ROBERT C. CLOTHIER
MATTHEW R. SALZWEDEL
ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFFS
BETH L. DOMENICK
CARLTON A. SHERWOOD
IDENTIFICATION NOS. 57162, 201492, 93591
RED, WHITE AND BLUE
FOX ROTHSCHILD LLP
PRODUCTIONS, INC. AND
2000 MARKET STREET, TENTH FLOOR
VIETNAM VETERANS LEGACY
PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103-3291
FOUNDATION
(215) 299-2000
___________________________________
CARLTON
A. SHERWOOD, : PHILADELPHIA
COUNTY
235
Mumper Lane
: COURT OF COMMON
PLEAS
Dillsburg,
PA 17019
: TRIAL DIVISION
:
:
RED, WHITE AND BLUE
: _______ Term, 2006
PRODUCTIONS, INC.,
:
123
State Street
: NO. _____________
Harrisburg,
PA 17104
:
:
AND
:
:
THE VIETNAM
VETERANS :
LEGACY FOUNDATION
:
P.O. Box 95000-1655
:
Philadelphia,
PA 19195
:
:
Plaintiffs : JURY TRIAL DEMANDED
v.
:
:
KENNETH J. CAMPBELL, Ph.D,
:
2601
Pennsylvania Avenue
:
Apartment
826
:
Philadelphia,
PA 19130
:
:
AND
:
:
JON BJORNSON,
:
6904
Wissahickon Avenue
:
House #3
:
Philadelphia,
PA 19119
:
:
:
CIVIL ACTION
Defendants :
___________________________________ :
|
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ROBERT C. CLOTHIER
MATTHEW R. SALZWEDEL
ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFFS
BETH L. DOMENICK
CARLTON A. SHERWOOD,
IDENTIFICATION NOS. 57162, 201492, 93591
RED, WHITE AND BLUE
FOX ROTHSCHILD LLP
PRODUCTIONS, INC. AND
2000 MARKET STREET, TENTH FLOOR
VIETNAM VETERANS LEGACY
PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103-3291
FOUNDATION
(215) 299-2000
___________________________________
CARLTON
A. SHERWOOD, : PHILADELPHIA
COUNTY
235
Mumper Lane
: COURT OF COMMON
PLEAS
Dillsburg,
PA 17019
: TRIAL DIVISION
:
:
RED, WHITE AND BLUE
: _______ Term, 2006
PRODUCTIONS, INC.,
:
123
State Street
: NO. _____________
Harrisburg,
PA 17104
:
:
AND
:
:
THE VIETNAM
VETERANS :
LEGACY FOUNDATION
:
P.O. Box 95000-1655
:
Philadelphia,
PA 19195
:
:
Plaintiffs : JURY TRIAL DEMANDED
v.
:
:
KENNETH J. CAMPBELL, Ph.D,
:
2601
Pennsylvania Avenue
:
Apartment
826
:
Philadelphia,
PA 19130
:
:
AND
:
:
JON BJORNSON,
:
6904
Wissahickon Avenue
:
House #3
:
Philadelphia,
PA 19119
:
:
:
CIVIL ACTION
Defendants :
___________________________________ :
COMPLAINT – CIVIL ACTION
(WRONGFUL USE OF CIVIL PROCESS/OTHER – 2E)
Plaintiffs Carlton Sherwood,
Red White and Blue Productions, Inc., and the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation aver as follows:
PARTIES
1. Plaintiff
Carlton A. Sherwood (“Sherwood”) is an individual who resides at 235 Mumper Lane,
Dillsburg, PA 17109.
2. Plaintiff
Red, White & Blue Productions, Inc., (“Red, White & Blue”) is a Pennsylvania
corporation with its principal place of business at 123 State Street, Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania 17104.
3. Plaintiff
Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation (“VVLF”) is a Delaware non-profit
corporation, established for charitable and educational purposes relating to documenting the history of the Vietnam war and
developing educational and charitable programs related thereto.
4. Defendant
Kenneth J. Campbell is an individual who resides at 2601 Pennsylvania Avenue, Apartment 826,
Philadelphia, PA 19130.
