Greenwich resident Lorraine Martin files lawsuit against news outlets for “false and defamatory” statement

Lawyers for a Greenwich woman has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against several news media outlets in Fairfield County after they failed to remove her name from online reports stating she was arrested in 2010 on drug charges.

The suit was filed on behalf of Lorraine Martin on June 18 in state Superior Court in Stamford by her attorneys Mark Sherman and Stephan Seeger.

The suit says that Hearst Corp., the parent company of Greenwich Time, Stamford Advocate and CT Post, along with News12 and Main Street Connect, made “false and defamatory” statements against Martin by stating she was charged with drug violations in August 2010.

Apparently Martin had those charges thrown out and she can now legally testify that she was never arrested because of a state law allowing people to have their criminal cases erased from court and police records once they have been either acquitted or have had their case thrown out.  However, the online news outlets still claims she was arrested.

This is a very interesting case because from my understanding an arrest was initially made and now no one, including her lawyers, is saying why the case was either thrown out or dismissed.  How can you take back something that actually happened?

I wonder if Ms. Martin would have been satisfied with an update stating that there are no current records on file about her arrest.

We will keep you posted of the courts outcome!