Price asks court to let slander suit move forward

Posted 5:55AM on Thursday 29th July 2004 ( 20 years ago )

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - An attorney for fired Alabama football coach Mike Price has asked a court to end legal wrangling over the identity of a confidential source used by Sports Illustrated in its story about a night of drunken partying by Price. Price attorney Steve Heninger said topless club dancer Lori Boudreaux, who received $200 from Sports Illustrated writer Don Yaeger as cab fare to come to a photo shoot for the article, is the only person who could have provided information for the story. Price is suing Sports Illustrated publisher Time Inc. for $20 million over the story. The magazine is appealing a judge's decision that it must reveal the identity of a source, an appeal backed by a number of national news organizations. But Heninger, in a motion filed Tuesday, asked a judge let Price's slander case move forward since evidence gathered through sworn statements made it clear Boudreaux was Yaeger's source. ``Why fuss when we know who we're talking about?'' Heninger said. ``Let's move on and get to the facts.'' Sports Illustrated spokesman Rick McCabe said Wednesday the story had ``multiple confidential sources,'' and the magazine was bound to protect the identities of all of them. While the magazine has a policy against paying sources for information, he said, it did cover transportation costs for Boudreaux to a photo session. The magazine published a photo of Boudreaux with the story on Price. Heninger said Yaeger, in a sworn statement, acknowledged giving Boudreaux $200, and Yaeger's testimony showed he didn't talk with anyone else who could have supplied him with information for the article. Yaeger in the past denied paying for information for the story, published after Price was dismissed by the University of Alabama. Price and his two sons now coach at Texas-El Paso. Price accused Sports Illustrated of slandering him in a story about the night of partying that included a trip to a strip club in Pensacola, Fla., in April 2003. Boudreaux was a dancer at the club. Price admitted visiting the bar, getting very drunk and returning to his hotel with a woman, but he denied the magazine's claims that he engaged in sex with two women in the room. A key part of the magazine story was based on an anonymous female source, and Price's attorney has fought to have her name revealed in court. A district judge told Sports Illustrated to reveal the name of the source in December, but the magazine is fighting the order. The judge held that Alabama law protects the confidentiality of sources for newspapers and broadcast news outlets but does not mention magazines. The appeal contends in part that the ruling wrongly discriminates against various types of news organizations.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/7/155130