Andrew T. Miltenberg, founding partner, Nesenoff & Miltenberg, LLP
“By persisting, we want to lay bare the embedded attack machinery that is used against those who expose the pharmaceutical empire. It operates like a shadow state, fully equipped to destroy the professional as well as private lives of citizens doing their jobs--journalists, scientists, doctors, or academics. These are professional, well paid squads that never rest, never let up, and are accountable to nobody. “
Celia Farber
Background
On September 7, 2012, the law firm of Nesenoff & Miltenberg, LLP filed journalist Celia Farber’s appeal, seeking to overturn New York Supreme Court Judge Louis B. York’s ruling in her libel action against Richard Jeffereys, Kevin Kuritzky and James J. Murtagh, filed in 2009.
New York County Justice Louis B. York granted Defendant-Respondent Richard Jefferys a converted Motion for Summary Judgment, dismissing the action on November 9, 2011.
In 2009, Celia Farber filed an action seeking damages against (3) parties, two (2) of whom defaulted by evading being served, in one case even leaving the country. The action was centered on defendant Richard Jefferys of Treatment Action Group in New York. Jefferys orchestrated repeated attacks on Farber, subsequent to the 2006 publication in Harper’s of her 11,000 word article Out of Control: AIDS and The Corruption of Medical Science.
The appeal argues that Judge York’s Decision gave constitutional protection to the false and defamatory accusation that Celia Farber was a journalistic fraud-- a very grave accusation. He refused to allow any discovery, and misapplied the ruling in Immuno v. Moor-Jamkowski, by incorrectly applying the actual malice standard. Further, Judge York ignored important proofs in the case record, effectively just taking Jefferys word that he, Jefferys, is right because his colleagues in the AIDS industry agree with him. Jefferys accusations were not opinions, they were factual in nature. And they were false.
