Progressive ‘Bernie Brew’ proprietor ordered to pay document $750,000 for defaming conservative writer
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A conservative Wisconsin newspaper writer is little question hoisting a chilly one to an area jury that has ordered a brewery-owning liberal activist to pay $750,000 within the state’s largest defamation judgment.
The earlier document for a libel swimsuit in Wisconsin was $450,000, mentioned James Friedman, the legal professional for the Wisconsin Newspaper Affiliation.
On Friday, an Oneida County jury took solely three hours — together with a lunch break — to order Minocqua Brewing Co. proprietor Kirk Bangstad to pay $750,000 for defaming Lakeland Instances writer Gregg Walker in posts on the brewery’s widespread social media retailers.
Amongst different issues, the 13-member jury discovered Bangstad had smeared Walker by calling him a “criminal” and a “misogynist.”
Bangstad, who operates a federal super PAC, additionally was discovered to have defamed Walker by claiming in a Fb put up that he had engaged in elder abuse and dedicated different crimes towards relations in order that he might inherit the newspaper enterprise.
Beneath the jury verdict, Bangstad and his brewery are to pay $320,000 in compensatory damages, and Bangstad is to pay $430,000 in punitive damages out of his personal pocket for his Fb put up about crimes towards relations. The jury concluded Bangstad acted with “malice” with that Aug. 22, 2022, put up.
Bangstad, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the Wisconsin Assembly in 2020, declined to debate the case. The Lakeland Instances’ editorial web page is conservative.
“I am going to discuss to the Journal Sentinel, however I would favor to not discuss to you,” Bangstad told columnist Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a part of the USA TODAY Community. Bangstad’s tremendous PAC not too long ago asked state Supreme Court’s new liberal majority to get rid of funding for the state’s 4 taxpayer-funded college voucher applications and unbiased constitution faculties.
Minocqua Brewing proprietor Bangstad vows to attraction verdict
On Fb, he mentioned he would attraction the jury verdicts.
“I’ve to belief that Wisconsin’s Judicial System — its appellate system specifically — will in the end be ‘simply’ on this case,” Bangstad wrote. “I’ve to imagine this as a result of I nonetheless imagine in America, Wisconsin, and our establishments.”
“And years in the past, earlier than Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Fox Information, our establishments, as a result of they had been robust and trusted by our residents, had been the envy of the world.”
On Friday, he put it extra bluntly, attacking Oneida County Circuit Judge Leon Stenz: “The lengthy and the in need of it’s this Oneida County choose had it in for us.”
Matthew Fernholz, the legal professional for Walker, mentioned he was happy with the jury’s conclusions.
“We really feel prefer it was a stable jury verdict,” Fernolz mentioned. “It ought to be upheld.”
Friedman, the Wisconsin Newspaper Affiliation lawyer, mentioned no less than two circumstances have logged $450,000 awards, the earlier document for the state, together with a 1992 case against the Milwaukee Sentinel and a newer one over a ebook claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting by no means occurred.
“I am fairly sure there’s by no means been like a million-dollar verdict in Wisconsin in a defamation case,” mentioned Friedman, an legal professional at Godfrey & Kahn. “So I feel that is the most important one now.”
What’s attention-grabbing in regards to the case — along with the quantity of the jury verdict — is the function of the newspaper within the case.
Often, a paper is the goal of a libel swimsuit, not the one bringing it.
“I am not recalling a newspaper or information retailers suing somebody for defamation,” mentioned Kathleen Bartzen Culver, an affiliate journalism professor on the College of Wisconsin-Madison. “Nothing is leaping to my thoughts.”
Minocqua Brewing recognized for ‘Progressive Beer’ like ‘Bernie Brew’
Bangstad has drawn consideration for his outspoken political stances, hanging an enormous “Biden/Harris” signal outdoors the brewery and battling with native authorities our bodies.
He began promoting “Progressive Beer” with names like “Bernie Brew” and “Honest Maps” in 2020, and he launched the Minocqua Brewing Co. SuperPAC in 2021.
The PAC has funded a lawsuit towards the Waukesha College District for eradicating COVID precautions and one other alleging three Wisconsin Republicans conspired to maintain Democrat Joe Biden from changing into president.
Walker and Lakeland Printing Co. introduced the defamation case towards Bangstad and Minocqua Brewing in Could 2021 after Walker turned a frequent goal of Bangstad on his widespread social media retailers, the place he usually posts about Wisconsin politics.
Minocqua Brewing has 82,000 followers on Fb. Bangstad quickly began elevating cash off the litigation.
In its verdict, the jury discovered Bangstad and his brewery owed $40,000 for calling Walker a “criminal,” and $40,000 for calling him a “misogynist.” The jury mentioned Walker deserved $200,000 in compensatory damages for the put up about his household and $430,000 in punitive damages.
Contact Daniel Bice at dbice@jrn.com, on X, previously often called Twitter, @DanielBice, or on Fb at fb.me/daniel.bice.
This text initially appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Minocqua Brewing Co. owner ordered to pay $750,000 for defamation
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