SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- A gossip website has been hit with an $11 million judgment for libel and slander after posting false accusations about a northern Kentucky teacher who sidelines as a Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader.
The judgment against Dirty World Entertainment Recordings, which runs the site Thedirt.com, came Thursday after the site declined to answer a lawsuit brought by Sarah Jones, a high school teacher whose picture was posted on the site along with an accusation she had been exposed to two venereal diseases.
U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman added an annual interest rate of 0.25 percent to the $1 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages.
An e-mail message sent to the operator of the Scottsdale-based website, Hooman Karamian, who uses the online name "Nik Ritchie," was not immediately returned Thursday morning.
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