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February 20, 2008

Reality-like TV show results in lawsuit

Placid woman beaten as TV cameras roll

By KIM SMITH DEDAM

ELIZABETHTOWN -- A Lake Placid woman is suing ABC News for failing to help her after she was videotaped being beaten by her stepfather.

Kyle Nelson, 20, is suing ABC News; its parent corporation, the Walt Disney Co.; ABC's president, David Weston; and several individuals, including news anchor Diane Sawyer, claiming negligence.

The civil action, filed Wednesday morning in Essex County Court in Elizabethtown, claims "wanton and reckless behavior" and "gross negligence" for ABC's failure to assist the young woman.

The lawsuit involves video footage that ABC included in a "Primetime" segment called "Stepfamilies in Crisis" showing Kyle being held down and punched repeatedly by Joe Nelson, her stepfather.

He called her a "little bitch" as he struck her.

Kyle was 15 at the time.

CAUSED OUTRAGE

ABC aired the news show on April 21, 2006, three to four years after capturing hundreds of hours of video at the Nelson household in Vermontville.

The segment drew outrage from viewers, who responded with thousands of e-mails to ABC questioning the news company's ethics for not stepping in to stop or report the abuse.

ABC responded to the fury at the time with a statement posted on their Web site:

"While we felt the incident in question was disturbing, it was the only scene of physical punishment in the hundreds of hours of footage that ABC News reviewed."

Diane Sawyer, an anchor for "Primetime," interviewed Kyle on "Good Morning America" four days after the show aired.

The teen said she did not condone her stepfather's behavior but forgave him for the abuse.

Before the show aired, she moved out of the household to live with her maternal grandparents, according to her attorney, Matthew Norfolk of Briggs Norfolk, LLP in Lake Placid, who filed the action.

LASTING EFFECTS

Kyle, now 20, suffers lasting effects from the abuse and ABC's promotion of it, Norfolk said.

Kyle will not speak with reporters, he said, pending legal outcome of this case.

"In the Primetime' segment that aired April 21, 2006, Joe Nelson is seen kneeling on Kyle and punching her repeatedly," Norfolk said in a telephone interview.

"We maintain that a situation of continual, ongoing child abuse could have been stopped by ABC. Filming and airing it has caused lasting emotional harm to my client."

Norfolk said Kyle blacked out large portions of time spent living with Joe Nelson and his wife, neither of whom are her biological parents. Nelson had previously been married to her birth mother.

BACK IN SPOTLIGHT

In a press statement, Norfolk said reproach against his client from the lawsuit has been considered.

"Before commencing the lawsuit, I asked Kyle to think long and hard whether she would be up to the challenge of taking on a corporate media giant such as ABC.

"In making her decision to proceed with the lawsuit, Kyle assured me that she understands that there, unfortunately, is a strong likelihood that she may be once again placed in the public spotlight and have her intentions and motivation behind the lawsuit questioned.

"Nonetheless, Kyle knows she has been wronged and believes this lawsuit will result in reparation and justice being served," Norfolk said.

"It is Kyle's expectation that the justice system and this lawsuit will give her the opportunity to be made whole again, have the resources she needs to get counseling to complete her healing process and be sure that no child has to go through what she went through or be exploited as she intends to prove she was by ABC."

Press-Republican calls to ABC spokesperson Page Caposella in New York were not returned Wednesday.

FIRST AMENDMENT

Norfolk anticipates a response based on First Amendment rights but questions its validity in this case.

"I expect ABC to claim immunity and a constitutional right provided under the First Amendment to broadcast or report to America what happened in Kyle's home.

"But this lawsuit is not about news agencies' rights and protections under the First Amendment. In this case, ABC didn't report the news, but rather created a horrific story. Primetime's Stepfamilies in Crisis' segment was more akin to a reality show filmed in a controlled or artificial setting.

"ABC, with its video cameras strategically placed throughout Kyle's home, created the atmosphere and environment -- literally set the national stage -- for Kyle to be a victim of emotional and sometimes physical abuse by her father and stepmother, who we believe were dead-set on getting their 15 minutes of fame, proving a point about Kyle and showing America who was boss in Kyle's home."



EIGHT CLAIMS

The lawsuit requests damages on eight claims relating to the "Primetime" segment, including failure to rescue Kyle; promotion and creation of a hostile, hazardous, unsafe and abusive atmosphere; common law invasion of privacy; failure to report abuse; and publication of Kyle's condition and mental-health status.

In 2006, after the beating episode was broadcast, Franklin County District Attorney Derek Champagne told reporters he was "horrified" by the program.

Because the legal statute of limitations had run out, the ethical question of ABC's airing of child abuse was not brought to criminal court.

"Because of the delay, I'm boxed out," he told MSNBC two years ago. "They (ABC) made a decision to ignore criminal conduct."

As a young girl, Kyle believed a program created by Walt Disney would have a positive effect on her life, Norfolk said.

"But it did not. They made her feel horrible about herself."

Kyle has only chance contact now with the stepfather and his wife, Norfolk said.

She does not know if or how much her stepfather was paid for permitting ABC to film life inside their home.

"Kyle has no idea. She's never even seen the signed consent form," Norfolk said.

The summons filed Wednesday in Elizabethtown also names three psychologists associated with the "Primetime" special, along with ABC producer David Sloan.

Defendants have 20 days to respond.

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