A Philadelphia judge's defamation suit alleging he was cast as a corrupt villain in a book about the criminal trial of infamous abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell has been removed to federal court.
Lawyers for defendant Pennsylvania Media Associates an operator of in-state radio stations that Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart claims conspired with the book's publisher to market its alleged defamatory account of him in "Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer" said putting the case in front of a federal judge was necessary so that it would not be tried in Minehart's home court.
PMA's lawyer, Benjamin H. McCoy, said in court papers that Minehart sued the company to add a Pennsylvania defendant, giving him the ability to have the case before a colleague in his court. The book's publisher and other defendants are all based in California or Washington, D.C.
Minehart "joined PMA as a defendant in this case in a transparent effort to have his case heard in the very same court in which he sits," McCoy wrote in the notice of removal. "Plaintiff's tactical decision to name PMA as a defendant is a fraudulent joinder designed to protect his claims from the scrutiny of a federal court."
George Bochetto, who represents Minehart, said PMA's reasons for moving the case were not surprising.
"Although it's unfortunate that the attempt to ascribe a motive to Judge Minehart is simply made up," Bochetto said, "he's not looking for any home-town advantage under any circumstance, and frankly it's an insult to the Philadelphia judiciary, claiming that they can't be fair and impartial."
The recently published book about Gosnell, convicted of murder in 2013 for the killing of eight fully-developed infants, was put out by the politically conservative Regnery Publishing.
In mid-June, Minehart sued the authors and the companies involved with the book, which, he alleges, defamed him as a corrupt stooge in a "liberal, pro-choice sympathetic" system that worked to cover up Gosnell's crimes. Among other things, Minehart's suit, filed June 22 in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, alleges the authors incorrectly stated he was a "drinking buddy" of Gosnell's defense lawyer, that he is thought of as a "pro-defense judge," and that prosecutors were dismayed that he had been assigned the case.
Minehart's complaint challenges those comments as easily disproven for instance, he claimed it's a "well-known fact that" Gosnell's attorney has not had a drink in 20 years and that he was not randomly assigned the case, but instead prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to have him handle the trial.
"The truth," Minehart's complaint said, "did not jibe with defendants' marketing scheme, so they fabricated facts in order to portray Judge Minehart as a villain in their story of the righteous versus the wicked."