A Utah couple have filed a defamation suit seeking millions of dollars from the Standard-Examiner and Weber County, asserting the newspaper published their 16-year-old son’s jail photo from a juvenile court case on its website.
The picture, along with the teen’s full name and information about three allegations that had been filed against him in 2nd District Juvenile Court, was included in the “Mugshots” section of the Ogden paper’s website April 10, the suit says.
The photo and case information were obtained by the newspaper through a Weber County Sheriff’s Office software program that disseminates recent bookings to news outlets, according to the suit.
The lawsuit — which was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City by the parents on behalf of their son and themselves — asks for nearly $40 million in damages. Named as defendants are the Standard-Examiner and its parent company, the Ohio-based Sandusky Newspaper Inc.; Weber County; and Records Finder, described as a Virginia company that hosts the PoliceArrests.com website, where the photo and allegations were also allegedly posted.
The suit accuses all of the defendants of defamation, putting the teen in a false light in the public eye and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In addition, the suit says Weber County and its officers and agencies deprived the teen of his rights, including the right to privacy, and accuses them of breach of fiduciary duty by the dissemination of “this private court and personal identification information.”
The Standard-Examiner and Weber County did not respond to requests for comment. Records Finder could not be reached.
According to the suit, three allegations were brought against the teen through the Weber County juvenile center. The suit, which does not give details of the incidents that led to the allegations, said this was the first time the teen had been in any kind of trouble.
On April 10, two of the allegations were dropped and the remaining one was resolved in a juvenile court proceeding, according to the suit, which notes that juvenile cases are considered civil, not criminal, matters. As part of the resolution, the teen was to get fingerprinted, which he was that day at Weber County’s detention center for adults, the suit says.
The next night, the boy received social media messages from two friends that included the mug, his full name and the three allegations — information that was found on the Standard-Examiner website, according to the suit.
The parents contacted the newspaper early April 11 about the inclusion of their son’s photo and information on the website but his picture stayed up until at least late afternoon, the suit alleges. By 10 p.m., the mug had been removed but the case information still remained, the suit says.
After his peers saw the mug shot, the teen was subjected to teasing and bullying at his school and has suffered from depression and severe anxiety, the suit says. His parents say in the suit that they have suffered from “severe emotional and psychological trauma” and another of their children also has been heckled by peers and has had to endure anxiety and worsening depression.