Publicity Stunt

From the Palm Beach Post-

Stuart - A surgeon once named at the top of a Martin County Sheriff's Office list of parents delinquent on child support is now suing the agency and Sheriff Bob Crowder, saying they defamed him by posting his picture on their Web site and saying he owed more than $1.1 million in child support and alimony.

Dr. Robert Barbati, 56, was arrested in May 2006 on a civil contempt warrant, but a Martin circuit judge dropped the warrant and released him from jail after attorneys for him and his ex-wife said they settled their financial issues earlier that year.

Barbati, whose two children are now adults, claims in his lawsuit that he was never judged to have owed the $1.1 million or "a sum even close to that number."

Barbati, who practices in Martin County, is accusing officials of posting his name and picture at the top of a "Grinch Roundup" list in 2005 as a publicity stunt.

If I was Barbati, and what the Sheriff posted was untrue, I'd be unhappy also. The trouble I see, is Barbati is possibly buying himself much more bad publicity by going through with this lawsuit of his. He had to have been behind child support, which is inexcusible, at some point for the Sheriff to make the posting they did. Is suing for and winning fifteen thousand going to heal the doctor's reputation or rather cause it further harm?

The way I see it, its likely to be the later. Especially when people can now google search Barbati and find this post of mine.

Linked to- Adam, Pursuing Holiness, Right Voices, Right Wing Nation,