Director Spike Lee is asking a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed against him by Florida couple Elaine and David McClain after he retweeted the couple’s address thinking it belonged to George Zimmerman.
The couple is suing Spike Lee for punitive damages that they say were incurred by the movie director’s retweet. However, Lee’s legal team says both parties already settled out of court in the past, and it’s too late to ask for more money.
Lee retweeted the couple’s address back in 2012 and when the couple decided to sue him, they reached a $10,000 settlement out of court.
“The court should dismiss this case because plaintiffs have already settled the claim of negligence,” Lee’s attorneys said.
The Florida couple says that still isn’t enough to keep Lee out of court again.
The McClains argue that the settlement they reached back in 2012 didn’t include, nor could it predict, the additional damages that the couple had to deal with after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Ever since Zimmerman was released as a free man, the couple has dealt with numerous death threats and have had to have constant police surveillance around their home.
The couple even said that one day a pizza in the name of George Zimmerman was delivered to their home.
“Plaintiffs suffered and continue to suffer mental anguish and distress,” the McClains’ attorneys said. “Plaintiffs suffered and continue to suffer anxiety and fear.”
The couple’s legal team also revealed that they had to move out of their home after extremely serious death threats although they still haven’t managed to sell the house because of the rumors about the address.
If Lee does have to go to court, his attorneys insist that it should be a federal and not a state court because possible bias may tip the verdict in the couple’s favor as Lee would be an out-of-state defendant.
The cards are not in Lee’s favor, however, as a magistrate judge has already recommended that a state court handle the case.
Since the retweet, Lee has apologized publicly and did his best to make Twitter aware that the address he tweeted did not belong to George Zimmerman. Unfortunately, his apology tweet didn’t get nearly as much attention as the Zimmerman address retweet did and the couple is still dealing with rather serious consequences.
The question remains, however, whether new developments in the George Zimmerman case justifies the couple essentially hitting the famous filmmaker with the same lawsuit from a year go, only requesting more money.
While initial reports claimed that the couple was only asking for several thousand dollars, Lee’s attorneys said that the couple has requested more than $1 million.
