• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler L.L.P.

Personal Injury Attorneys | Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler, L.L.P.

Header Right

  • Español
  • English

TOLL FREE PHONE: (800) 900-5373
LOCAL PHONE: (214) 720-0720 – DALLAS

  • Home
  • Attorneys
    • Andrew B. Sommerman
    • George (Tex) Quesada
    • Sean McCaffity
    • Laura Benitez Geisler
    • Al Ellis, Of Counsel
    • Jody L. Rodenberg
    • James M. Kennedy
    • Rebecca Neumann
    • Ariana Chalajour
  • Practice Areas
    • Commercial Litigation
      • Breach of Contract
      • Unfair Competition
      • Shareholder Disputes
      • Officer & Director Liability
    • Catastrophic Injuries
      • Boating Accidents
      • Brain Injuries
      • Burns
      • Falls in the Workplace
      • Gas Line Explosions
      • Insurance Litigation
        • Automobile Policies
        • General Commercial Liability Policies
      • Premises Liability
      • Spinal Cord Injuries
      • Wrongful Death
        • Workplace Deaths
        • Oilfield Deaths
        • Truck Wreck Deaths
    • Oilfield and Construction Injuries
      • Oilfield Injuries
      • Oilfield Deaths
      • Construction Site Injuries
      • Trench Collapses
    • Truck Wrecks
      • 18-Wheeler Wrecks
      • Truck Driver Fatigue
      • Fraudulent Log Books
      • Overloaded Trucks
      • Speeding
      • Truck Driver Distractions
      • Ice Storms
    • Car Wrecks
      • Motorcycle Wrecks
      • Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Claims
      • Pedestrian Accidents
      • Bicycle Accidents
      • Injured by Distracted Driver
      • Injured by Drunk Driver
    • Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices
      • Drug Litigation
  • About Our Firm
    • Testimonials
    • Publications
  • Blog
  • Press
  • Contact Us
Call
Contact
Blog
  • Home
  • Attorneys
    • Andrew B. Sommerman
    • George (Tex) Quesada
    • Sean McCaffity
    • Al Ellis, Of Counsel
    • Laura Benitez Geisler
    • Jody L. Rodenberg
  • Practice Areas
    • Commercial Litigation
      • Breach of Contract
      • Unfair Competition
      • Shareholder Disputes
      • Officer & Director Liability
    • Catastrophic Injuries
      • Boating Accidents
      • Brain Injuries
      • Burns
      • Falls in the Workplace
      • Gas Line Explosions
      • Insurance Litigation
        • Automobile Policies
        • General Commercial Liability Policies
      • Premises Liability
      • Spinal Cord Injuries
      • Wrongful Death
        • Workplace Deaths
        • Oilfield Deaths
        • Truck Wreck Deaths
    • Oilfield and Construction Injuries
      • Oilfield Injuries
      • Oilfield Deaths
      • Construction Site Injuries
      • Trench Collapses
    • Truck Wrecks
      • 18-Wheeler Wrecks
      • Truck Driver Fatigue
      • Fraudulent Log Books
      • Overloaded Trucks
      • Speeding
      • Truck Driver Distractions
      • Ice Storms
    • Car Wrecks
      • Motorcycle Wrecks
      • Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Claims
      • Pedestrian Accidents
      • Bicycle Accidents
      • Injured by Distracted Driver
      • Injured by Drunk Driver
    • Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices
      • Drug Litigation
  • About Our Firm
    • Testimonials
    • Publications
  • Blog
  • Press
  • Contact Us

Posted In Defamation

CNN’s “Man misidentified as Charlottesville driver had to flee home; plans to sue far-right sites” Andrew Sommerman speaks out

“There are consequences to fake news,” Sommerman told CNN. “There are consequences to false reporting.”
“My message to those outlets is that if your words can cause great harm, and has caused great harm, you must suffer the consequences of the law as a result,” he added. “And the law does not tolerate this type of behavior.”

