From AP:
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) - A former Idaho Republican Party chairman who sued a Spokane, Wash.-based newspaper, alleging libel, is taking his case to the state Supreme Court after two 1st District Court judges ruled against him.
Trent Clark has alleged that he was misquoted in a Spokesman-Review story in 2001.
The article by reporter Thomas Clouse quoted Clark as saying: "You probably cannot find an African American male on the street in Washington, D.C., that hasn't been arrested or convicted of a crime."
The next day, Clark said he had really said: "I know of no African American males in Washington, D.C., who don't have at least a couple of friends who have been arrested or convicted of a felony."
The paper has said it stands by Clouse's story.
Judge Eugene Marano dismissed Clark's claim, ruling there was no evidence of malice on the newspaper's behalf.
After Clark appealed, Judge Charles Hosack ruled again in the newspaper's favor, saying this time that the case should be dismissed because the "gist of the written quote and the gist of the alleged actual statement is substantially the same."
