The Vindicator sued over error

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A Poland man has sued The Vindicator in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court over what he says was an error in a court news column that defamed him.

Anthony Linker, 28, of Harvard Boulevard, said in his civil lawsuit filed Friday that the newspaper erroneously stated March 23 that he had been sentenced to register as a sex offender.

On May 5, The Vindicator printed a full correction stating that Linker wasn’t charged with a sex offense and was not required to register, that he had pleaded guilty to a drug-possession charge and that the newspaper regretted the error.

Linker entered his guilty plea to the drug possession charge Jan. 22 and was sentenced a month later to one year’s probation and to a program at the Community Corrections Association, which is not to exceed six months.

“Plaintiff has never been charged with or convicted of a sex offense, and when the plaintiff and his family read these inaccurate and defamatory statements, they were shocked, shamed and humiliated,” according to the lawsuit filed on Linker’s behalf by Atty. Martin E. Yavorcik.

The lawsuit seeks more than $25,000 in damages and demands a jury trial.