After Virginia State Trooper Melanie McKennery slapped Nathan Cox with an absurd $1.35 million defamation suit last month over a Youtube video that made her look irrational and incompetent, Cox is fighting back.
This is what his attorney had to say in a motion to dismiss the case against the [**Virginia Cop Blocker:**](http://virginiacopblock.org/civil-lawsuit-update-coxs-attorneys-respond-to-1-35m-lawsuit/)
> “This Suit is nothing more than a bad-faith, baseless attempt by State Trooper McKenney to hide behind her private persona and silence Nathan Cox – to retaliate against him for his First Amendment protected political activity – by issuing him a million dollar ticket.”
McKenney’s wild flailing of a lawsuit [**started after Cox recorded her at a video stop and blogged about her abusive actions**](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/06/melanie-mckenney/).
While she claimed that Cox’s cell phone could be a gun – reiterated that statement later, saying “There are reports of cellphones looking like guns. I had no problem with him recording me. I was already being recorded with the dash cam,” – the record shows another story, as McKenney can be seen on Cox’s video saying “Put your…,” and stopping short instead of saying the words “phone down.”
McKenney insists she then wanted Cox’s phone placed on the back of Cox’s car so that it could not be used as a blunt force object to strike her – not to stop it from recording – as if a cell phone is a popular weapon to bludgeon a person with or that Cox posed any sort of threat. In the video, you can see Cox clearly making only defensive movements from McKenney’s attemtpts to snatch his phone.
Cox is moving the court to dismiss the lawsuit on two grounds. For one, McKenney is past the statute of limitations on this preposterous claim. Secondly, defamation charges require a plaintiff to prove that the defendant made false statements – which Cox never did.
From Cox’s motion to dismiss:
> “To Prevail, McKenney must show the statements Cox made are both actionable and false. **Many of the alleged defamatory statements are not actionable as a matter of law. As for the rest, the video and other documents related to the incident show that these statements are true or substantially true.** While McKenney may be personally offended by some of the statements or the mode of their expression, they are not actionable. Indeed, they constitute protected speech under the First Amendment. Therefore this case should be promptly dismissed. Alternatively, any purported statements the Court determines not to be actionable or which are true should be stricken before the case proceeds further.”
Mckenney’s main issue is that Cox described her as being crazy in his Youtube video, an opinion shared by many, including those of us at PINAC.
Videos from Cox’s phone as well as McKenney’s dashcam are posted below.
