Tilton v. Capital Cities/ABC Inc.

• Decision Date: 16 July 1993
• Docket Number: No. 92-C-1032-B.,92-C-1032-B.
• Citation: 827 F. Supp. 674
• Parties: Robert G. TILTON, an individual, Plaintiff, v. CAPITAL CITIES/ABC INC., a New York corporation; American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., a Delaware corporation; ABC News, Inc., a Delaware corporation; Diane Sawyer, an individual; Robbie Gordon, an individual; and Kelly Sutherland, an individual, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Oklahoma

827 F. Supp. 674

Robert G. TILTON, an individual, Plaintiff, v. CAPITAL CITIES/ABC INC., a New York corporation; American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., a Delaware corporation; ABC News, Inc., a Delaware corporation; Diane Sawyer, an individual; Robbie Gordon, an individual; and Kelly Sutherland, an individual, Defendants.

No. 92-C-1032-B.

United States District Court, N.D. Oklahoma.

July 16, 1993.

Sheila Miller Bradley, Ted J. Nelson, J.C. Joyce, John C. Joyce, Joyce & Pollard, Tulsa, OK, for plaintiff.

Floyd Abrams, Susan Buckley, David G. Januszewski, Cahill, Gordon & Reindel, New York City, Harvey D. Ellis, Jr., Clyde A. Muchmore, Anton J. Rupert, Crowe & Dunlevy, Oklahoma City, OK, W. Kyle Tresch, Crowe & Dunlevy, Tulsa, OK, for defendants.

FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND ORDER

BRETT, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Plaintiff, Robert G. Tilton's motion for a preliminary injunction. The Court denied Plaintiff's application for temporary restraining order pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 65 on May 14, 1993. Plaintiff seeks a preliminary injunction pending trial on the merits and after trial a permanent injunction to prevent Defendants from rebroadcasting or republishing only that false speech specifically set out in Plaintiff's third claim for relief involving alleged libelous and defamatory television programs broadcast on November 21, 1991 (PrimeTIME I) and July 9, 1992 (PrimeTIME II). The Court, having held an evidentiary hearing on June 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9, 1993, considered the evidence, the applicable legal authority and arguments of counsel, hereby makes the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law regarding Plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Plaintiff, Robert G. Tilton ("Tilton"), is an individual residing in Dallas County, Texas.

2. Defendants, Capital Cities/ABC Inc. ("Capital Cities"), American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. ("ABC"), and ABC News, Inc. ("ABC News"), are respectively New York, Delaware and Delaware corporations. Defendants, Diane Sawyer ("Sawyer"), Robbie Gordon ("Gordon"), and Kelly Sutherland ("Sutherland"), are individuals residing outside the State of Oklahoma and at the time complained of were employees of ABC acting within the scope of such employment.

3. Defendant, Diane Sawyer, is a correspondent for and the co-anchor of PrimeTIME and was the correspondent for the November 21, 1991 and July 9, 1992 broadcasts.

Defendant, Robbie Gordon, was the producer of the November 21, 1991 and July 9, 1992 broadcasts.

Defendant, Kelly Sutherland, was the associate producer for the November 21, 1991 and July 9, 1992 broadcasts.

4. At the time the actions complained of began, Plaintiff was the salaried president and principal pastor of Word of Faith World Outreach Center Church, Inc., a Texas not for profit corporation, which was dissolved on March 30, 1992 (Tr. 240: 1-6, Pl.Ex. 528-530). Plaintiff is now the principal pastor of Word of Faith World Outreach Center Church (Tr. 239: 20-21) (the "Church"), which has a local congregation of approximately 8,000 members in Farmers Branch, Dallas County, Texas, and also has international television Tilton ministry "partners."

5. Plaintiff's third claim for relief centers on the potential re-broadcast of certain PrimeTIME Live telecasts, which featured "an undercover investigation" of three television evangelists, W.V. Grant, Larry Lea, and the Plaintiff, Robert G. Tilton. The program at issue first aired on November 21, 1991 ("PrimeTIME I"). That same program was broadcast again with some minor changes to the first broadcast plus some additional "follow-up" material on July 9, 1992 ("PrimeTIME II").

6. The Defendants were associated or involved with producing and/or broadcasting a weekly television program called PrimeTIME Live and specifically PrimeTIME I and PrimeTIME II (Affidavit of Kelly Sutherland, p. 1 ¶ 1 and footnote 1; Affidavit of Roberta Gordon, p. 3 in the seventh unnumbered paragraph).

7. Plaintiff alleges in his Complaint that the PrimeTIME broadcasts contained the following "three statements" which were libelous:

(1) Pastor Tilton claims the "holy water" he sends to viewers is from the River Jordan; Sawyer says it's from Taiwan;

(2) Pastor Tilton represents that he personally prays over prayer requests; Sawyer says most of the prayer requests mailed to Pastor Tilton are thrown in the trash by a bank before Pastor Tilton gets them;

(3) Pastor Tilton states in his church's magazine that he provides financial support to an orphanage in Haiti; Sawyer says he doesn't.

