February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Ray O’Hanlon
Legendary British journalist Harold Evans is lined up as an expert witness for Sean McPhilemy should the libel case against the Derry-born author go to trial in Washington, D.C., next month.
Jury selection in the case against McPhilemy taken by Northern Ireland car dealers David and Albert Prentice is set for May 8.
McPhilemy’s legal team will be seeking a dismissal but should the case go to a jury trial, Evans, one of the most prominent British newspapermen of his generation, is waiting in the wings on McPhilemy’s behalf.
"We don’t want to have a trial, but if there is one we will relish it," McPhilemy’s attorney Russell Smith told the Echo this week.
McPhilemy’s legal position on British soil was apparently strengthened last week when he won a libel case against the Sunday Times in a London court.
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Ironically, Evans is a former editor of the Sunday Times as well as its weekday sister paper, The Times.
Evans left the Times stable when both papers were bought by publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch. Evans recounted his version of the differences between him and Murdoch in a best-selling book, "Good Times, Bad Times."
Attorney Smith said that McPhilemy’s legal victory against the Times in London — the paper is appealing the verdict — had no bearing on the D.C. case, in which the Prentice brothers are suing McPhilemy, his TV production company, Box Productions, and Colorado-based publishers Roberts Rinehart for $100 million.
The brothers allege that they were defamed in McPhilemy’s book, "The Committee, Political Assassination in Northern Ireland."
Smith said that the London verdict was "helpful" to the cause of his clients. U.S. libel law was even more favorable to defendants than its British counterpart, he said.
McPhilemy’s defense before the District of Columbia Superior Court rests mainly on his free-speech rights under the First Amendment.
Smith said that Evans "would testify for Sean" if a trial went ahead.
A number of journalists could end up appearing for both sides in the case if it goes before a jury. Evans, until recently a senior management figure with the Daily News in New York, is currently writing two books for Time Warner and any expert testimony from him is expected to draw heavily on his seven-year stint as head of Random House publishers in New York.
Pre-trial proceedings in the D.C. case have been taking place since June 1998. The case was taken by the Prentices almost immediately after "The Committee" was published in May of that year.
In their suit, the Prentices — who are linked to an alleged "committee" that McPhilemy’s claims was behind a series of loyalist assassinations of Catholics in Northern Ireland — seek damages for "libel, false-light invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress."
The Prentices are being represented by the Washington, D.C., law firm Zuckerman, Sp’der, Goldstein, Taylor & Kolker.