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Spotify is facing a defamation lawsuit for its true crimes podcast, ‘Son of a Hitman’.
The new lawsuit was filed by an eyewitness to the murder of a federal judge. The witness testified at the murder trial of hitman Charles Harrelson in the 1980s. She claims that the Spotify podcast, ‘Son of a Hitman’, rigged her interview to sensationalize the podcast.
Dr. Chrysanthe Parker filed the lawsuit, saying the podcast host used less than 5 minutes of the full 90-minute interview he gave. She says the podcast unfairly portrays her as a “very unusual witness” who was complicit in the scheme to convict Harrelson on fabricated evidence.
“The episode and podcast as a whole lead the audience to the false conclusion that Dr. Parker, as a young attorney and court official, was an accessory to or actively participated in the fabrication of evidence to perpetuate an unfair trial against Charles. Harrelson, ”says the nine-page federal complaint.
The lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Texas against Spotify USA, High Five Content, and Tradecraft Alternative for defamation and fraudulent incitement. Dr. Parker claims that the podcast benefited from the tabloid presentation of her interview at the expense of its reputation.
She says the false description of her actions on podcasts could cost her job opportunities. She is an inactive Texas attorney with multiple certified health care degrees, testifying in trials as an expert witness in the field of PTSD. Dr. Parker says she would never have agreed to participate in the interview if she had known that Harrelson’s children were involved in its production.
Dr. Parker says the show’s host, Jason Cavanaugh, hid that he was working with Harrelson’s children. He also appears in the Spotify defamation lawsuit.
Dr. Parker’s involvement in the notorious murder case began in May 1979. US District Judge John H. Wood. Jr. was killed in front of his home in San Antonio. Parker momentarily ran into a man he reported as Charles Harrelson before the murder occurred. She testified as an eyewitness, placing him in the judge’s apartment complex that morning.
The Charles Harrelson trial established that a drug dealer paid him $ 250,000 to assassinate the judge. Harrelson was found guilty and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus five years. He died in 2007 in a Colorado Supermax federal prison.
The case was examined twice by the Supreme Court of the United States and was the subject of two unsuccessful appeals. One attempt was backed by his famous son, Woody Harrelson, who hired Alan Dershowitz to appeal the case.
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