Saturday, June 09, 2007

Patricia Cornwell fights cyberlibel

Patricia Cornwell, the bestselling crime novelist, has recently sued a cyberstalker who has published vicious lies about her on the web. Good for her. It’s great that she is standing up to protect her great reputation from liars on the web.

This Information week article notes that the villain has left the USA in order to avoid a court judgment against her.

“Cornwell won an injunction against Sachs, but Sachs continues posting accusations online. They are tied up in conspiracies that span half a century to include information about Cornwell's family life and personal ties, which Sachs claims twisted the best-selling author into a threatening individual.

A psychiatrist characterized Sachs' behavior as cyberstalking.

Cornwell told a reporter last week that she believes the case illustrates a need to stop people from publishing damaging information on the Internet and going to another country to avoid prosecution.”

Patricia Cornwell is a personal friend of my wife, and I can personally attest to her high degree of personal integrity. It’s kinda weird having a friend arrive at our ranch by helicopter:


Patricia Cornwell at Burleson Arabians Ranch

It’s disgusting when web criminals flaunt the law and attack innocent people, and we applaud Patsy for her heroic stance against those who seek to falsely defame her. BTW, Patsy is a very nicelady and she loves animals. Here is a pic of me showing Patsy one of our ponies:


Don Burleson, Patricia Cornwell and "Laddie"

Of course, Patsy won her court case against the cyberscum and got a court order against them.

“Mystery-novel author Patricia Cornwell has won a temporary court order directing another writer to stop defaming her with Internet claims, including that she is an anti-Semite, an advocate of book-burning and a plagiarist.

U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon concluded in an opinion dated Tuesday that all of the defamatory claims posted on Web sites by longtime Cornwell adversary Leslie Raymond Sachs are false.

Moon's order directs Sachs to remove his statements from the Internet pending trial of the lawsuit that was filed by Cornwell in April.”


I discuss these issues of cyberlibel in my book “Web Stalkers: Protect yourself from Internet Psychopaths”, and we wish Patricia Cornwell the very best in her collection efforts against her attacker.