Alabama player sues New York Times over story about deadly shooting
An Alabama men's basketball player sued the New York Times for defamation Wednesday, saying the newspaper falsely placed him at the scene of a deadly shooting in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Kai Spears, a freshman walk-on, said in the complaint and in a subsequent interview that he was at his dorm with friends Jan. 15 when 23-year-old Jamea Jonae Harris was fatally shot. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Alabama, includes a sworn affidavit from one of two friends who said he was with Spears that night.
"I was not anywhere near the scene or vicinity at the time that took place," Spears said in an interview. "I don't think it is a mistaken identity. I just think they didn't do their due diligence."
The shooting became a flash point for Alabama's promising season. One player, Darius Miles, was charged with capital murder. Miles, who was dismissed from the team, has pleaded not guilty. Law enforcement officials say two other players, NBA prospect Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley, were also present at the time of the shooting, but neither has been charged.
In March, ahead of Alabama's NCAA tournament opener, the Times reported Spears was in a vehicle with Miller during the shootout that resulted in Harris's death. The Times story said "a person familiar with the case" identified Spears and said it granted that person anonymity "to discuss sensitive matters in the case." The story was headlined, "A Fourth Alabama Player Was at a Deadly Shooting, in a Car Hit by Bullets."
In response to the lawsuit, Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said, "We plan to defend against the suit vigorously." The paper previously said it stands by its reporting, and the lawsuit says the Times didn't act on Spears's request for a retraction.
In an interview, Spears's father, Christian, the athletic director at Marshall University, said the Times's reporting was "false and inaccurate and no due diligence was done."
"This is the fourth pillar of our democracy. It's the media, the narrative - the ability to affirm information through the lens of reporting, quite honestly, is what makes our democracy special," he said. "And when you abuse it so wholeheartedly and you jeopardize the health and safety of an 18-year-old student - it's just unconscionable what the New York Times did. I am devastated by what we've had to endure."
The March 15 story prompted forceful denials from Alabama and the Spears family. Greg Byrne, the school's athletic director, issued a statement the next day calling the story untrue and saying the reporting displayed "an unfortunate disregard of the facts." Kai Spears said on social media that the Times's reporting was "100% inaccurate and the writer had complete disregard for the truth."
"I am trying to process and cope with these false statements that somehow have been published and then seen by so many," he wrote.
The lawsuit accuses the Times of defamation, libel and false-light invasion of privacy and says the Times has been repeatedly told it published false information and has refused to correct the record. A school official told The Washington Post this month that the university told the Times reporter, Billy Witz, that his work was "factually inaccurate" and reiterated that only two current players, Miller and Bradley, were at the scene.
In addition, Monica Watts, an associate vice president for communications at Alabama, told The Post that the Times published the story three hours after Witz "sent accusatory questions about a pending legal matter with no mention of a deadline to respond." Witz did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The lawsuit provides for the first time Spears's explanation of his whereabouts on the night of the shooting. According to the complaint, Spears had two friends visiting that weekend from Clemson University. After Alabama defeated LSU on the night of Jan. 14, the trio went to a Waffle House before returning to Spears's dorm and then eventually going to the Strip, a bustling entertainment area near campus.
According to the complaint, the group met up briefly with Miller around 12:30 a.m. before going to Moe's Original BBQ. They had a FaceTime call with Bradley and discussed meeting up with Miller and Bradley but instead decided to return to Spears's dorm room. The group left the Strip around 1:40, the complaint states.
From the dorm parking lot, Spears called Miller and Bradley via FaceTime about eight minutes later "to see where they ended up going," according to the lawsuit, and Spears was told "shots were fired at the windshield of Mr. Miller's vehicle."
The three remained in the dorm room the rest of the night, the complaint states, and the following day, Spears went to the police, "as the Tuscaloosa police wanted to interview all the basketball players who were out that night."
"The police investigation conclusively established that Plaintiff Spears was not present at the time of the shooting," the lawsuit states.
Tuscaloosa Det. Branden Culpepper testified at a February hearing that Miles, Miller and Bradley were at the scene on the night of the shooting. A police spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday about Spears.
Despite the incident and the ensuing controversy, the Crimson Tide won the SEC tournament title and entered the NCAA tournament as the top overall seed. According to the lawsuit, Witz approached Spears before a shoot-around in Birmingham, Ala., on March 15 and said, "The night of the shooting, when you were in Brandon Miller's car, were you scared when the shots were fired?"
Spears declined to comment to the reporter, the lawsuit says.
"And then he asked me another question - 'I'm sure it was very hard for you to experience that. Do you have any thoughts on that night?' And I said, 'I'm sorry, I'm not comfortable speaking about that,'" Spears recalled in an interview. "And then he just left."
The story was published on the Times's website that evening, with denials from Byrne and Christian Spears added the following day. Several other outlets across the country also made mention of the report. On March 17, a Times spokesperson told AL.com, "We're confident in our reporting and stand by it."
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Stephen New, seeks "in excess of $75,000," asking the court for compensatory and punitive damages. Spears said he intends to use part of any court award to help with future educational costs incurred by Harris's young son.
According to the complaint, Spears "has experienced severe emotional distress as his life has been disrupted by the untrue statements linking him to a criminal event." The complaint states that he has had trouble "focusing on his academic and sports endeavors, while enduring outrageous comments such as 'go kill yourself.'" He said he had to drop one of his spring classes in the aftermath of the Times's story but remains enrolled at Alabama and a member of the basketball team.
"Everything kind of blew up," Spears said. "I had multiple threats from Twitter and Instagram, people telling me to kill myself, people telling me I'm a murderer, we're a team full of murderers. And they're just kind of putting this false narrative out. . . . I mean, I did nothing wrong."
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The Washington Post's Ben Strauss contributed to this report.
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