Judge sues Cleveland paper

April 8, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

A judge presiding over the trial of a man charged with murdering 11 women and hiding their bodies around his home has sued a newspaper covering the case for $50 million in damages.

An attorney for Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold and her daughter, Sydney Saffold, filed the lawsuit Wednesday, charging that The Plain Dealer, parent company Advance Publications Inc. and the company that runs the newspaper’s Web site released confidential information that violated the site’s privacy policy.

The newspaper reported March 26 that inflammatory anonymous comments posted on its Web site, cleveland.com, about serial killings suspect Anthony Sowell were traced to the judge’s personal AOL e-mail account.

The judge denied posting the comments and said her daughter posted them using her e-mail account.

Saffold attorney Brian Spitz said that the e-mail account used was a joint family account and that while Shirley Strickland Saffold did post some comments using that e-mail address she never posted anything about cases pending in her courtroom.

Spitz said the family is trying to ascertain the identity of the editor who looked up the personal information and add that person to the lawsuit.