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May 19, 2000/14 Iyar 5760, Vol. 52, No.37
ADL says defeat won't keep it from doing job
MICHAEL J. JORDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - The Anti-Defamation League, stung by a courtroom defeat for the first time in its 87-year history, has asked the judge to review a jury's $10.5 million verdict against it.
But while the appeals process moves forward, the ADL says it's still business as usual.
"We're going to keep on representing Jews who feel threatened or harassed, so it's not going to affect our work," said Jill Kahn Meltzer, ADL's corporate counsel.
The jury, in its April 28 verdict in Denver, found the ADL's Mountain States chapter and its director liable for violating the Federal Wiretap Act and for defaming and violating the privacy of a Colorado couple, William and Dorothy Quigley, publicly accused of anti-Semitism. The couple had been feuding with their Jewish neighbors, Mitchell and Candace Aronson, who had asked the ADL to intervene in 1994.
In response to the motion filed May 12, the judge can lower or eliminate the damages, or throw out the April 28 verdict entirely. If he sticks by the jury's decision, ADL officials say they will appeal to a higher court.
"We have every faith in the judicial system, that the right thing will be done at the end of the day," said ADL spokeswoman Myrna Shinbaum. "We were shocked and dismayed by the jury's decision. We don't think we did anything wrong. We think we did everything right."
With the wheels of the appeal process just set in motion, it's too early to tell what, if any, ramifications such a costly verdict would have on ADL's $45 million annual budget and its wide range of activities. Moreover, it's unclear whether the verdict, if it stands, would be seen as an aberration or as a precedent-setter in the field of advocacy on behalf of the persecuted.
Meltzer said the organization had taken no disciplinary action against the Denver-area ADL director, Saul Rosenthal, whose statements about the Quigleys at a 1994 news conference were the primary bone of contention. His comments were based on the testimony of the Aronsons.
"We didn't determine that he said something he shouldn't have," Meltzer said. "He's been fully supported by the ADL throughout the litigation."
The long-running case was triggered by a dispute over the neighbors' dogs. It escalated when Candace Aronson accused William Quigley of trying to run her over with his car in their affluent suburb outside Denver.
Soon after, the Aronsons, who had a police scanner in their home, "inadvertently" overheard the Quigleys on their cordless telephone. They heard a number of crude anti-Semitic comments - later described as "jokes" - and what they perceived to be threats against them.
The "jokes" reportedly included ideas like attaching images of oven doors to the Aronsons' house - an apparent reference to the Holocaust - burning the Aronsons' children, and wishing the Aronsons had been blown up in a terrorist attack in Israel.
The Aronsons asked the ADL for help. They also probed into the legality of tapping the Quigleys' phone lines to produce evidence. "It was everyone's understanding that it was legal," Meltzer said.
The local district attorney filed charges of ethnic intimidation against the Quigleys, only to later withdraw it and pay the Quigleys $75,000 in an out-of-court settlement. The Quigleys and Aronsons also settled out of court.
Yet, the case against the ADL remained, with the Quigleys asserting the ADL had infringed upon their civil rights.
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