Settling A Score With Dueling Pens

Don't get mad, get even. Write out that vendetta and watch your adversary squirm.

Such is the tactic employed by Rick Swart, a freelance writer who just happened to fall in love with the subject of an article he was writing. His subject? She was in jail after killing her husband.

Like any other man smitten by love, Mr. Swart lost his ability to be subjective and his words took on a different hue. He had fallen so deeply in love with convicted murderer Liysa Northon that he asked her to marry him, and all this while he was composing a story about her personal tragedy.

Not a good combination for a reporter, although if the man had been penning a novel he would have been well served. Fiction can go where the writer wants, without stirring up a storm of convtroversy on facts. And it was facts that got in the way of his report.

By the time he finished his article, he had taken author Ann Rule to task. Ms. Rule is well known for her non-fiction, having made her name in true crime.

Mr. Swart and Ms. Northon

In the eyes of the adoring Mr. Swart, Ann Rule had done his spouse wrong in her telling of the murder. To read his version of events, you would think that Ms. Rule's HEART FULL OF LIES was so riddled with errors as to be essentially a work of fiction. He is entitled to his opinion, of course, but he failed to tell the Seattle Weekly, which published the article, that he was going to marry the heroine of his epic, which made him a very interested third party. What loyal husband would not push the theory that his new bride was the victimn of poor legal counsel, and then raked over the literary coals by an author who trades in sensationalism?

Mr. Swart may have thought that he had settled the score with Ms. Rule via a stroke of his pen, but in this digital age it is all but impossible to hide certain key facts, like relationships that are posted on Facebook.

Ms. Rule is now suing the Oregon-based weekly journal, citing slander and defamation of character that has harmed her reputation as a factual presenter of crime stories. That being her stock-in-trade, the article would hurt her ability to earn a living, which is grounds for a settlement that the journal may not have the resources to pay. As it turns out, the Seattle Weekly was recently sold, and the new owner is no doubt reeling at the news that liability has come along to spoil the party like an uninvited guest.

At some point, Mr. Swart will have to appear in court, having been named in the suit as well. His cheerleading for Liysa Northon may cost him some money, to say nothing of his reputation as a reporter capable of maintaining a distance from the story he is covering.

In future, he is free to criticize Ms. Rule all he likes, as long as the facts stand up to scrutiny. Or he can pen a novel with some thinly disguised true crime author as the antagonist. The vendetta can go on, as long as Mr. Swart has words in his pen and a pot of venom with which to ink them. Will his wife keep that particular well filled?