Legal News

Expert: "Ambush" Interview Caused Woman's Suicide

By Matthew Heller, Editor

Melinda Duckett

A Harvard University psychiatrist has concluded that a woman who killed herself after talk-show host Nancy Grace interviewed her about the disappearance of her two-year-old son was a victim of "ambush" journalism.

?Melinda Duckett's experience with Nancy Grace and her associates at CNN ... substantially diminished her capacity to protect herself from suicidal ideation and thus was a substantial contributing cause of her suicide the following day,? Dr. Harold J. Bursztajn said in a report commissioned by Duckett's parents as part of their wrongful death lawsuit against CNN.

Beth and William Eubank have alleged the producers of ?Nancy Grace? misled Duckett into believing the interview would help in the search for her missing child when, in fact, ?the real purpose of the show ... was to try to obtain a confession as to 'where she was' on the night that [the child] disappeared.?

?[T]here is a reasonable inference of likelihood that she experienced the interview as an attack,? Bursztajn said, and if the nature of the interview was misrepresented to Duckett

there is a reasonable likelihood that the actual interview was made doubly frightening and demoralizing by Melinda's disappointment in finding the focus turning away from her son.

Duckett, 22, committed suicide with a shotgun Sept. 8, 2006. She had told police that her son Trenton vanished from their Leesburg, Fla., home Aug. 27.

Bursztajn has worked at Harvard's psychiatry department since 1982. He devotes much of his report to rebutting defense expert Dr. Andrew E. Slaby, a New York University psychiatrist who concluded that Duckett ?did not suicide because of her interview on the Nancy Grace program? and diagnosed her with borderline personality traits and sociopathic tendencies.

?Dr. Slaby appears to be referring to only the content of [Grace's] questions, not the manner in which they were delivered ?- the anger, the forcefulness, the physical gestures such as banging on the table,? Bursztajn said.

His report also says that ?Slaby refers to Melinda Duckett as an actress in pornographic videos without documenting any attempt to analyze her role in what he refers to as pornography. This includes determining whether she was acting in a scripted role or whether she was taped surreptitiously in an intimate personal situation.?

Duckett has been linked to amateur porn videos.

The Eubanks' complaint includes claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED). Even if a jury agrees with Bursztajn that the interview caused Duckett's suicide, that does not mean it will find CNN and Grace liable since IIED is ?found only where the conduct has been so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency.?

CNN has filed a motion to bar Bursztajn from testifying because of the plaintiffs' ?egregious failure? to follow the trial court's discovery orders and a federal rule governing the disclosure of expert testimony.

In July 2008, a judge denied a motion to dismiss the case, finding that while CNN's alleged misrepresentations to Duckett

may not be considered outrageous when the victim is of ordinary emotional and mental status, such conduct may become actionable (and liability may exist) when the alleged victim suffers from known emotional and/or psychological trauma.

CNN is likely to seek a summary dismissal before the case goes to trial in July 2010.

By Matthew Heller
On Point

Full post as published by On Point News on December 07, 2009 (boomark / email).