Suing Over Statements Made by a Former Police Official

Attorney Answer

The clock is your first problem. In West Virginia a defamation claim must be brought within one year, and if the memo you describe is older than that, the claim is likely gone before any of the rest matters.

W. Va. Code § 55-2-12(c) sets a one-year period for an action of a nature that, if a party died, could not have been brought at common law by or against a personal representative. Defamation is the classic claim in that category. Do not confuse it with the two-year periods in subsections (a) and (b), which cover damage to property and personal injury.

The elements and the defenses come from Zsigray v. Langman, 243 W. Va. 163, 842 S.E.2d 716 (2020). A private-figure plaintiff must prove a defamatory statement, a nonprivileged communication to a third party, falsity, reference to the plaintiff, at least negligence by the publisher, and resulting injury. Two parts of that decision cut directly against a case like yours. Testimony given as a fact witness in a judicial proceeding is absolutely immune from a defamation claim. And statements made to a law-enforcement officer during an investigation, while not absolutely privileged, carry a qualified privilege — a good-faith statement about a matter in which the speaker has an interest or duty, published only to those with a legitimate interest — which you overcome only by proving bad motive. Whether a qualifiedly privileged occasion exists is a question of law for the court where the facts are undisputed. The Court also affirmed summary judgment against the plaintiff on the outrage and emotional-distress claims in that case.

There is one more hurdle specific to your facts. Zsigray requires "reference to the plaintiff." A memo about a house, or about people who came out of a house, is not automatically a statement about you as the owner. You would have to show it was understood to be about you.

What you can do

1. Get the actual document — the memo itself, in writing, with its date and its distribution list. Everything turns on what it says and to whom it went. 2. Write down the exact words that referred to you personally, as distinct from words about the property or its occupants. 3. Pin down the publication date. The one-year period under W. Va. Code § 55-2-12(c) runs from when the claim accrued. 4. Identify the setting of each statement: given in court or in a judicial proceeding, said to an investigating officer, or published to the public or press. Under Zsigray, that setting decides which privilege applies. 5. If the statements went to law enforcement, collect anything showing bad motive — prior disputes, threats, admissions — since that is what defeats a qualified privilege. 6. Take the memo to a defamation lawyer quickly, given the one-year period.