Nancy Grace continues to get hers.
Three years past the death of Melinda Duckett finds CNN and talk show host Grace continuing to squirm on the hot seat of a defamation suit filed by the young mother's parents. Duckett--just 21 years old at her passing--committed suicide after the airing of an interview with Grace in the disappearance of her 2 year old son, Trenton.. (Nancy Grace Goes to Court, 11/21/2006).
Well, all that's coming back around.
Dr. Harold J. Bursztajn, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard--hired by CNN-wrote in a recent court filing that Nancy Grace "...contributed to her (Duckett's) suicide" and "...that Grace "struck a highly accusatory tone " while conducting the interview.
The Los Angeles Times (12/5/2009):
The professor saw "a distraught young woman who is subject to repeated and increasingly sharp questioning by a hostile interviewer who displays increasing suspicion and anger towards Ms. Duckett."
The next day, the 21-year-old Duckett shot herself in the head.
"Her apparently unanticipated public humiliation on the nationally televised program in question was a substantial contributing cause of her suicide," Bursztajn wrote.
The family claims Grace's questioning, along with the network's decision to air the pre-taped interview the day Duckett committed suicide, inflicted severe emotional distress.
Grace and the network have denied any involvement in the suicide, and a CNN spokeswoman declined comment on the filing.
The Orlando Sentinel, (12/4/2009):
(...)
Bursztajn noted in his opinion that the interview about the missing child "substantially diminished her [Duckett's] capacity to protect herself from suicidal ideation and thus was a substantial contributing cause of her suicide the following day."He also noted that as additional information becomes available as the case heads to trial "this preliminary opinion will be supplemented and the degree of certainty to which I hold it may be revised."
Although I'm no huge fan of Lou Dobbs, I find it simply incredulous that the "advocacy anchor" and CNN have parted ways, yet somehow Nancy Grace remains on-air.
Trenton Duckett has yet to be found.
