Link: http://www.cantonrep.com:80/communities/canton/x309570834/Deputies-sue-TV-station-over-reports-about-woman-stripped-naked

CANTON — Stark County sheriff’s deputies who were vilified after a Cleveland television station aired video of them stripping a woman at the Stark County Jail have filed a lawsuit saying they are victims of one-sided reporting. Last year, WKYC Channel 3 began airing reports on a lawsuit filed by a Salem woman who says she was strip-searched at the jail in October 2006. The reports included video of sheriff’s deputies and corrections officers pinning Hope Steffey to the floor of a jail cell and removing her clothes.

those deputies — Kristin Fenstemaker, Laura Rodgers, Tony Gayles, Richard T. Gurlea Jr., Andrea Mays and Brian Michaels — sued reporter Tom Meyer, WKYC and its parent company, alleging defamation and invasion of privacy.

The lawsuit seeks damages of more than $25,000 and is assigned to Stark County Common Pleas Judge Charles E. Brown Jr. RATINGS DRIVEN? The reports were “purely for ratings and for advertising and promotion,” said Brian Zimmerman, one of the attorneys representing the deputies. In the lawsuit, the deputies say Meyer and WKYC “have failed to report accurately and fairly on the Steffey incident, airing at least five programs on the matter.” As a result of those reports, the deputies and sheriff’s office have received death threats and hate mail, and Fenstemaker resigned under the pressure, according to the lawsuit. Please read: "The State Torture of Hope Steffey", watch the videos that You Tube removed: HERE, HERE, and the highest quality version HERE.