Free Speech

at least when the dispute is over a simple identification error./

Eugene Volokh | 1.5.2026 8:34 AM

McCleary v. Nexstar Media Group, Inc., decided last month by the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals, but just posted a few days ago on Westlaw, involved a libel lawsuit and a defendant's motion to dismiss under the Oklahoma "anti-SLAPP" statute. That statute requires that plaintiffs (usually defamation plaintiffs) who are suing over defendants' speech on matters of public concern establish, at an early stage, "by clear and specific evidence a prima facie case for each essential element of the claim in question."

From the opinion by Vice-Chief Judge Stacie Hixon, joined by Judges Deborah Barnes and Jim Huber:

KFOR, a news station …, presented a news segment about several individuals who had been prosecuted for charges of human sex trafficking in Texas federal court. One of the defendants in that case was named Christopher McCleary. With that segment, KFOR ran a photograph of Appellee, an Oklahoma resident, Christopher Renyles McCleary ("McCleary"). However, the defendant named in the Texas criminal case was Texas resident, Christopher Lynn McCleary. The Appellee, McCleary, was not related to nor was he charged with any of the crimes discussed in Nexstar's report.

McCleary sued for defamation, and the key legal question was whether he had to introduce expert evidence that defendants' actions were negligent:

McCleary conducted discovery and deposed KFOR producer, Cristi Jill Wolf ("Producer"), who prepared the original story. Thereafter, McCleary responded to Nexstar's original Motion to Dismiss presenting his proposed evidence in support of the elements of his defamation claim. Essentially, McCleary presented evidence that Producer originally learned of the story from a Texas news station concerning a sex trafficking ring operating in North Texas and Oklahoma. She thought the story would be of interest because one of the other defendants involved was a football player originally from Oklahoma.

However, she noticed that there was no photo included for one suspect, Christopher McCleary, and thought the story would be more appealing with a photograph. Producer or those assisting her attempted to locate a photo of the man implicated in the incident solely by checking the website of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC), where........

© Reason.com