Blame It On The Cosa Nostra

The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department affirmed the dismissal of a defamation action

This defamation action arises out of a wholly accurate news report stating that federal authorities raided The Cheetah Club (Cheetah’s), a midtown Manhattan strip club, which they alleged to be “run by the [M]afia” and at the center of an underground immigration ring that brought Russian and eastern European women into the United States, forcing them to work as exotic dancers. On November 30, 2011, federal agencies charged seven alleged members and associates of the Gambino and Bonanno crime families with, inter alia, transporting and harboring illegal aliens to work as dancers in New York area strip clubs. The indictment alleged that organized crime defendants controlled certain strip clubs and forced women who had been trafficked from eastern Europe to dance at the clubs. As the women would be placed in sham marriages for citizenship purposes, the federal operation was called “Operation Dancing Brides.”

The conduct of the defendants

After the raid at Cheetah’s, defendant CBS News broadcast the event during its noon news broadcast. Reporter Kathryn Brown (in front of Cheetah’s) broadcast the following:

“[S]ources tell CBS-2 News this bust is being dubbed  Operation Dancing Brides,’ and this strip club here, Cheetahs in Midtown, they say is at the center of the operation. Cheetahs advertises exotic women and the

. . . federal authorities say it is run by the mafia. They have been here — feds have been here all morning. They conducted an early morning raid and they’ve been here for hours inside collecting evidence. They are still inside right now. Meantime, earlier this morning, agents with the immigrations and customs enforcement arrested 25 men described as ringleaders of this entire operation. Many of them they say are members of the Gambino and Bonanno crime families. They say the men were involved in an elaborate operation to recruit women from Russia and eastern Europe into the U.S. . . . [to] force the women to work as dancers in strip clubs across New York City, including Cheetahs . . . This is still a developing story and we will have much more on this tonight on CBS-2 News at 5:00.”

At 5:00 p.m., defendants broadcast a news program called The Evening Report, which contained, inter alia, the following segment:

“Federal authorities carried out boxes of evidence from this Midtown strip club during an early morning raid. They say the club, Cheetahs, is one of several at the center of an underground immigration ring that stretches from Times Square to the heart of Russia. Investigators say Russian and Italian mobsters were working together in the elaborate scheme to bring Russian and eastern European women to the U.S., then funnel them to strip clubs to work as exotic dancers.”

The Report then showed Kathryn Brown interviewing a federal law enforcement official, the director of the National Organization for Women, and David Carlebach, an attorney for Cheetah’s. Carlebach was broadcast saying, “There is absolutely no La Cosa Nostra, as you say, connection.”

No case, says the majority

The suggestion that the individual plaintiffs are necessarily identified as members of organized crime because they are employees of entities that provide management services to Cheetah’s — reported to be “run” by the Mafia — is simply not logical. It is based on innuendo and constitutes an attempt to enlarge the concept of managerial services to include domination and control of an organization by force, whether actual or threatened, in contravention of the rule set forth in Tracy.

There is a dissent.

Bonus points to whoever gets the title reference. (Mike Frisch)