5. Defendant
Jon Bjornson is an individual who resides at 6904 Wissahickon Avenue,
House #3, Philadelphia, PA 19119.
6. At
all times relevant to this action, Campbell and Bjornson were acting within the course and scope of their employment, authority,
or apparent authority as well as by and through the acts of their authorized agents, lawyers, servants, employees, apparent
agents and ostensible agents, including but not limited to James E. Beasley, Jr., Esquire and The Beasley Firm, and any others
whose identities are presently unknown to plaintiffs, all of whom were acting under the control or right of control of Campbell
and/or Bjornson and within the course and scope of their employment, authority, or apparent authority, in furtherance of the
business and purposes of the defendants.
VENUE
7. Venue
is proper because Campbell and Bjornson may be served in Philadelphia County,
because the cause of action arose in Philadelphia County,
and because a transaction or occurrence out of which the cause of action arose took place in Philadelphia
County.
FACTS
A.
Stolen Honor
8. Plaintiff
Carlton Sherwood is a newspaper and TV investigative reporter who has performed award-winning work and been honored with the
Pulitzer Prize and the George Foster Peabody Award, journalism’s highest honors in print and broadcast news.
9. Sherwood
also is a decorated Marine Corps combat veteran who served as a sniper-scout in Vietnam. During his service, he was wounded three times and was honorably discharged from the
Marine Corps in 1968.
10. In June 2004, Sherwood
established plaintiff Red, White & Blue Productions, Inc. (“Red, White & Blue”), an independent film company
which produced the documentary “Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal”
(“Stolen Honor”).
11. Stolen Honor tells the story of the war crimes and atrocity allegations made at the so-called “Winter Soldier
Investigation” that the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (“VVAW”) held in Detroit,
Michigan in January-February 1971. John Kerry,
in his testimony before the United States Senate in April 1971, publicly endorsed and repeated those war crimes allegations,
claiming that the alleged war crimes were “not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with full
awareness of officers at all levels of command.” Those allegations were
then used by the North Vietnamese to threaten, mistreat and demoralize United States
prisoners of war being held captive in North Vietnam.
12. Stolen Honor told this history through interviews with former POWs—all highly decorated and two of whom
are Medal of Honor recipients. These were men like Col. George E. “Bud” Day, Medal of Honor recipient, who had
been held as a POW for 5 years, 7 months and 13 days, who had served in World War II, Korea
and Vietnam, and who is the Air Force's most highly decorated
combat veteran.
13. In all, Sherwood
interviewed 17 former POWs who had spent a combined 109 years and three months in captivity.
These men explained that, during their years of captivity—which ranged from five years to almost eight years—they
had been subject to extreme torture by their captors and forced to write false confessions to war crimes and to condemn the
United States Government’s actions in Vietnam.
14. The purpose of Stolen Honor was, in part, to set the record straight regarding the service of American
soldiers in Vietnam.
Contrary to the war crimes allegations made by some in 1971, American soldiers were not “baby killers”
and did not kill civilians or torture POWs on a regular basis and/or pursuant to official United
States policy.
15. Stolen Honor’s statements regarding these war crimes allegations were based, in part, on scholarly research
by historians such as Guenther Lewy, who authored America in Vietnam, as well as B. J. Burkett’s Stolen Valor. In these books, Lewy and Burkett questioned the truthfulness and legitimacy of those
who claimed that American soldiers committed war crimes on a regular basis and pursuant to official United
States policy. They pointed out that some of
those involved in war crimes allegations were frauds; others refused to provide details sufficient to permit any corroboration
of their allegations; still others wholly refused to cooperate with government investigators.
While conceding that atrocities did happen in Vietnam (e.g., the My Lai massacre), they concluded that the allegations
were largely politically motivated and had little, if any, factual support.
16. Stolen Honor received its initial funding entirely from Pennsylvania
veterans. No political campaign, candidate or political party was involved in
any way in the financing or production of Stolen Honor.
17. Stolen Honor was released for distribution on or around September 8, 2004. The documentary was made available online at www.stolenhonor.com.
18. The New York Times
published a review of Stolen Honor that stated: “It should be shown in its
entirety on all the networks, cable stations and on public television.”
