Sammy Hagar has successfully defended a defamation case brought against him by a woman he referenced in his 2011 memoir, “Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock.”
News.com.au reports US District Judge Linda Reade ruled on April 30 that Hagar did not defame the woman - identified as Jane Doe in court documents - when he accused her in his book of falsely naming him as the baby's father in order to extort money.
"We're certainly gratified by the result and we hope this means that it's all over," said Hagar's attorney, Wesley Kinnear of San Francisco. "It's difficult to be involved in litigation like this. It was a surprise to him. And he's very pleased that the judge ruled the way that she did."
The woman, of Waterloo, Iowa, claims she and Hagar had an affair in the 1980s, when she was a Playboy bunny, and that she became pregnant with his child after a concert in 1988.
At the time, the two reached a legal settlement in which Hagar agreed to pay her during the pregnancy as long as she kept quiet about her belief that he was the father. The child died shortly after birth in 1989 and no paternity tests were conducted. In all, Hagar paid the woman $7000.
The woman filed a lawsuit against Hagar in 2011 claiming he defamed her, violated her privacy, intentionally inflicted emotional damage and breached their 1989 confidentiality agreement.
But Judge Reade ruled that Hagar did not defame the woman because he did not refer to her by name in the book - identifying her erroneously as a "Playboy bunny from California" - and the woman did not prove she suffered any financial, reputational or emotional injuries from his statements.
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