Johnnie Cochran sues New York Post

Jet, Jan 12, 1998

Famed trial lawyer Johnnie Cochran has filed a $10 million lawsuit, accusing the New York Post of libel.

The lawsuit, filed against the Post's publisher and a writer, Andrea Peyser, is over a column in which she said the famous lawyer "will say or do just about anything to Johnnie win, typically at the expense of the truth."

Cochran contends in the lawsuit that the remarks hurt his reputation and caused him emotional distress.

In the Aug. 29 column titled "Nightmare Team Is Taking Over" Peyser criticized Cochran's decision to represent Haitian immigrant Abner Louima who was allegedly brutalized and sodomized with a toilet plunger by New York Police officers.

"The man who cynically turned West Coast Justice on its ear in service of the guilty is now poised to do a similar number on the city of New York," the column said.

Cochran Cochran lawyer Barry Langberg said the column was "more than unflattering. It basically said he has a history of lying in court." He said the newspaper refused to print a retraction, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Pat Smith, a spokesman for the Post and its parent New York Post Holdings Inc., said he had not seen the suit and had no comment, AP reported.