Such statements could implicate Plaintiff in a potential United States mail fraud scheme.

8. Plaintiff, Tilton, is a public figure for the purposes of this alleged libel action. (Stipulated by parties).

9. Marte Tilton, Pastor Tilton's spouse, is the business manager and head of the office administration of Tilton Ministries, including the Word of Faith Church. She is more knowledgeable concerning the day-to-day operations of the Tilton Ministries than he is.

10. Tilton asserts that as a result of Defendants' libelous broadcasts (PrimeTIME I and PrimeTIME II), he has experienced a chilling effect on his ability to have people accept him as a truthful christian minister. He further asserts the diminution of his television exposure has interfered with his inalienable basic human right to exercise his religious beliefs, "... because those persons who Plaintiff would have been able to reach but who were not reached can never be reached when they would have been reached." (Pl. Proposed Finding of Fact Nos. 49-50, filed June 28, 1993).

11. Regarding "holy water," pertinent parts of the broadcasts and the evidence revealed the following:

(a) On both PrimeTIME I and PrimeTIME II, Diane Sawyer, after referring to a "hidden camera" visit ABC News made to Response Media, Inc. and after disclosing to viewers that ABC obtained access to Response Media by telling its president, Jim Moore, "that we were media consultants for this man, Dallas minister Ole Anthony," stated:

"Tilton sends out an avalanche of things he asks viewers to send back to him — `miracle prayer cloths' he promises to touch and place upon an alter, cords he says he'll place on a `wall of deliverance,' arrows he'll use to take aim at a sufferer's needs, a tracing — place your hand there and he'll put his hand there, too. There's holy water from the River Jordan, `miracle anointing oil' — though Moore said some of the items come from that holy place, Taiwan."

(Def.Ex. 30, pp. 15-16; Def.Ex. 31, p. 12).

(b) There is no dispute as to the accuracy of the first sentence of this passage.

(c) The second sentence stemmed from an exchange between Robbie Gordon and Jim Moore as they toured the offices of Response Media. (Gordon, p. 11).

(d) In the course of the tour provided by Moore to Gordon and Anthony, they passed wall displays of materials used by Tilton in his fund-raising efforts which included a display containing a button which Tilton had furnished to his followers. (Jim Moore, p. 189; Gordon, p. 11).

(e) Almost immediately after passing the Tilton wall displays, Gordon asked Moore: "Where do you get all this stuff from?" When Moore then responded by asking, "What do you mean?", Gordon stated, referring back to the Tilton display they had just passed, "Well, you know, like buttons. I just saw you have, like, water—." (Pl.Ex. 570, p. 33; Def.Ex. 21).

(f) In what Gordon understood to be an answer to her questions, Moore responded, "Oh, we've got — we've been doing this for so long that we've got it down to a science." When Gordon responded by asking if Response Media had "storehouses," Moore answered by saying, "Yeah, we get stuff from Taiwan." (Pl.Ex. 570, p. 33; Gordon, p. 11).

(g) Moore acknowledged, after watching the tape of his exchange in his offices with Gordon, that it was "possible" that Gordon understood his response about Taiwan to respond to Gordon's direct inquiry about where he got "all this stuff from." (Moore, p. 193).

(h) Gordon's affidavit states unequivocally that she understood Moore's answer about Taiwan to be a response to her question about where he got "all this stuff from" including the Tilton button to which she had specifically referred. Accordingly, her affidavit concludes, "the broadcast ... ironically observed that `some of the items came from that holy place, Taiwan.'" (Gordon, p. 11).

(i) Defendant Robbie Gordon stated in the raw footage following their interview with Jim Moore that "I really wanted to get him to say that stuff is not from the River Jordan ..." (Pl.Ex. 270, p. 66).

(j) Moore testified that he never purchased any items from Taiwan for Plaintiff.

(k) The evidence established that the "holy water" sent to "partners" was from the River Jordan in Israel.

(l) The broadcast did not say the holy water came from Taiwan. It said that some of the other items mailed to "partners" by Tilton came from that "holy place Taiwan." The "holy place Taiwan" reference was sardonic editorializing by Defendants. Gordon reasonably could have concluded from Moore's general reference to Taiwan that some of the items Tilton mailed out may have come from Taiwan, i.e., buttons, cloth, cords, etc.

(m) Jim Moore, in the hidden camera interview, made affirmative statements regarding the sincerity and honesty of Tilton and his ministry that ABC did not include in either PrimeTIME I or II.

12. Regarding prayer requests thrown in the trash, pertinent parts of the broadcasts and the evidence revealed the following:

(a) Towards the conclusion of both PrimeTIME I and PrimeTIME II, in generally similar language, Diane Sawyer stated the following:

"And those items that people have prayed over and sent in, believing Robert Tilton would touch them and pray over them too? Well, if some made it to Tilton, there are thousands that didn't. We found them in the garbage at the bank and the marketing research center. The

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