Judge orders end to Cornwell attacks

RICHMOND, Va. - A federal judge has ordered a self-published author to cease an Internet vendetta in which he has accused best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell of plagiarism, bribery, anti-Semitism and even plotting to have him murdered.

Those claims are among 45 specific lies Leslie R. Sachs has spread about Cornwell, Judge Norman K. Moon said in Tuesday's order granting Cornwell's motion for a permanent injunction.

Moon said the statements were not only false but were "calculated to expose plaintiff to public contempt or ridicule" and were published with actual malice, thus clearing the high bar the law has set for libeling a public figure.

Sachs has made no direct threats, but Cornwell has said his allegations have caused her fear, anxiety and sleeplessness. She said Sachs' campaign against her was a major reason she moved away from Richmond in 2001. She now lives in Massachusetts.

Cornwell long ignored Sachs but sued him for libel when the Internet attacks escalated.

"I'm trying to keep a cap on my anger, because anger makes you sick, and I don't let myself get hateful because that just poisons you," Cornwell told The Boston Globe. "But when a schoolyard bully punches me in the nose, I'm going to have to hit back."

Sachs did not immediately respond to an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Cornwell, 50, and Sachs first clashed in 2000 when he accused her of plagiarizing from his self-published book, "The Virginia Ghost Murders," in her novel, "The Last Precinct."

She sued for libel, and a judge ordered Sachs to remove from his book stickers calling it "the must-read gothic mystery that preceded Patricia Cornwell's newest best seller." The judge also ordered Sachs to stop using Cornwell's name to promote his book.

The Internet campaign ensued, with Sachs calling Cornwell a "Je: w-hater," a felon under federal investigation and a "neo-Nazi," prompting Cornwell to return to court to seek enforcement of the 2000 injection and an order barring further defamatory postings.

Sachs, 52, did not attend a hearing on Cornwell's motion last month and was not represented by counsel. Court papers listed his last U.S. residence as Woodbridge, Va., but he has called himself a "political refugee" who moved to Europe in 2004 to escape Cornwell's legal actions.

source:news.yahoo.com