JUDGE TOSSES OUT $10 MILLION VERDICT, SAYING IT WAS EXCESSIVE

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - A judge has tossed out a $10 million defamation
award to a Greene County mechanic who claimed that television station
WVIR-TV ruined his reputation by wrongly reporting that cocaine was seized
from his property.

Saying the jury's verdict was excessive, Circuit Judge Edward L. Hogshire
gave Jesse Sheckler until Nov. 21 to decide whether to accept a revised $1
million award or to receive a new trial limited solely to determining damages.

The judge said that the station's liability was established in the previous
trial, but wrote in his opinion that the jury awarded "a sum far in excess
of an amount reasonably calculated to compensate for any proven losses."

Sheckler, 52, sued the NBC affiliate over a 2001 news report about a
federal drug case in which a reporter erroneously stated that authorities
had confiscated cocaine at Sheckler's residence.

Sheckler had been charged with helping to finance a drug dealer after
having loaned the man thousands of dollars. He was acquitted and has
maintained that he was unaware of Samuel Rose's illegal affairs.

In May a jury found that WVIR defamed Sheckler and awarded him the full
amount sought.

Attorneys for WVIR filed a motion to set aside the verdict and argued their
case before Hogshire in July.

WVIR lawyer Thomas E. Albro received the Nov. 7 opinion Monday.

"The court correctly ruled the verdict bore no reasonable relationship to
any damages Mr. Sheckler claimed in the case," Albro said.

Sheckler declined to comment on Hogshire's ruling. His attorney, Matthew B.
Murray, could not be reached for comment.

The judge noted that the $10 million award was five times larger than the
largest verdict approved by the Virginia Supreme Court in a previous
defamation lawsuit.

Albro said WVIR hasn't decided whether to seek a further reduction in the
award, or to ask the Supreme Court to set aside the entire verdict and
order a new trial on all issues.