A Court of Common Pleas judge last week approved the motion of former news anchor Alycia Lane that sought, in part, to reveal the sexual orientation of a police officer she was accused of assaulting.
Lane was arrested in December 2007 in New York City, accused of punching a police officer and calling her an antigay epithet. She was subsequently fired from her position at CBS3.
Lane filed suit against the station and CBS3 president and general manager Michael Colleran in summer 2008, alleging the station intentionally damaged her reputation.
In September, the plaintiff submitted supplemental document requests to the defense’s subpoenas of the police officers involved in the case.
The requests included such items as any evidence of police contact with press outlets and officers’ personal cell-phone records. Lane also requested “all documents that evidence, refer to or relate to Police Officer Bernadette Enchaute-gui’s association with any organization relating to gay, lesbian or transgender police officers, including but not limited to all speeches and statements relating to the incident.”
The defense filed an opposition to Lane’s supplemental requests to Court of Common Pleas Judge Howland Abramson Sept. 21, but Abramson ruled in favor of the plaintiff Oct. 5.
A statement by Police Officer Richard Lawrence, who was also subpoenaed by CBS3, after the incident said that Lane, who was allegedly trying to take cell-phone pictures of her boyfriend’s altercation with the officers, told Enchautegui: “I don’t give a fuck who you are. I am a reporter, you fucking dyke.” Lawrence said Lane proceeded to “strike Enchautegui about the face.”
In 2008, a judge reduced the felony charges against Lane to misdemeanors, which were later dismissed.
In the response to Lane’s motion, CBS3 attorneys wrote that her “purpose was to prompt objections from [Lawrence and Enchautegui], discourage them from cooperating in the scheduling of depositions and block CBS’ efforts to obtain relevant testimony.”
On the effort to obtain evidence about Enchautegui’s associations with LGBT groups, the attorneys wrote: “This document request is completely irrelevant and is a blatant intimidation tactic. Through it, plaintiff displays the same homophobic attitude she revealed just prior to her arrest. Tellingly, plaintiff’s harassing motion does not even make an effort to describe why discovery into a police officer’s sexual preference is relevant at all to this case.”
Mark Schwemler, an attorney for CBS3, said he could not comment on the pending litigation.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].