“Judge Judy” Sheindlin sued the National Enquirer, its parent company and a sister publication for defamation after the salacious publisher claimed she was plotting to help the Menendez brothers.
Sheindlin, 81, filed the lawsuit Monday in Naples, Fla. The suit did not ask for a specific amount in damages, but Sheindlin said she wanted a significant payout.
“When you fabricate stories about me in order to make money for yourselves with no regard for the truth or the reputation I’ve spent a lifetime cultivating, it’s going to cost you,” she said in a statement. “When you’ve done it multiple times, it’s unconscionable and will be expensive. It has to be expensive so that you will stop.”
On April 10, the gossip magazine InTouch Weekly published a story titled: “Inside Judge Judy’s Quest to Save the Menendez Brothers Nearly 35 Years After Their Parents’ Murder.” The story claimed Sheindlin was advocating for a retrial for Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted of murdering their parents in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
InTouch Weekly is owned by Accelerate360 Media, which also owns the National Enquirer. A similar story appeared in the Enquirer shortly afterward.
In the suit, Sheindlin said she had nothing to do with the Menendez brothers, and the various publications had intentionally tarnished her reputation. The lawsuit speculated the news outlets incorrectly attributed statements to Sheindlin that were actually made by a woman named Judi Ramos in a Fox Nation docuseries.
Sheindlin has had trouble with the National Enquirer before. In 2017, the paper was forced to apologize to her and retract a story that claimed she suffered from dementia and depression and that she cheated on her husband.
With News Wire Services
