The US city of Lincoln must pay more
than US$259,000 to a woman who was wrongly accused by Crime Stoppers and local
authorities of making ATM withdrawals with a stolen credit card, a judge in
Nebraska ruled Wednesday. The
decision comes after a jury had already awarded US$75,000 to 26-year-old Shayla
Funk in her defamation lawsuit against Lincoln-Lancaster County Crime Stoppers
Inc. and the city. Funk
sued after her image appeared on the Crime Stoppers website, with incorrect
claims that she was a "crook" who made fake ATM deposits and
withdrawals using a stolen credit card.
AP report continues:
The
video showed Funk withdrawing cash from her own account in April 2013, but she
was misidentified as a thief because the video's time stamp was incorrect,
which led bank officials to give police the wrong footage.
Lancaster
County District Judge Steven Burns also ordered the city to issue retractions
on the Crime Stopper's website, the Lincoln Police Department's Facebook page
and on a local television station where her image was shown. The city must Funk
give 10 copies of the retraction that she can use at her discretion.
"The
judge's requirement of a retraction is important to restoring my client's
reputation," said Funk's attorney, Vince Powers. "It's sad that it
took a lawsuit to obtain a retraction."
Lincoln
City Attorney Jeff Kirkpatrick said his office was still reviewing the decision
and considering an appeal. The mistake "was unfortunate, and the city
regrets the error," he said, but the police department has learned from
the experience.
Funk has said she left her job after she was placed
on unpaid leave for three weeks when someone saw the video. She said that even
two years later, when she goes back to her hometown, people still joke,
"Hide your credit cards — Shayla's here."
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