19. Shortly after Stolen Honor’s release, Red, White & Blue entered into an agreement with
Sinclair Broadcasting, through which Sinclair agreed to show Stolen Honor in its
entirety on all of Sinclair’s 62 stations nationwide on October 22, 2004. Those broadcast stations had the potential to reach 24 percent of the nation’s
television audience.
20. Red, White &
Blue also entered into a contract with Baederwood Movie Theatre, Inc. for the rental of the Baederwood Theatre in Abington,
Pennsylvania, for the purpose of showing Stolen
Honor on October 19, 2004.
Red, White & Blue paid for the theatre rental in advance and had furnished Baederwood with a copy of the documentary.
B. Campbell’s Improper Efforts to Stop Stolen Honor From Being
Shown
21. According to Campbell,
he was told about Stolen Honor by Jan Barry Crumb, one of the original founders
of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (“VVAW”). Crumb did not tell
Campbell that he (Campbell) appeared in Stolen
Honor, nor did Crumb recognize Campbell in Stolen Honor when he first saw it.
22. On or around September 9, 2004, Campbell, on his own
initiative, appeared on the television show “Hardball with Chris Mathews” along with Sherwood. While Campbell criticized Stolen
Honor on “Hardball,” he never stated that he was depicted in, or defamed by, Stolen Honor. Indeed, Campbell,
by his own admission, did not even know that he appeared in Stolen Honor until
much later.
23. According to Campbell,
over a month after the release of Stolen Honor, he was told by a friend and former
VVAW member, Chris Gregory, (“Gregory”) that he appeared in Stolen Honor. Until Gregory told him, Campbell was purportedly unaware
that he was in Stolen Honor, even though the documentary had been released over
a month before and even though Campbell had appeared, a month before, on “Hardball with Chris Matthews” to debate
Stolen Honor with Sherwood, among others.
24. Gregory, a longtime
friend and aide of John Kerry, was deeply involved in the Kerry 2004 campaign and had previously recruited Campbell
to work on the Kerry campaign. Gregory was a member of the “Doghunters”
– a group of veterans who over the past 20 years have defended Kerry’s Vietnam
service.
25. According to Campbell,
only two people – Gregory and a man named Gene Piatkowski – told him that they thought they recognized him in
Stolen Honor. Both men were Campbell’s
friends who had known him since the late 1960s or early 1970s. Piatkowksi, however,
learned about Stolen Honor only because Campbell
had filed a lawsuit, as described below. In other words, Piatkowski saw Campbell
in Stolen Honor only because Campbell
had publicly disclosed in his lawsuit that he, Campbell, was depicted in Stolen Honor.
26. Campbell,
on the other hand, himself told numerous people – family, friends, work colleagues, students, etc. – that he was
depicted in Stolen Honor. Campbell
voluntarily did so despite his contention that he was defamed by, and his reputation ruined by, Stolen Honor.
27. Campbell
spoke about Stolen Honor with several old friends who also were members of the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War, including Scott Camil, Jon Bjornson, John Beitzel and Bill Perry. In those conversations, Campbell told them that he was depicted
in Stolen Honor.
28. Camil, Bjornson and
Perry also were volunteers for the Kerry campaign in 2004.
29. None of the people
with whom Campbell spoke regarding Stolen
Honor told Campbell that he thought less of him as a result of Stolen Honor.
30. Upon hearing from
Gregory, a Kerry campaign advisor, that he appeared in Stolen Honor, Campbell
purportedly contacted David Kairys, a professor at Temple University,
whom Campbell had apparently known
from their anti-war activities in the 1970s. Kairys believed that a lawsuit should
be filed immediately because Stolen Honor was scheduled to be shown on TV across
the country in about a week. Kairys referred Campbell
to James E. Beasley, Jr., Esquire, of The Beasley Firm.
31. Kairys was interested
in a lawsuit against Stolen Honor for another reason. He felt that the lawsuit would provide an educational opportunity for Temple
law students to work directly with The Beasley Firm. As he stated: “It’s
a good one for our students to work on, and they will benefit from working with Jim Beasley, Jr.” Thus, a law school funded in part with public money became part of a coordinated effort to deny Sherwood’s
First Amendment rights.
