Judge Dismisses Former Secret Service Agent's Mortal Error Defamation Suit
A U.S. District Court judge in Baltimore has dismissed a former Secret Service agent's lawsuit against publishers of a book accusing him of accidentally shooting President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Judge Alexander Harvey II yesterday ended George Hickey Jr.'s hopes of collecting damages from St. Martin's Press, Simon & Shuster and the book's author, ruling that he waited too long after the printing of the book Mortal Error to sue for defamation. Bonar Menninger's book was published in 1992, but Hickey waited until April 21, 1995, to sue -- longer than Maryland's one-year statute of limitations allows for defamation claims.
Hickey was a 40-year-old Secret Service agent when he was assigned to JFK's Dallas motorcade in 1963. Mortal Error's central premise was that after Lee Harvey Oswald fired at Kennedy, Hickey grabbed an AR-15 assault rifle and it accidentally discharged when the car he was riding in abruptly changed speed.
Menninger's claims were based on theories developed by Maryland ballistics expert Howard Donahue, although it is an explanation that few JFK assassination theorists give any credence. Menninger has said that he agrees with the Warren Commission that Oswald shot at the president, but he believes that it was Hickey's accidental shot that killed JFK.
Although the book got little press attention and sold few copies, Hickey's attorney argued that the Mortal Error theory was heavily circulated with the release of Oliver Stone's "JFK" and other documentaries released around the 30th anniversary of the assassination in 1993. "It was a case where the echo has been much more damaging than the book itself," attorney Mark Zaid told the judge.
Hickey's lawyers hoped to circumvent the statute of limitations based on the publishers' republication of Mortal Error in 1996, and also filed suit in federal court in New Hampshire, where laws allow for a three-year statute of limitations. But the case was transferred to U.S. District Court in Baltimore because Hickey lives in Maryland.
Zaid said Hickey delayed filing suit because he was critically ill when the book was first released in 1992. "He was essentially on his deathbed and his family didn't expect him to live," Zaid said.
But the judge did not buy Hickey's arguments. "What is apparent from the record here is that plaintiff Hickey waited much too long to seek recompense for the allegedly defamatory statements contained in Mortal Error," Judge Harvey wrote in his 28-page opinion.
Hickey said he plans to appeal the ruling.
Sources: "Judge Dismisses JFK Lawsuit" Associated Press September 30, 1997; Dennis O'Brien, "Defamation suit involving book on JFK dismissed. Judge notes time limit; author alleged agent fired fatal shot in 1963" Baltimore Sun September 30, 1997.
