Kim Kardashian fights back against man SHE wrongly accused of being a death row inmate

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

Kim Kardashian has hit back at a man that she wrongly accused of being a death row double murderer, after the man sued her for defamation.
The 44-year-old reality star shared a picture to her social media last February of a man identified as Ivan Cantu, 60, a project manager from Westchester, New York.
She was attempting to raise awareness of then Texas death row inmate of the same name, who was executed in the days after the post for a double murder.
But the photo she shared was of a completely innocent man, who's alleging that Kardashian destroyed his reputation by falsely branding him a murderer.
Lawyers for the innocent Cantu filed a lawsuit in February against Kardashian for libel and slander, saying she also caused him serious emotional stress.
In a motion to strike the claim filed by representatives of Kardashian last month, her lawyers said the Instagram story constituted her exercising her freedom of speech.
The motion also claims that Cantu had used the suit as an attempt to 'cash in' on the mishap.
Her lawyers add that the post falls under anti-SLAPP laws in California, legislation aimed at protecting people from lawsuits after exercising First Amendment rights.
It said: 'Plaintiff cannot establish a probability of prevailing on any of his claims. Accordingly, the Court should grant this special motion to strike.'
As part of the documents, filed late last month, Kardashian also gave a sworn declaration in which she confessed to the blunder.
In it, Kardashian explained her interest in law and how she had managed to get President Donald Trump to commute the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson in 2018.
'I engage in this work because I am passionate about it and without any commercial benefit or intent', she said.
She added that she had learned of the case of Ivan Cantu, the death row inmate, and was 'moved' by his story and 'steadfast claim of innocence'.
Kardashian said she instructed her social media team to start posting about Cantu and his case to raise awareness.
They had used the same mugshot of Cantu throughout their posts until February 26 of last year when she said 'we decided to use a different picture of Mr. Cantu'.
'Unfortunately, in a story that was posted on my Instagram and Facebook accounts, we used a picture of a different Ivan Cantu', she said.
Kardashian said in her declaration that the use of Cantu's picture was 'a mistake and was not done intentionally'.
She said that had they been aware they would not have used the image and after finding out 'immediately' told her team to take it down.
Kardashian signed the statement which was executed while she was in Venice for the wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez late last month.
Her social media manager Travis White also gave a written statement to the court in which he said he did a Google search for more pictures of Cantu.
White said: 'One of the publicly available images that my Google search yielded was a photo of plaintiff.
'When I selected Plaintiff's photo, I did so mistakenly and without realizing that it was a photo of Plaintiff and not Mr. Cantu, given that they share the same name.'
White goes on to add that the use of the image was 'a mistake and was not done intentionally'.
The suit by Cantu cited libel and slander over the mix-up, saying Kardashian caused him serious emotional stress.
Sobo said in the original filing that at the time of the posting she had over 350 million followers on her Instagram
Defamation is classed as a false statement that harms someone's reputation, either in written terms, libel, or spoken, slander.
Cantu's lawyers said there are few worse ways to harm someone's reputation than to wrongly accuse them of murdering two people.
The suit claims that Kardashian intentionally shared the post, and was 'negligent, reckless and/or violated standards of ethics and decency.'
Cantu is said to have suffered from embarrassment, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and counseling as a result of her actions.
Sobo previously told the Daily Mail that Cantu was grieving a close family member at the time of the post, which was then amplified.
Her post said: 'The state will execute Ivan Cantu in 2 days. Please sign the petition to demand that Collin County DA Greg Willis request to withdraw the execution date.'
Alongside the text and link to the petition, she also shared an image of the wrong Ivan Cantu - who later posted on Facebook in an attempt to calm the situation.
He said: 'To all my friends and family, I am not getting executed, some idiot who runs @kimkardashian used my picture of Ivan 'Abner' Cantu.'
The suit said that the post exposed Cantu to 'hatred, contempt, ridicule and obloquy' due to his association with the double murder connected to the Texas inmate.
The post was 'libelous and false', the suit added and caused injury to both his reputation and profession.
In the filing his lawyers have also demanded a jury trial and are after compensatory damages.
Cantu hasn't specified how much he is seeking in damages. Forbes estimates Kardashian's net worth at $1.7 billion dollars.
Days after the post, Ivan Cantu was executed by authorities in Texas for the death of his cousin James Mosqueda and his cousin's girlfriend Amy Kitchen.
Prosecutors said Cantu killed Mosqueda, who dealt illegal drugs, and Kitchen as he tried to steal cocaine, marijuana and cash from his cousin´s north Dallas home.
The inmate, who was convicted in 2001, had long claimed a rival drug dealer killed his cousin in a dispute over money.