modern-day Internet lynching with the blogging and the Spearboard.com and the online petition."

Nicosia, too, claimed Rollins and Bartlett filed a petition "riddled with false and defamatory comments" with the Florida Department of Health in seeking to revoke his medical license.

"Obviously he has sustained damages," Elder said of Nicosia, "both physical and financially, as well as mentally from this onslaught of behavior."
What an arrogant little putz. He causes an accident that causes someone to loose their legs, is able to weasel out with only a second-degree misdemeanor and he expects that his actions will not turn around and bite him on his ass. Is he that narcissistic? Dr. Nicosia, you physically changed someone's life that day and had you immediately stopped and rendered aid as is your professional career (an emergency room physician after all), people would have been pissed but you would have walked clear -- it was an accident. To get off so easy and then to turn around and sue those who are keeping the memory of your actions in the public eye is beneath contempt. Quite the thread going on over at Spearboard.com

October 2022

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          

Environment and Climate
AccuWeather
Cliff Mass Weather Blog
Climate Depot
Ice Age Now
ICECAP
Jennifer Marohasy
Solar Cycle 24
Space Weather
Watts Up With That?


Science and Medicine
Junk Science
Life in the Fast Lane
Luboš Motl
Medgadget
Next Big Future
PhysOrg.com


Geek Stuff
Ars Technica
Boing Boing
Don Lancaster's Guru's Lair
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
FAIL Blog
Hack a Day
Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools
Neatorama
Slashdot: News for nerds
The Register
The Daily WTF


Comics
Achewood
The Argyle Sweater
Chip Bok
Broadside Cartoons
Day by Day
Dilbert
Medium Large
Michael Ramirez
Prickly City
Tundra
User Friendly
Vexarr
What The Duck
Wondermark
xkcd


NO WAI! WTF?¿?¿
Awkward Family Photos
Cake Wrecks
Not Always Right
Sober in a Nightclub
You Drive What?


Business and Economics
The Austrian Economists
Carpe Diem
Coyote Blog


Photography and Art
Digital Photography Review
DIYPhotography
James Gurney
Joe McNally's Blog
PetaPixel
photo.net
Shorpy
Strobist
The Online Photographer


Blogrolling
A Western Heart
AMCGLTD.COM
American Digest
The AnarchAngel
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Babalu Blog
Belmont Club
Bayou Renaissance Man
Classical Values
Cobb
Cold Fury
David Limbaugh
Defense Technology
Doug Ross @ Journal
Grouchy Old Cripple
Instapundit
iowahawk
Irons in the Fire
James Lileks
Lowering the Bar
Maggie's Farm
Marginal Revolution
Michael J. Totten
Mostly Cajun
Neanderpundit
neo-neocon
Power Line
ProfessorBainbridge.com
Questions and Observations
Rachel Lucas
Roger L. Simon
Samizdata.net
Sense of Events
Sound Politics
The Strata-Sphere
The Smallest Minority
The Volokh Conspiracy
Tim Blair
Velociworld
Weasel Zippers
WILLisms.com
Wizbang


Gone but not Forgotten...
A Coyote at the Dog Show
Bad Eagle
Steven DenBeste
democrats give conservatives indigestion
Allah
BigPictureSmallOffice
Cox and Forkum
The Diplomad
Priorities & Frivolities
Gut Rumbles
Mean Mr. Mustard 2.0
MegaPundit
Masamune
Neptunus Lex
Other Side of Kim
Publicola
Ramblings' Journal
Sgt. Stryker
shining full plate and a good broadsword
A Physicist's Perspective
The Daily Demarche
Wayne's Online Newsletter

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on January 11, 2011 8:20 PM.

Voting with your feet was the previous entry in this blog.

Heh... is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Monthly Archives

Pages

OpenID accepted here Learn more about OpenID
Powered by Movable Type 5.2.9