The state Supreme Court has decided to hear a defamation case brought by a police officer who had sued a newspaper over an allegation of sexual misconduct in a letter to the editor – as well as the author of the letter.
The officer had lost on both counts at the Superior Court, but now the high court has said it will review the case to see whether the defamation action should continue against the letter-writer.The Pennsylvania Superior Court had ruled roughly a year ago in Weaver v. Lancaster Newspapers Inc. that a newspaper’s failure to investigate an allegation in a letter to the editor about sexual misconduct by a police officer was not enough to show actual malice.
