A federal judge has thrown out The Austin Chronicle as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse and trafficking.
Last fall, an Austin woman sued Chronicle co-founder and former Editor Louis Black and the paper itself. She claimed that Black coerced her into a “state of sexual servitude” and the Chronicle was “willfully ignorant of the fact” that it benefitted from her forced sexual labor.
Plaintiff Ariel Cassone also alleged that Black used company money to pay for hotel rooms and make payments to Cassone. Therefore, her attorneys argued that the Chronicle engaged in trafficking.
On December 22, 2023, the Chronicle moved to dismiss these claims, arguing that the paper “did not benefit from Black’s [alleged] misconduct, did not participate in Black’s misconduct, and did not know about his misconduct.” On May 7, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman agreed that the suit failed to present facts that would implicate the Chronicle, throwing out the case against the paper. Black continues to deny the allegations with a tentative court date set for April 2025.
Cassone then submitted an amended complaint, but Pitman found it lacked evidence that the paper had reason to suspect wrongdoing.
“Accepting for the purposes of this order as true that the Chronicle knew of cash payments from Black to women at the Chronicle’s office, it does not follow that the Chronicle should have known those payments were part of trafficking or coerced sexual labor,” Pitman’s latest order reads. “Cassone’s proposed amended complaint is still devoid of allegations rising to the level of forced sexual labor, fraud, or coercion.”
The plaintiff had a window of time to appeal. Now that the window is closed, so is the case against the Chronicle.
“Neither I nor anyone at the Chronicle – with the apparent exception of our former editor, Louis Black – has ever met Cassone,” co-founder and current Publisher Nick Barbaro said in a statement. “Yet she made a whole lot of baseless and totally untrue statements regarding her connections here. This court’s decision – confirmed twice now – is appreciated of course, but the hassle and expense of having to defend such a frivolous claim still rankles.”
This article appears in August 2 • 2024.
