The Detroit News
Detroit - A judge has dismissed a $3 million libel suit filed against The Detroit News by a city police officer.
The dismissal came seven months after Officer Paytra Williams accused the paper and its former reporter, Charlie LeDuff, of publishing false information with actual malice. Williams cited two April 2010 articles about her testimony regarding a never-proven party at the Manoogian Mansion.
Wayne County Circuit Judge John Murphy said Williams' lawyer failed to timely serve the newspaper with a summons and a copy of the lawsuit.
"We're happy that the court has dismissed this action," said Jonathan Wolman, editor and publisher of The Detroit News. "We are confident that our reporting on this matter stood up to the standards of the law."
The case was dismissed July 26.
The judge denied a request to set aside the dismissal on Nov. 29.
Williams' lawyer, Marvin Barnett, did not return a phone message seeking comment Wednesday.
The rumored party was a key aspect of a $150 million civil suit filed in federal court by the family of Tamara "Strawberry" Greene, who allegedly performed at the rumored party in 2002 and later was killed in an unsolved shooting. That case was dismissed last month.
Williams told The News in an interview that she never moonlighted as a dancer while employed with the Police Department and was never assigned to ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's executive protection unit or then-Chief Jerry Oliver's office. She said she never knew Greene and never worked at the All-Star gentleman's club on Eight Mile.
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