Ex-Bengals Cheerleader Suing Website for Defamation, Claims Cyberbullying

Reason 24/7

An NFL cheerleader-cum-high school teacher who pled guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges related to having sex with a seventeen year old student has taken an online gossip site to court over comments it made about her.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Ex-high school teacher and one-time Cincinnati Ben-Gals cheerleader Sarah Jones took the stand Monday in the retrial of her potentially groundbreaking defamation lawsuit against online gossip website TheDirty.com.

The 28-year-old shed a few tears as she talked about being humiliated after the website published comments in 2009 alleging she was promiscuous and had sexually transmitted diseases.

"It is cyberbullying," the 28-year-old Jones said of the website's posts about her. "I don't believe what the website does is fair. I don't believe it is right."

Jones last October avoided jail time when she pleaded guilty to felony custodial interference and misdemeanor sexual conduct for having sex with a student. Cody York was 17 and a Dixie Heights High School senior at the time the sexual relationship happened.

David Gingras, attorney for the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based website, fired back that Jones has no reputation to defame after she admitted to a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student she taught.

"You must judge Sarah's reputation based on her actions," Gingras said. "Felony convictions are relevant to a person's credibility."

He acknowledged that his client "can be mean, but mean is not a crime."

Don't agree with what you say but defend to the death the right to say it, and all that.

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Comments

[Sevo]

Suck it up, lady; A1.

[Auric Demonocles]

You bastards deleted the wrong post! Now we lost several comments. What monsters!

But anyway, I will repeat myself: wasn't she married when she banged that student? That would seem to prove the promiscuous part true, at least.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, in this area, I don't think she's got much of a hope of crying about defamation.

[Auric Demonocles]

What if this defamation happened while one or more parties was in space?

[Pro Libertate]

In space, no one can hear you defame.

[Auric Demonocles]

So, you have now revealed that you will offer space-lawyering services without a Mars office.

[anon]

What I wouldn't give to be that student...

[Auric Demonocles]

Think how many fantasies he got to check off at once:

-Older woman
-Married woman
-Teacher
-NFL CHEERLEADER
and, considering he was in high school:
-any woman

[Clich? Bandit]

CENSORSHIP CENSORSHIP!!!

I WAS FIRST ON THE FIRST POST!!!

All those words of wisdom LOST to the ether...cancel my subscription.

[John]

Here is the thing. Ordinary defamation covers this. If someone wrongly told the world this woman was a slut and had five STDs, that is defamation and she has a right of recovery.

So what is the point of calling it "cyberbullying" other than to set the precedent that saying anything mean about someone is the same thing as defamation?

[Fist of Etiquette]

As always, good on the 17-year-old for nailing a NFL cheerleader. But Jones doesn't have a leg to build a pyramid on here. Now all she's done is garnered more traffic for this website I'd never even heard of. But on the bright side at least she didn't work for the Browns organization.

[Episiarch]

NICE.

[Warty]

Joke's on you, moron. The Browns don't have cheerleaders, 'cause looking at hot chicks is just too gay.

[Brett L]

Ah, the Texas A&M strategy.

[Clich? Bandit]

THAT WAS MY ORIGINAL COMMENT DAMNIT
I was FIRST and proud of beating Fist AND I was relevant and funny. NOw that Fist CLEARLY has the Reason squirrels in his pocket I get screwed!!!

*spittle of rage*

[Fist of Etiquette]

He who controls the squirrels controls the world.

[Clich? Bandit]

he has blue within blue comments

[anon]

For the love of god, GIVE US A PICTURE MAN!

[Sevo]

You heard about this new app called Google?
http://www.google.com/imgres?i.....Bw&dur=644

[anon]

Yeah, but still. That's more labor I have to spend that I should be using to do like, work, and stuff. Or something. I want a one-stop wank bank!

[TANSTaaFL]

For those who are seeing-imparied: Absolutely Amazing body, below average face, and in many pics appears to have gone (Boehner) crazy with the self tan.

[Raston Bot]

I don't like what you're saying and will fight in court to stop your icky words.

yep, that's just as dumb when written out.

[np]

I'm not one for defamation suits but I'm sympathetic here

Jones last October avoided jail time when she pleaded guilty to felony custodial interference and misdemeanor sexual conduct for having sex with a student.

If I recall, not only was he already beyond the age of consent, he supported the teacher and also had his parents' adamant support, showing up to court and all. So much for "custodial interference", but we gotta get our 3 felonies a day somehow

"You must judge Sarah's reputation based on her actions," Gingras said. "Felony convictions are relevant to a person's credibility."

Hey fucker, did you know you're already a felon?

[John]

Speaking of older women nailing teenagers, instapundit made an interesting point about this a few weeks ago. There does seem to be a rise in that sort of thing happening. I am sure some of that is the rise of the national media and us hearing more about it. But I don't think all of it is. Teachers have been banging students since there were schools. But it was in the past mostly male teachers doing it. Girls mature faster than boys. Some of the male teachers were not that far out of high school. And it was unsurprising that the two would end up hooking up once in a while. But there were never many cases of women hooking up with boys. Boys mature less fast and women usually are looking for something in men that boys don't have.

That seems to have changed. And Reynolds' point was that maybe women are different now because of the feminist obsession with rape. If you are a woman and you are told your whole life every man is a potential rapist, maybe if you are a bit weak or have trust issues anyway, you lose the ability to trust men and feel comfortable being with them. And if you are like that, being with a teenage boy over whom you have a lot of power would be a way to overcome that.

It would be more than ironic and unsurprising if the feminist obsession with the rape culture actually produced a rape culture among women.

[Auric Demonocles]

Assuming that their in fact is a rise is female teachers banging male students:

I think a factor in that would be just the increased number of female teachers. The number of male teachers below college has dropped, so their are less men doing this, but more women.

