Although allegedly libelous statements about New York grocery store owners wereoriginally privileged when published in the Congressional Record, a trial is necessary to determine whether an author recklesslyrepeated the libel in his book, a state judge in Manhattan has ruled.
Justice Louise Gruner Gans in Crucey v. Jackall, filed last week in Supreme Court, New YorkCounty, IA Part 61, denied author Robert Jackall�s motion to dismiss the complaint of Altagracia Crucey, an owner of a bodega inWashington Heights who claimed Mr. Jackall libeled her in his 1997 book, Wild Cowboys: Urban Marauders and the Forces ofOrder.
