A lawsuit claiming libel and false-light invasion of privacy against the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ and two of its journalists has been filed in connection with reporting about the stalking of a local judge and a shot fired near the stalker.
The focus of the reporting was on a February 2021 incident in which Adam Watters, a Pima County justice of the peace, fired a gun into the ground near Fei Qin, a man who had been stalking Watters. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ coverage of the incident outside Watters’ house included a video the judge made of himself threatening to kill Qin before firing what he called a warning shot.
At Qin’s trial, a jury heard evidence that the Watters family was unnerved after several incidents in which garbage was left on their lawn in early February 2021. The trash left outside the Watters home included mail addressed to tenants Qin had recently sought to evict in Watters’ court, evidence showed. Around the same time, the judge’s truck tires were slashed in two separate incidents while parked outside his house.
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The Pinal County Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute Watters. In January, Qin was sentenced to 1½ years in state prison for stalking the judge.
The lawsuit, filed in Pima County Superior Court, says a March 2021 news article by Star reporter Carol Ann Alaimo about the confrontation incorrectly implied that the judge’s daughter, who was there that day, quit her job as a Pima County prosecutor in connection with the incident.
The lawsuit says Caitlin Day Watters had already been interviewing with a ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ law firm and was offered a job with her new firm before the shooting incident.
The lawsuit also says that a July 2021 news opinion column by Tim Steller made false and misleading statements, including that Caitlin Watters and her sister were armed and waited for Qin in lawn chairs hidden by bushes. The lawsuit says Caitlin Watters’ sister was not armed and was reading a book. An incident report by a sheriff’s deputy who interviewed Caitlin Watters as a witness in the case says the attorney was armed during the incident but did not fire. The column did not identify either woman by name.
“Caitlin’s gun ownership, like her other activities in this matter was legal, honest and appropriate,†the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says Caitlin Watters was approached on multiple occasions by co-workers, friends, fellow attorneys, judges and members of the public about the articles after they were published. The suit also says Watters is “member of a long-standing established ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ ranching and Republican family†that includes her grandmother, former state Sen. and Pima County Supervisor Ann Day, and her great aunt, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Attorney Dan Barr, who is representing the Star in the lawsuit, said the news story and column about the incident “dealt with a matter of public concern involving, among other things, the conduct of two public officials — a justice of the peace and a then-prosecutor with the Pima County Attorney’s Office. We intend to vigorously defend the Star and its reporters.â€