[tarran]

But that wouldn't be 'rape culture'. When feminists rant about Rape Culture, they are asserting that men are given a pass on rape (or as Warty prefers to call it, surprise sex).

These women aren't predating on the boys with impunity. They have to hide in the shadows.

I do agree that in most of these cases the women are looking for sex where they are feeling in control, and certainly hysteria about the vilness of men will drive some women in the margins to pursue young inexperienced teenagers as safe 'partners', but I just can't imagine it's responsible for any sea change in misbehavior.

[John]

I am not sure. Traditionally most women would not find a teenage boy sexually attractive. Women are wired a bit differently than men. For men, teenage girls are sexually desirable. It is just that most men are mature enough to want something a bit more than pure lust or have moral qualms about pursueing such. Back in the day, older widowers often married teenage girls. But older widows never married teenage boys.

So, I think something has changed in what at least some women look for in men. Some women at least want a nonthreatening man whom they can control. And that makes teenage boys much more desirable than they once were.

[SugarFree]

Too convoluted. The reason it is happening more is delayed adolescent. There just not that much difference in experience, culturation, and lifestyle between a 26-year-old and a 17-year-old any longer. They are both mentally 17, so it's hard for them to see what the problem is with their behavior.

And it's more often women because they will be punished far less than a male teacher would be for sleeping with a 16-year-old girl. Far, far less. These women might do a little time and lose their jobs, but a male teacher is going to get lojacked and have to live under a highway overpass.

[John]

Yeah. But doing a little time and losing your job is a hell of a deterrent to most people. These women are not career criminals who view losing their career and being a convicted criminal as no big deal.

[Emmerson Biggins]

I think SF's explanation is better, just from Occam's Razor.

[Rasilio]

Actually something is changing and it is showing up in dating website data but I'm not sure it has much to do with rape culture baggage.

Basically women in the last 10 years or so have started displaying a decided shift towards preferring younger men...

http://www.nydailynews.com/lif.....-1.1375049

I think, and this is just my guess here, that the driving factor is that as older women become more financially independent and socially powerful they begin to prefer younger men for the same reason older men are drawn to younger women. They want a play partner, someone youthful and with energy to make them feel young and vibrant again. In the past they would have preferred older men as older men represented stability and security but providing the stability and security for themselves frees them up to pursue fun.

[John]

yeah but those women are going for guys in their 20s. They are not going for teenagers.

[Rasilio]

And most guys go after girls in their 20's, as you said above most either wouldn't be interested in or are smart enough to recognize that going after a 16 year old is not a good idea. However if you assume that n% of males don't have that switch telling them that 16 is too young then it is reasonable that the same percentage of women also lack it and with their mating preferences switched from looking for stability and financial security to looking for fun it would cause a rise in women hooking up with teenaged boys

[Acosmist]

Do any males have that switch? 16? Really? That's legal here.

[anon]

And if you were a teenager you'd turn down pretty much any opportunity to sleep with a hot woman of any age?

[Brett L]

Hot? At 16 that was an option, not a requirement.

[Rasilio]

I was thinking the same thing, hell at 16 I was desperate and politically naive enough that I wouldn't have turned down Nancy Pelosi if she offered

[np]

I doubt his argument since there were always women who prefer younger guys. I remember reading stories decades ago. That maturation difference just concerns the small difference of the onset of puberty, but by the time you are in highschool, especially being a junior/senior like this guy was, you're already a biological adult.

I really think it's more perception and reporting or shift towards female teachers than anything else. It just wasn't part of the stereotype or perceived tradition, but it's there. I recall reading commentary from lots of older women, some mothers even, fawning over Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) when he played a nude role in theatre many years ago.

In Japan for example, this has been the traditionally accepted norm for women seeking lovers (even when they were married). Even today host clubs filled with pretty boys are popular with Japanese women

Even Snowden back in 2002, when he was 17/18 and working as a webmaster for his friend's business:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1371271

The confident computer whiz, who also posted under the username "Phish," said women were a fan of his skinny frame.

"I like my girlish figure that attracts girls," he wrote on Ryuhana Press, a defunct start-up that sold anime art.

[Hugh Akston]

I don't like the implications of this suit. If she wins, it might give other people the idea to sue media outlets for calling them out on shameful behavior. Why reason itself could be liable if one of its blog commenters said, for example, that Lindsay Graham was John McCain's bottom bitch.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Truth is an absolute defense.

[John]

To defamation. But I am not sure it is to "cyber bullying" whatever the fuck that is.

[SeaCaptain(Yokeltarian)]

This.

And fuck Lindsay queen Graham.

[Clich? Bandit]

Well, the more I looked at the story the "less" shameful it really is.
- She was divorced before (as a matter of fact her divorce was the factor that brought these two together)
- It was consensual and a 17 yo is an adult in MANY states
- The boys parents were ok with it
- They are getting married now
- The only thing shameful is really an ethical issue regarding her being a teacher. And importantly NOT HIS TEACHER. So, the more I look at it, as a Libertarian, this should be a simple "Fire her" offense and this site is ACTUALLY defaming her.

[Clich? Bandit]

SLD, the site should not be criminally prosecuted but should be subject to civil liability for the incorrect "factual" representations it makes.

[Sevo]

Looks like we're following a lead:
"Russia's Constitutional Court Says Websites Must Remove Defamatory Material if Ordered To Do So"
http://reason.com/24-7/2013/07.....ays-websit

[Rasilio]

Actually not, a civil suit is nowhere near the same thing as a law offering criminal sanctions if you violate it.

[Sevo]

Give 'em time...

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

"An NFL cheerleader-cum-high school teacher"

Yes.