A couple is suing a police department because they relied on a psychic.
A Texas couple who own a ranch that police searched following false information that was provided by a psychic are suing the police and several major news organizations for defamation.
The case began June 6, 2011, when a psychic called police and described a horrific scene of mass murder: dozens of dismembered bodies near a ranch house about an hour outside of Houston, Texas. There were rotting limbs, headless corpses, and, chillingly, many were children in this mass grave they described.
Deputies from the Liberty County Sheriff's office went to investigate but didn’t see anything amiss. After a second call the following day, dozens of officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the FBI, and the Texas Rangers were on the scene -- not to mention cadaver dogs, news helicopters, and gawkers. It all turned out to be a false alarm. There were no dead bodies; the psychic was wrong (or lying).
NEWS: Psychic Fiasco: Texas Mass Murder Raid a Hoax
Though the incident became a national embarrassment, the police refused to apologize, saying that procedures were followed and that the severity of the claims warranted an investigation: Whether a tip comes from an ordinary citizen, an anonymous informant, or a self-proclaimed psychic, information about mass murders cannot be ignored.
NEWS: 'Flawed' ESP Study Sparks Uproar
Psychic information often wastes police time and resources following up on false leads. Despite popular belief and claims to the contrary, there is not a single documented case of a missing person being found or recovered due to psychic information. Psychics have consistently failed to find missing persons, including high-profile disappearances like Natalee Holloway and Holly Bobo (the Tennessee woman abducted in April 2011 who remains missing despite efforts by dozens of psychics).
In perhaps the most glaring and tragic failure of psychics, Jaycee Dugard, the girl who was abducted and held hostage by a California husband and wife, was subjected to continual sexual and physical abuse for nearly 20 years while psychics offered wrong and contradictory information about her location and condition.
Whether the Bankson and Charlton will win their defamation lawsuit remains to be seen, though it will likely make police think twice about following up on psychic information.
http://news.discovery.com/human/psychic-hoax-mass-grave-120612.html
A Texas sheriff is being sued for acting on a psychic's tip.
A Texas couple claim in court that they were defamed by major media companies, including The New York Times, Belo Corp., CNN, Thomson Reuters and ABC News, after a self-proclaimed psychic told the sherriff that 25 to 30 dismembered bodies were buried in a mass grave at their home.
Joe Bankson and Gena Charlton sued the news outlets, the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, Houston-based KPRC-TV and Jane Doe aka "Angel" - the self-proclaimed psychic - in Dallas County Court.
The couple claim that Angel called the sheriff's office on June 6, 2011, and said that 25 to 30 dismembered bodies were buried at the plaintiffs' house.
The sheriff's office provided the plaintiffs' address to the news media and repeated the false statement, and it made nationwide and worldwide headlines, according to the complaint.
Bankson and Charlton claim the sheriff's office searched their home unreasonably and without probable cause, inviting the media along to watch the intrusive execution of the search warrant.
The couple claim the sheriff's office was "unreasonable in relying on an uncorroborated tip from a self-proclaimed psychic source" who has proven to be "unreliable and untrustworthy."
The media defendants failed to make reasonable inquiries into the truthfulness of the statements they published, and failed to take reasonable precautions so that the false statements would not injure the plaintiffs' reputations, the complaint states.
The plaintiffs seek damages for defamation, negligence and unreasonable search and seizure.
Court filing: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/08/Psychic.pdf