See snippets from Attorney Andrew Sommerman featured on CNN:

In the immediate aftermath of the Charlottesville terror attack, the far-right website GotNews posted what seemed like a huge scoop. The website said it could “exclusively reveal” that the person who had run over a group of demonstrators in a Dodge Charger was not a white nationalist, but instead a critic of President Donald Trump.

The Michigan man GotNews had identified was in fact not the driver. He was not even in Virginia at the time. But within hours he and his family had been forced to flee their home at the advice of local police, who expressed concern for their safety after a slew of death threats rolled in.

The family’s flight from their home capped off a feverish attempt by right-wing sleuths to discover the culprit behind the Charlottesville attack and dig into his or her history, seemingly in hopes of proving the person was not of a right-wing political persuasion.

To be sure, GotNews wasn’t the first outlet to peddle the false report. There had been similar chatter online on places like 4Chan and Twitter, and other far-right publications also ran with the false story. But GotNews wrote about the man who was wrongly identified, Joel Vangheluwe, and his family, in perhaps the most confident terms of any publication. It retracted that story not long after it was published.

“You want to talk about fake news — dear lord, some of these folks,” Andrew Sommerman, an attorney for the Vangheluwe family, told CNNMoney in an interview this week. Sommerman added that the family intends to pursue legal action against the online publications that peddled the misinformation.

The sleuthing performed by these activists was not very complex. Images from the scene of the deadly attack had captured the vehicle and its license plate number. GotNews said in its story, which carried no byline, that it then ran a license plate search which returned a registration result for Jerome Vangheluwe.

“A Facebook crawl of his relatives reveals the car was in the possession of his son, Joel,” the GotNews story said, seemingly in reference to one 2011 post in which Joel had taken a photo of the vehicle and said it would be his when he turned 16.

But GotNews and the other sleuths and publications were wrong. The car was not “in the possession” of Joel. The vehicle did once belong to his father, Jerome, but the family had sold it years ago. Moreover, police later identified the driver as James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old who held extremist white nationalist views.

GotNews soon issued a retraction, said it regretted the error, and apologized to the family. Its founder, Charles Johnson, told CNNMoney in an email his website “merely reported on the existence of the evidence” and suggested he’d be happy to discuss the matter further with the Vangheluwe family attorney. (Johnson later tried to retroactively declare his comments off-the-record, said if they were published he would work to get this reporter “fired from CNN,” and warned this reporter not to “make the mistake of making me an enemy.”)

Yet, as typically happens, before the facts could catch up in the aftermath of the attack, misinformation ran rampant. Before and after GotNews published its story, people on the right passed around the rumor that Vangheluwe was the driver, declaring the attacker to be a person with a liberal worldview. And an excited Internet mob rummaged through Vangheluwe’s Facebook page, sharing his anti-Trump posts.

As all this was going on, Sommerman told CNNMoney, Vangheluwe was at a gathering to “say goodbye” to a relative “not doing so well.” While at that gathering, he was inundated with messages on social media. He eventually took to Facebook to respond.

“I’m not the one, i’m from f**king michigan you idiots,” he wrote in one Facebook post.

In another, Vangheluwe added, “I drive a 2009 chevy impala, not a challenger, f**k the internet.”

It was seemingly too late. Sommerman told CNN the misinformation ricocheting around the internet had prompted a stream of threats directed at Vangheluwe and his family.

“It’s been really bad. They’ve been terribly harassed,” Sommerman said. “The family has been devastated.”

Sommerman said the family received so many threats that the authorities became involved and that the family eventually left their home at the suggestion of police. Lt. Mike Shaw, a spokesperson for the Michigan State Police, confirmed to CNN that authorities advised the family to temporarily stay elsewhere. Shaw also said police increased patrols in the area.

Now the family plans to take legal action. Sommerman wouldn’t provide a list of outlets the family could file suit against, and stressed it would take some time to prepare the complaints, but said he was taking a close look at the websites which ran with the inaccurate report.

