CBS drops 'conspiracy' motion to delay Alycia Lane lawsuit over email snooping
Lawyers for CBS have dropped an emergency motion alleging a "judicial conspiracy" that asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to delay former CBS3 anchor Alycia Lane's negligence lawsuit against the network.
Lawyers for CBS have dropped an emergency motion alleging a "judicial conspiracy" that asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to delay former CBS3 anchor Alycia Lane's negligence lawsuit against the network.
The suit says CBS failed to stop former coanchor Larry Mendte from hacking her email and feeding personal details and photos to gossip columnists.
The July 15 motion was marked as withdrawn on Monday, according to the court's website. The notice did not state a reason, and CBS's lead lawyer, John M. Elliott, could not be reached for comment.
The unusual motion asked the Supreme Court to delay the Oct. 21 trial of Lane's eight-year-old lawsuit until it investigated what CBS alleged was a conspiracy to transfer the case from Common Pleas Court Judge Mark I. Bernstein to Frederica A. Massiah-Jackson.
Bernstein challenged that assertion in an opinion filed with the Supreme Court.
"Any implication impugning the integrity of judicial assignments in the First Judicial District is grossly misplaced," he wrote. "There is nothing mysterious, suspect, questionable or even unusual in this procedure." The judge said he relinquished the case because the trial would run beyond his October retirement.
On Thursday, Lane's attorney, Paul R. Rosen, filed a brief opposing a delay. Rosen called the allegation of a conspiracy "absurd" and "an improper effort to judge-shop."
"Now that he [Elliott] has withdrawn his challenge, both plaintiffs and defendants will end up with one of the most respected judges and finally have our trial as planned," Rosen said Monday.
Mendte and Lane shared coanchor duties at CBS3 for the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts until December 2007, when Lane was arrested after allegedly hitting a New York police officer during a traffic stop.
CBS3 fired Lane in January 2008. She entered a diversion program, the charge was dismissed, and the case was expunged.
Mendte was fired by CBS3 in June of that year, after FBI agents searched his Chestnut Hill home and computer files and eventually charged him with hacking Lane's emails.
Mendte pleaded guilty in federal court in August 2008 to a felony charge of hacking Lane's emails. Mendte, who is married to 1210 WPHT newscaster Dawn Stensland, said the acts followed the end of a "flirtatious, unprofessional and improper relationship" with Lane.
Mendte was sentenced to six months' house arrest and probation that ended in February 2011.
Mendte now hosts local talk shows on iHeartMedia radio stations in Delaware.
Lane became a morning newscaster at KNBC in Los Angeles until she was dismissed in 2013 after a change in station management. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.
Lane's original lawsuit against Mendte and CBS has been pared down to a negligence claim against CBS for failing to stop Mendte from hacking Lane's computer and spreading gossip about her.
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