Omar Tarazi Libel Case Dropped

Omar Tarazi, who acted as lawyer for Rifqa Bary’s parents in her 2009 custody case, has written about his legal dispute with Pamela Geller:

After a year of fighting, Pamela Geller finally caved in and agreed to permanently take down all of her defamatory posts regarding me to settle the lawsuit…  In the end, it was not worth wasting another two to three years fighting over the issue with Pamela Geller caving in and agreeing to take down the posts to settle the case today…

Tarazi’s spin on the outcome of his libel action is rather unconvincing: Geller’s website continues to carry numerous attacks on him, she has not issued any sort of correction regarding the material removed, no compensation has been paid, and Geller’s lawyer, David Yerushalmi, continues to assert dishonesty. Geller claims that Tarazi withdrew after receiving a “400+ page opposition” – this document has not been made publicly available.

Geller, unsurprisingly, is touting the outcome as a “historic free speech victory” and as the defeat of “litigation jihad” – something of a joke given that she and Yerushalmi both throw around libel threats of their own when it suits them (see here and here).

Back in August, it was reported that Tarazi had dropped an action against Bary’s legal representative in Florida following a confidential settlement:

Columbus lawyer Omar Tarazi had argued that Orlando attorney John Stemberger defamed him by calling him unqualified and also alleging in a 2009 TV interview that he has terrorist ties…

Tarazi and Stemberger agreed Tuesday that the complaint be dropped.

Tarazi had also made a grievance about Stemberger’s conduct to the Florida Bar; the case was dismissed in May.

Stemberger and Geller fell out with each other over Bary a while ago, with Geller denouncing Stemberger as a “svengali lawyer” and as a “clown”. Bary endorsed a “Stemberger Legal Defense Fund”, which was promoted by a number of high-profile Christian Right activists; she did not made any public statement about Geller.