A Philadelphia judge's defamation suit alleging he was cast as a corrupt villain in a book about the criminal trial of infamous abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell has been removed to federal court.

Lawyers for defendant Pennsylvania Media Associates—an operator of in-state radio stations that Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart claims conspired with the book's publisher to market its alleged defamatory account of him in “Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer”—said putting the case in front of a federal judge was necessary so that it would not be tried in Minehart's home court.

PMA's lawyer, Benjamin H. McCoy, said in court papers that Minehart sued the company to add a Pennsylvania defendant, giving him the ability to have the case before a colleague in his court. The book's publisher and other defendants are all based in California or Washington, D.C.