The former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader who had a relationship with an underage student will return to court on Tuesday seeking money from a website which made comments about her.Sarah Jones is seeking $11 million from the website thedirty.com for defamation of character and inasion of privacy. The comments that Jones is suing about were made prior to her scandal involving sexual contact with a minor.
Jones is currently dating the former student, named Cody York.
Jury selection begins on Tuesday in Covington, Ky.
The Associated Press reports the following about the case.
In Jones’ case, Richie posted a photo of her on Dec. 7, 2009. The post, submitted by someone who knows her, called her a ”dirty Bengals cheerleader.” It claimed that her ex-boyfriend contracted chlamydia and gonorrhea after cheating on her with more than 50 women, and that he likely gave it to Jones.
Richie, a 33-year-old married father of a 1-year-old girl, said the only thing he wrote about Jones was, ”Why are all high school teachers freaks in the sack?”
There is concern that if Jones is awarded a large sum of money it may open other websites to lawsuits about material posted from users.
The dirty and owner Hooman Karamian, who goes by the name Nik Ritchie, will argue that they are protected by the Communications Decency Act. That law is designed to protect website publishers from content submitted by third parties.
Jones’ attorney, Eric Deters, said Richie could be responsible for the entire post involving his client because he hasn’t said who submitted it and will argue that the Communications Decency Act doesn’t protect thedirty.com.
