MSU students sued for defamation on Wikipedia

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Two MSU students are named in a $25,000 lawsuit about reported defamation on Wikipedia.

Ingham County Commissioner Mark Grebner filed a complaint statinig international relations junior Brad Dennis and criminal justice sophomore Anthony Giammarinaro made edits to Grebner’s Wikipedia entry in October 2008. Dennis Lennox II, a Central Michigan University student and Cheboygan County drain commissioner, also was named in the complaint. Dennis, a member of the MSU College Republicans, unsuccessfully ran against Grebner in the 2008 election.

The multiple edits included accusations Grebner had been convicted of child molestation and is gay.

“The article was libelous,” Grebner said. “Statements like those are calculated to cause damage to someone’s reputation.”

The complaint was filed in Ingham County Circuit Court on May 13 under Judge Rosemarie Aquilina. Grebner said $25,000 is the minimum damages that can be claimed in Circuit Court.

Grebner said the anonymous editors were found by tracing IP addresses. MSU traced the addresses used to make the changes to computers owned by Dennis and Giammarinaro. According to the complaint, the third address has been accessed by Lennox, but detailed information on whether he used it when the defamation was posted was not provided. Grebner said the process of linking the IP addresses to the defendants caused the delay in filing the complaint.

Giammarinaro reportedly wrote, “In 1997, Grebner was convicted on three counts of sexually abusing children. His comment ‘OK — I’m weird. Vote for me anyway.’”

He also reportedly replaced Grebner’s picture with an oil painting of Benjamin Franklin and inserted a picture of Osama bin Laden captioned, “One of Grebner’s biggest supporters in the 2004 election.”

Giammarinaro did not return requests for comment.

Dennis reportedly wrote Grebner introduced a proposal “that proposed increasing taxes by as much as $4.4 million. The controversy started when Grebner help(ed) to name the proposal a ‘tax limitation.’ Many have argued that this was a strategy by the board to ‘trick’ the voters in a tax increase that they would otherwise never support.”

Dennis said he did not remember making the edit.

“You’ve got to remember this was more than a year ago,” he said. “From the sound of it, it sounds as if (the edit) were based in truth. It sounds like, what I’ve heard before, is a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) lawsuit, where a public figure files a lawsuit to limit someone’s public participation.”

Lennox reportedly called Grebner a “homosexual” in an August 2008 edit. He said he had not been served with a lawsuit and could not comment.
Dennis also said he had not been served.

“I think my parents may have gotten a phone call from someone, but there was no attempt to serve papers,” he said.

Grebner said the processors had attempted to serve Dennis.

“I think they’ve served Giammarinaro,” he said. “Dennis Lennox has an appointment to be served but who knows if he’ll show up for it.”

Cliff Lampe, assistant professor of telecommunication, information studies and media, said defamation lawsuits have been filed about Wikipedia edits before. He said the defendant has the same burden of proof as in other defamation suits, including proving the allegations were false and they damaged his reputation.

“(Students) should remember that Wikipedia is a public forum, so it’s as if they wrote a letter to the editor or called a radio call-in show,” he said. “It’s so broadly used that I think it would be easier to claim damage (to one’s reputation).”

Grebner said he found the changes, and someone else reversed them.

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