Defamation Lawsuit Against Fox News Dropped, Plaintiff Still Suing Others for Falsely Accusing Him of Being Mass Shooter
Ted Shaffrey, AP
Mauricio Garcia had the bad luck to share the same name as the mass shooter who killed eight people and wounded seven at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas on May 6, 2023, and sued multiple media outlets whom he said falsely identified him as the shooter. Garcia is now dropping that lawsuit against Fox News, but continuing the litigation against the others.
In April, Garcia, a 36-year-old Dallas man, filed a lawsuit claiming this false identification had caused him “damage [to] his reputation and image” and “a severe degree of mental stress, anguish, fear, personal embarrassment, and psychological harm which has disrupted his daily affairs.”
The Mauricio Martinez Garcia who was the actual gunman was 33 years old and was shot dead by police officers who responded to the scene. News reports in the aftermath of the shooting described him as armed with an AR-15 and wearing a tactical vest with a “RWDS” patch on it, an acronym for “Right Wing Death Squad,” a phrase popular among white supremacists, multiple Nazi tattoos, as well as social media posts that indicated neo-Nazi beliefs and other racially- and ethnically-focused violent rhetoric.
Amateur internet sleuths dug up a 2022 mugshot of the 36-year-old Garcia, from when he was arrested for an unrelated matter, and claimed he was the shooter. That was incorrect, but the photo nonetheless went viral online – and was also shared in reports by multiple television networks and podcasts.
Garcia’s lawsuit, filed in county court in Austin, Texas, named as defendants Fox News, Newsmax, Univision, Steven Crowder and his Louder with Crowder media company, podcaster Tim Pool’s company Timcast Media Group, host of InfoWars’ War Room Owen Shroyer, Jason Lee’s podcast company Hollywood Unlocked, Today News Africa, and that outlet’s White House correspondent Simon Ateba. Each of the defendants is accused of having “recklessly disregarded basic journalistic safeguards” by publishing “the photo of an innocent man, branding him as a neo-Nazi murderer to his local community and the nation at large” in reports dated May 7 through 9, 2023.
Fox News responded to the suit with a motion to dismiss described by Law&Crime’s Colin Kalmbacher as “blistering,” arguing that the image in the complaint that was purportedly from a story on the Fox News website actually came from a TikTok user unaffiliated with the network, and whose account is now deleted.
The “apparent misinformation,” wrote Kalmbacher, seems to have originated from a TikTok account affiliated with former Rep. Mayra Flores (R-TX), a one-term congresswoman from South Texas who had a penchant for posting QAnon and other conspiratorial content.
“Thus, the image on which Plaintiff bases his claim is taken from a TikTok within a TikTok — and neither TikTok is an [Fox News] account,” argued Fox’s attorneys in the motion to dismiss. Because Garcia’s attorney Mark Bankston had been informed that Fox News had never published any image of Plaintiff, the attorneys also requested sanctions.
On Thursday, Bankston responded to Fox News’ motion, conceding that the lawsuit “should never have been filed” against the network in a letter to Fox News’ legal counsel:
My client Mauricio Garcia has voluntarily dismissed his claims against Fox News with prejudice. I acknowledge the lawsuit should never have been filed against Fox News, and we are compensating Fox News for its trouble in defending against this claim. In turn, Fox News is foregoing pursuing sanctions. Contrary to my prior public statements, Fox News did not ignore basic journalistic precautions and did have proper institutional guardrails in place with respect to its coverage of the Allen, TX shooting.
Bankston also filed with the court a notice that his client was dismissing the lawsuit with prejudice regarding Fox News, meaning that it cannot be amended and refiled against that same defendant later.
The lawsuit will continue against the other defendants, Bankston confirmed, in a long thread on The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter, which also included an explanation for why his client was dismissing the claims against Fox:
Although we were provided an image of a Fox News article with our client’s photo which was posted by a former U.S. House member, and although another media outlet testified that they relied on Fox, Fox has shown us to our satisfaction this is simply not true.
We have no desire to pursue a claim without basis in fact, in which Fox was a victim of a fabrication.
As such, my client Mauricio Garcia has voluntarily dismissed his claims against Fox News with prejudice.
Personally, I acknowledge the lawsuit should never have been filed against Fox News, and we are compensating Fox News for its trouble in defending against this claim. In turn, Fox News is foregoing pursuing sanctions.
Contrary to my prior public statements, Fox News did not ignore basic journalistic precautions and did have proper institutional guardrails in place with respect to its coverage of the Allen, TX shooting.
As such, I’ve decided to pay for the time spent by the attorneys in Texas because it’s the right thing to do. Lawyers shouldn’t have to work when they don’t need to. And I thank Fox’s attorney in Texas for helping us figure out what happened here.
We will continue to prosecute the case against the remaining defendants, including Newsmax, Univision, Stephen Crowder, Owen Shroyer, and more.
