Judge dismisses suit against Liu

A $55 million defamation suit brought by fired radio personality Troi Torain, a.k.a. “DJ Star,” against City Councilmember John Liu, was dismissed by a federal court judge recently.
Torain was fired from his job as a host of the “Star & Buck Wild Show” on Clear Channel Communications’ Power 105 radio station after a broadcast on May 10, 2006.
During the program, he used a racial slur to describe a competitor’s wife, made sexually suggestive comments about the man’s four-year-old daughter and offered listeners $500 for information about the school she attended.”
Liu was among several council members who called for the firing, and called Torain, “a racist pedophile radio stooge.”
U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels said Liu’s comments could not be seen as factual to most listeners and viewers, a key to a defamation claim, according to published reports.
“No reasonable person would have believed (Liu) was conveying a fact about the plaintiff - i.e., that plaintiff was engaged in acts of pedophilia - rather than defendant’s opinion,” the judge wrote.
After the suit was tossed out, Liu said, “The good news is that no more tax-payers’ monies will be wasted by Torain’s frivolous lawsuit. The bad news for me, personally, is that I won’t have a chance to take the stand and talk about my disgust and pity for this racist pedophile radio stooge.”