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N7GCW > VETS 24.03.05 21:08l 69 Lines 2942 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 40234_WA7V
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Subj: Veteran files lawsuit against Kerry
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Sent: 050324/1530z @:WA7V.#SEWA.WA.USA.NOAM [Walla Walla] $:40234_WA7V
Veteran files libel suit against director of anti-Kerry film
By DAVID B. CARUSO
The Associated Press
10/18/2004, 11:39 a.m. ET
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Vietnam veteran filed a libel lawsuit Monday
claiming he was falsely portrayed as a fraud and a liar in a film
criticizing Sen. John Kerry's anti-war activities.
Kenneth J. Campbell, now a professor at the University of Delaware, said
in the suit that "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" combines footage
of him appearing at a 1971 war protest with a voice-over that claims
that many of the supposed veterans who took part in the event were later
"discovered as frauds" who "never set foot on the battlefield, or left
the comfort of the States, or even served in uniform."
The suit said viewers would be left with the perception that Campbell
had lied about his military service.
Campbell attached copies of his military records to the suit, showing
that he received the Purple Heart medal and eight other medals, ribbons
and decorations for his service as an artillery forward observer in
Vietnam in 1968 and 1969.
The suit names the film's producer, Carlton Sherwood, and his company,
Red White and Blue Productions, as defendants.
"The defendants' malicious, reckless and scandalous misrepresentations
and falselight presentations of Dr. Campbell were done with the specific
intent to defame Dr. Campbell and place him in a false light, and with a
reckless and outrageous disregard for the truth," Campbell's attorney
wrote in the lawsuit.
Campbell's lawyer also threatened legal action against the Sinclair
Broadcast Group, an owner of 62 television stations that has announced
that it intends to pre-empt regular program to broadcast "Stolen Honor"
two weeks before the election. The 42-minute film is critical of Kerry,
the Democratic presidential candidate, and his anti-war activism after
he returned home from Vietnam three decades ago.
Phone messages left for Sinclair Broadcast Group, Red, White and Blue
Productions and at a public relations firm representing Sherwood and the
company were not immediately returned Monday.
The lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas.
The segment of "Stolen Honor" involving Campbell deals with a 1971
gathering in Detroit, during which Kerry and other servicemen shared
stories about horrific acts they had committed or witnessed during the
war.
Campbell, then 21, said he had seen American forces shell undefended
villages, kill civilians, mutilate bodies and mistreat prisoners.
Veterans groups that supported the war have long argued with anti-war
groups about the veracity of the alleged war crimes described during the
event.
[Carlton] Sherwood has said he made "Stolen Honor" because he believed
the soldiers' stories, later relayed by Kerry during testimony before
Congress, were "lies" and "smear" that hurt veterans and demoralized
American prisoners of war.
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