COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The judge presiding over a former NFL cheerleader’s defamation lawsuit against a gossip website ordered jurors to try again Friday after they said they couldn’t reach a verdict.
After several hours of deliberation Thursday, jurors informed the judge of their difficulty deliberating on the lawsuit filed by former cheerleader and teacher Sarah Jones. U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman sent them home for the night.
Jones is suing Scottsdale, Ariz.-based thedirty.com and the man behind it for $11 million over two 2009 posts that said Jones had sex with every Bengals player and suggested she had sexually transmitted diseases.
Jones says the posts were untrue and caused her severe mental anguish, while attorneys for the website argue that they don’t amount to defamation because Jones is a public figure and has questionable character.
