Judge Dismisses Photographer’s Anthrax Lawsuit
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A federal judge in Florida has dismissed a freelance photographer’s lawsuit seeking more than $2 million for celebrity photographs contaminated in the anthrax attack on a tabloid publishing house in 2001.
The Virginia-based photographer, Greg Mathieson, claimed to have lost about 1,400 photos stored at the Boca Raton, Fla., headquarters of American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, Star, and Weekly World News. Among the photos were images of President Clinton and his family, Princess Diana, and Frank Sinatra, Mr. Mathieson said.
Mr. Mathieson said a photo editor for American Media promised to pay $1,500 for each photo lost, regardless of fault. However, in an August 23 opinion, Judge Donald Middlebrooks said that oral agreement could not supersede written “term sheets” that accompanied the photos.
The anthrax contamination at American Media is believed to be linked to a series of anthrax-laden letters received in 2001 in Senate offices and by press outlets, including ABC, CBS, NBC, and the New York Post. No one has been charged in connection with the mailings.
