Former NBA Player Loses Appeal in Defamation Case against Chicago Tribune

An Illinois state appeals court affirmed a ruling of summary judgment, finding that the actions of the Chicago Tribune Company did not rise to the level of “actual malice or disregard for the truth” in mistakenly reporting that a former NBA player had committed a crime.   The plaintiff in the case was Edward Arnett "Eddie" Johnson. Born and raised in Chicago, Johnson starred as a basketball player for Westinghouse High School and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before bei