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The Guardian
10-06-2025
- The Guardian
Louisiana news anchor falsely accused of preying on minor girl sues competitor
A Louisiana news anchor who resigned shortly before a competitor reported that he had been busted for compromising texts by 'vigilantes targeting men seeking to prey on underage girls' is pursuing a defamation lawsuit after police determined he had actually arranged to meet someone he believed was a young adult woman – then was violently robbed. Bill Lunn's lawsuit asserts that he and his employers at Shreveport's KTBS news station were in direct competition with their counterparts at KTAL when the latter outlet published a June 2024 report that unduly 'ended his career in broadcast journalism' and provided 'a rare example of actionable … character assassination'. As the suit puts it, the Emmy-winning Lunn, 59, was single and had logged on to the Tinder dating app 'used by millions of adult Americans' when he received 'interest' from someone who purported to be a 19-year-old woman. The user 'initiated a sexually explicit exchange' with Lunn over text messages before inviting him to a home – he went over and, after being allowed in by a woman, 'was beaten and robbed of his belongings' by three men identified as Antonio Coleman, Kautario Grigsby and Kameron Kennon, according to the suit filed in Louisiana's state court system. Lunn says he subsequently fled the home, called police with a neighbor's help, told responding officers what had happened, and allowed them to take his cellphone to aid their investigation. At that point, his suit says, Lunn realized a text message from the woman with whom he thought he was speaking had been edited to read that she was aged 16 – which, if true, would have made his correspondence illegal because she would be a minor. After investigators took Lunn's statement and allowed him to leave without charging him 'with any crime,' KTAL journalist Dan Jovic asked police whether the KTBS journalist had been caught with a 14-year-old girl and ran from the cops, an officer said in an affidavit cited by the suit. Police told Jovic that an investigation was ongoing, but Lunn had not run from authorities, and there had been no arrests. Jovic nonetheless interviewed Coleman, Kennon and Grigsby, who claimed that they were collectively 'pretending to be' a 15-year-old girl on the MeetMe app as 'part of their mission to catch men' trying to sexually abuse minors. Jovic and KTAL posted a story about the men and their alleged 'vigilante efforts' using MeetMe, whose minimum age requirement is 13. Lunn, aware the report was coming and worried it would embarrass his superiors, resigned from KTBS shortly before the piece came out but hoped to return 'once the facts cleared his name', the lawsuit added. Coleman and Grigsby were later arrested on suspicion of using dating apps to lure 'rich dudes' other than Lunn before beating and robbing the victims, according to the lawsuit and reporting from KTBS. KTBS also reported that Shreveport police had 'cleared Lunn of any wrongdoing, … no charges were filed', and the allegations against him were debunked when investigators found 'altered text messages to make it appear' falsely as if he had done something illegal. Lunn sued Jovic as well as KTAL's owner Nexstar Media days ahead of the first anniversary of his resignation, demanding damages for what he maintained was defamation, invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress, among other grounds. Jovic's wife and co-anchor Jacquelyn Jovic is also named as a defendant after she helped introduce KTAL's interview of Coleman and Grigsby, as the lawsuit notes. In his lawsuit, Lunn says he 'believes strongly in the newsgathering protections afforded [to] journalists in the United States' whether through the US constitution or in rulings issued by federal and state courts. Yet Lunn's lawsuit says being publicly presented as 'a child predator' when he was 'nothing more than a decent man caught up in a criminal scheme and completely innocent' had prompted him to take KTAL to court, especially after the station refused to correct, retract or clarify the record. Lunn 'has sustained severe reputational damage', his legal team says in his lawsuit. 'It will take years, if not decades, to rehabilitate his personal and professional reputation, if ever.' Neither Nexstar nor the Jovics had comment Monday about Lunn's lawsuit.
New York Times
10-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
Jessie Mahaffey, Survivor of Pearl Harbor Attack, Dies at 102
Jessie Mahaffey, who was scrubbing the deck of the U.S.S. Oklahoma when it was hit by Japanese torpedoes at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and who was among the last living service members who survived the surprise attack, died on March 1 in Alexandria, La. He was 102. His death, in a nursing center near his longtime home in Many, La., was confirmed by his grandson John Mahaffey. Mr. Mahaffey later survived the sinking of another Navy ship that was torpedoed by the Japanese in the Pacific. In an interview on Sunday, John Mahaffey, his grandson, said that Mr. Mahaffey would talk about his time in the Navy only when his relatives would ask him about it, which they did often. A month or less before one of the ships was attacked — John Mahaffey is fairly sure it was the Oklahoma — Mr. Mahaffey was given a new assignment and was moved from a room where powder was stored. 'He went from being in the hull to on the deck, and that saved his life,' his grandson said. In December, Mr. Mahaffey told KTBS-TV of Shreveport, La., that Dec. 7, 1941, had started as a quiet Sunday. He and five other soldiers were chatting as they scrubbed the deck of the Oklahoma when they 'heard a siren, saw planes and smoke,' he said, adding, 'It must have only gone on for 45 minutes, but it was crazy.' The Oklahoma was struck by as many as nine torpedoes. Within minutes, the battleship capsized, trapping hundreds of men below deck. 'It didn't take that long to come back to the other side,' he said. 'It turned upside down and we had to slide over the bottom of the ship into the water.' He managed to swim to the U.S.S. Maryland, another battleship that was moored at Pearl Harbor. In total, 429 crew members from the Oklahoma were killed in the attack, which left more than 2,400 U.S. military personnel and civilians dead and nearly 1,800 wounded. Less than a year later, he was serving on the U.S.S. Northampton when it was struck by two Japanese torpedoes on Nov. 30, 1942, during a battle north of Guadalcanal in the Pacific Ocean. 'The ship was sunk at midnight, and we had to stay on rafts the whole night,' Mr. Mahaffey told KTBS. He then moved to the U.S.S. Frederick Funston, where he ended his tour of duty. He was honorably discharged as a boatswain's mate second class in October 1945, the month after the war ended. Jessie Alton Mahaffey was born on Nov. 23, 1922, in Florien, La., to John and Mary Ethel Mahaffey. When he turned 100, in 2022, Mr. Mahaffey told KPLC-TV of Lake Charles, La., about the day he married Joyce Inez Mahaffey. 'My best day would be marrying that little gal that just turned 18 years old,' he said. 'Me, her and her brother went to that church.' Ms. Mahaffey died in 2003. His survivors include his sons George and Clarence; several grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and a great-great-grandson. After he was discharged from the Navy, Mr. Mahaffey returned to Louisiana, where he worked for Southwestern Bell, the regional phone company, for at least 30 years, his grandson said. Mr. Mahaffey, who was 5-foot-3, was a pole climber who refused to accept jobs that would require him to work indoors, John Mahaffey said. 'They kept trying to give him promotions, to come inside, to take a desk job or to run the crews or to be a supervisor, and he would never take it,' he said. At 100, Mr. Mahaffey was still able to drive and look after his large garden, though his health started to decline in the past year or so, his grandson said. When he would visit his grandfather, he said, there would always be four or five plates of food in the refrigerator from neighbors who were helping to take care of him. Mr. Mahaffey's death leaves just 14 living Pearl Harbor survivors, according to a list maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. The oldest is 105, Ms. Farley said in an email. John Mahaffey said his family had been told that his grandfather was one of just two or three remaining survivors from the U.S.S. Oklahoma.
