Chapter 9/Getting sued in Dallas

Dear Glen Loyd:

Thanks again for your help. I learned a lesson. Stick up for your rights and you can get what you paid for.

Mrs. Willis Kwakkel
Pickett, WI.

KDFW-TV, the CBS affiliate in Dallas, Texas, asked me to step up to the major leagues of TV news in 1975.

Dallas is a great city with wonderful people, but it is also the home of a lot of con artists. Getting complaints from ripped-off consumers, I went after the perpetrators with vengeance tempered by curiosity. What kind of mechanics charge for unnecessary car repairs? Why do some contractors take thousands of dollars and not perform the work? How could you live with yourself after bilking seniors out of their life savings?

My ultimate goal was to confront these people on camera, letting the TV audience see the skunks in person.

As a result, I started getting sued, three times in four years. I learned that guilty people often threaten to sue to save face with their families, keep businesses going, and get reporters off their necks.

As the popular "Action 4 Reporter," I received about 100 letters and 100 phone calls a day from people needing assistance. I had a full-time assistant and two college interns helping me resolve consumer problems.

But how popular would I be with my own news director if I kept getting sued? Even when you are right? which I was, it's expensive to defend yourself. When consumer reporters get sued a lot, they can become liabilities no matter how much good they are doing.

The first lawsuit came when I exposed con artists taking advantage of laid off employees who were desperate for work.

These families contacted me at KDFW-TV and told me they had been misled by Wilson International, an overseas job search firm. Consumers were told that if they gave $500 to Wilson International, the company would get them wonderful overseas jobs that would pay them up to $70,000 a year with free room and board.

When they paid the $500, families were told to come to a Dallas hotel where Wilson International would arrange overseas transportation. So families took their children out of school, sold everything they had and came to the hotel. Unfortunately, Wilson International didn't show up.

I interviewed the families as well as Joe Wilson who said it was all a misunderstanding. I wrote the script and had my secretary hand carry it several blocks away to the station's attorney for approval. When the newscast started and the red light on my camera came on, I read the lawyer-approved script on the teleprompter. But then at the end I ad-libbed, "It's a rip-off."

Well, the lawyer hadn't approved that statement and sure enough, Joe Wilson sued me for calling his company a "rip-off." The lawsuit catapulted me back into the newspaper headlines because a local judge ruled that I couldn't do any more stories on Joe Wilson, a prior restraint and violation of freedom of speech.

Here is the way the Dallas Times Herald covered the story: "Judge Dee Brown Walker of the 162nd District Court has issued a temporary injunction against KDFW-TV, Channel 4, and its consumer reporter Glen Loyd to stop publication of future items on the job search firm of Alaska Worldwide, which is doing business here as Wilson International. Judge Walker, who describes himself as one of the strongest believers of freedom of the press you'll find, termed his ruling very serious, but said he thought the order was necessary to protect Wilson International's right to earn a living."

Staring down at me from the bench, Judge Walker asked me if I thought I could say anything about anybody anytime regardless of the consequences?

"Yes," I replied.

Dallas attorney David Westfall, who represented Wilson International, said later in court, "if he believes he can say anything about anyone anytime, he's wrong."

But my attorney called 12 witnesses, who testified Wilson International did not keep promises to provide jobs in Arab countries. Each said he was asked to pay $420 to $450 for getting them a job. The witnesses testified they were promised jobs paying $30,000 to $80,000 plus housing and medical benefits. Wilson, however, said that under the contract signed by the firm's client, the firm's only obligation was to
print 500 copies of a resume on the individual and provide him a list of companies with overseas operations.

The Dallas Court of Appeals quickly overthrew Judge Walker's attempt to stifle free press in Dallas. The court said Judge Walker's restraining order was a violation of the U.S. and Texas constitutions. Later, Judge Walker was voted the worst area judge by Dallas Magazine.

All of the publicity about Wilson International sparked the interest of the FBI and the Texas Attorney General.

David Barchard Lookingland, an employee of Wilson International, was arrested by FBI agents in Houston on California grand theft and forgery charges in a land fraud case. The Texas Attorney General was also investigating.

Then the Dallas Police Department came to KDFW-TV and asked me for a photo of Joe Wilson. Later, I learned that Joe had been identified by a grade school girl who said he allegedly was the man who sat in a car outside of her school exposing himself. The little girl had the man's license plate number, which was traced to a car rented by Wilson. She also identified his photo.

Joe Wilson was arrested in Houston. Out on bail, he went home and got a gun and drove to a secluded park and killed himself.

This, of course, was a shock. And I was shocked again when I learned that Wilson had been exposing himself at my children's grade school in Dallas. The little girl who identified him was my daughter's classmate. How did this man from Houston end up at my daughter's school in Dallas? All we knew is that it happened when Wilson was in Dallas to appear in court.

Although I couldn't be blamed for his death, I did play a vital role in the collapse of Wilson's business and the pressure put on him before his arrest and suicide. Why was he at my daughter's school? All of this was troubling to me.

A final thought: People who are desperate for a job are still being taken for thousands of dollars by companies talking high-paying jobs but only giving resumes. Think twice about paying to get a job. Most of the time you will be ripped off.

I had become one of the most popular TV personalities in Dallas, and my boss was happy about it. Walking by my desk in the newsroom, he would say, "Glen Loyd, there's trouble." But he was smiling. After two more lawsuits he would be saying the same thing but not smiling any more.
My law firm in Dallas was happy, too. They were getting spectacular cases and making money. The firm's office was furnished with antiques and oriental rugs. And every time I had to pay them a visit, it seemed that they had added another expensive antique.