“There are consequences to fake news,” Sommerman told CNN. “There are consequences to false reporting.”

“My message to those outlets is that if your words can cause great harm, and has caused great harm, you must suffer the consequences of the law as a result,” he added. “And the law does not tolerate this type of behavior.”

See the full article at: http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/16/media/charlottesville-man-misidentified-plans-lawsuit/

 


Contact the Dallas Personal Injury Attorneys at Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler, L.L.P.

Schedule a complimentary initial consultation with a member of our legal team.

(214) 720-0720

Dallas

(800) 900-5373

Toll Free

Primary Sidebar

Contact An Attorney

Practice Areas

  • Commercial Litigation
  • Catastrophic Injuries
  • Oilfield & Construction Injuries
  • Truck Wrecks
  • Car Wrecks
  • Pharmaceuticals & Medical Devices

Client Testimonials

I would always suggest Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler

My insurance company refused to cover my injuries in an accident where they insured both parties. The other party was unquestionably liable and but did not have sufficient coverage, so damages should have been paid under my uninsured/underinsured coverage. Even though I had paid for uninsured/underinsured coverage for many years, my insurance company refused to pay. Andy Sommerman and his staff at Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler won the case in a jury trial even though there were three times as many attorneys and support on the opposing side. I would always suggest Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler if you need an attorney that is not intimidated by multi-billion dollar insurance companies.

- Roger B.
After Suffering a Hit and Run

After suffering a hit and run, I turned to Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler for some much-needed legal assistance. The team at Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler worked fastidiously for three years to resolve my complex legal matter, and kept me informed throughout the whole process. In the end, Andy Sommerman was successful in having the truck owner’s insurance pay the bills.

- SUE W.
I Refer Them to Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler Without Reservation

Our firm refers all of our personal injury cases to Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler. The clients we refer are treated professionally and are very pleased with the settlement proceeds they receive. Anytime I receive a call regarding a personal injury case, I refer them to Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler without reservation – I know they will be in good hands.

- SCOTTIE A.

Search

Recent Posts

  • Three Firm Attorneys Selected by D Magazine as “Best Lawyers in Dallas”
  • Lawdragon Names Six Firm Attorneys Among the Nation’s Top Litigators for Consumers 
  • Firm Again Named Among Region’s Top Litigation Practices
  • Firm Partner Profiled in Texas Super Lawyers Magazine
  • Firm Secures $21.35 Million Verdict for Former East Texas Police Officer in Wrongful Termination Claim

Archives

Categories

  • Announcements
  • Apartamento y Casa Incendios
  • Apartment and House Fires
  • Appliance Fires
  • Car Accidents
  • Defamation
  • Distracted Driving
  • DWI Accident Attorneys
  • Internet Safety
  • Los Incendios Appliance
  • Oilfield Injuries
  • Personal Injury
  • Personal Injury Lawyers
  • Press
  • Products Liability
  • Publications
  • Slip and Falls
  • Uncategorized
  • Workplace Injury
  • Wrongful Death
  • Yaz/Yasmin Litigation

Footer

Recent Posts

View Recent Posts

Three Firm Attorneys Selected by D Magazine as “Best Lawyers in Dallas”

Based on nominations from attorneys across North Texas and a review by a select panel of attorneys, … [Read More...] about Three Firm Attorneys Selected by D Magazine as “Best Lawyers in Dallas”

Lawdragon Names Six Firm Attorneys Among the Nation’s Top Litigators for Consumers 

Six attorneys with Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler LLP have been selected to this year’s … [Read More...] about Lawdragon Names Six Firm Attorneys Among the Nation’s Top Litigators for Consumers 

Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler, L.L.P.

3811 Turtle Creek Blvd
Suite 1400
Dallas, TX 75219-4492

Toll Free Phone : (800) 900-5373

Local Phone: (214) 720-0720 – Dallas

Email

GET DIRECTIONS

Copyright © 2019 Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler, L.L.P. | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter