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The Estate of Melinda Duckett Sues Nancy Grace, Producers & CNN For Wrongful Death

Attorneys representing the Estate of Melinda Duckett are suing Nancy Grace and her producers for inflicting emotional distress on Melinda Duckett that resulted in her taking her own life.

The attorneys say Duckett killed herself just hours after being questioned, some say grilled, on the show by Grace over the disappearance of Melinda’s 2-year-old son Trenton Duckett. Melinda committed suicide one day after being grilled by Nancy Grace as to whether she killed her missing son, Trenton Duckett.

The lawsuit is expected to be filed Tuesday, and alleges that Grace and the news network inflicted emotional distress on Duckett. Josh Duckett, Melinda’s estranged husband, is also named in the suit. (Central Florida News)

The lawyer that represents the Estate of Melinda Duckett, Jay Paul Deratany, states that Nancy Grace encouraged Melinda Duckett to come on ‘The Nancy Grace Show’ saying “the goal was to draw public attention to help find the boy”.

“It’s not just about the questioning. It’s about the misrepresentation with the knowledge that she was emotionally distraught,” Deratany said. The attorney said Grace improperly took on the role of a law enforcement officer.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. (CBS News)

See copy of the complaint filed here at the Smoking Gun.

Desratany says that was a misrepresentation of fact and that the real intentions became quickly apparent as soon as the interview began.

Please note that Jay Paul Deratany, attorney representing the Estate of Melinda Duckett will be a guest of Dana Pretzer on Scared Monkey’s radio Friday, November 24 at 9:00 EDT.

“We’ve alleged that Nancy Grace and her producers deliberately misrepresented the reasons for wanting Melinda on the show.

Within minutes of Melinda’s phone interview, it became quite obvious that Nancy’s questions weren’t about finding Trenton at all, but rather about impliedly accusing Melinda of murdering her beloved son.” (FOX News)

Melinda Duckett Estate Sues Nancy Grace

Talk show host Nancy Grace, her producers, and C-N-N are named in a wrongful death suit being filed today. Melinda Duckett committed suicide in September, shortly after an aggressive questioning episode on Grace’s T-V show. Kara Skorupa is the attorney for the Duckett estate. Grace repeated asked Duckett about her missing son. Skorupa says it was so aggressive it may have helped lead Melinda Duckett to kill herself. (AM850)

Grace should pay for ‘ambush,’ say boy’s grandparents

The parents of Melinda Duckett will file suit today in Lake County against CNN Headline News talk-show host Nancy Grace, accusing the ex-prosecutor of pushing their daughter to suicide with an insensitive, fist-pounding TV interview.

The wrongful-death lawsuit accuses Grace and her producers of luring the young mother onto the show by misrepresenting their intentions to find her missing 2-year-old son, Trenton.
“I believe it to be an ambush,” South Florida lawyer Kara Skorupa said. She provided a copy of the nine-page complaint and said it would be filed today in Circuit Court in Tavares.

The lawsuit, which claims intentional infliction of emotional distress, seeks an undisclosed amount of monetary and punitive damages from Grace and Cable News Network. (Orlando Sentinel)

UPDATE: Lockport Couple Sues CNN Journalist

Although this may not be criminal it certainly is bad form and is probably one of the biggest determining factors why the family of Melinda Duckett may have gone forward with this law suit. The Nancy Grace Show had to have known that Melinda Duckett was dead when they aired the previously recorded interview. Then they continues to show it over and over in the following months.

Her parents in Lockport were outraged by the talk show hosts harsh, accusatory line of questioning. The segment aired just hours after her death.

Melinda’s father, Jerry Eubank: “It was 3-4 hours after I heard that Mindy died and I’m watching this woman banging the table, and screaming about why aren’t you telling us this, I mean she was judge, jury and executioner.”

Melinda’s mother, Beth Eubank: “She physically makes me ill. The night she aired the show on September 8th, it was less than four hours since Mindy’s death, family members had not even been notified.” (WIVB 4)

November 21st, 2006 at 06:18pm Posted by | Missing, Missing Children, Trenton Duckett | 16 comments

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16 Comments

  1. [...] Read the rest of the law suit filed against Nancy Grace at Missing & Exploited. [...]

    Pingback by Scared Monkeys | November 21, 2006

  2. Sounds nuts to me. The girl was willingly on the phone with on Nancy Grace. Could she not have hung up if she felt THAT battered? That would be like being in an argument with someone..that someone commits suicide and their family sues YOU for being in an argument with them…crazy.
    Also, I heard the interview and the mother was definitely hiding something. Maybe that ‘something’ is what caused her to commit suicide.

    Comment by Sherry | November 21, 2006

  3. NANCY GRACE DID NOT PUSH HER TO KILL HER SELF. SHE DID SOMETHING WITH HER CHILD! SHE DIDNT TAKE A LIE DETECTOR TEST. THATS WHAT NANCY KEPT ASKING HER AND SHE HEE HAWED AROUND THE QUESTION. THAT GIRL NEEDED HELP ! MAY SHE REST IN PEACE. NANCY GRACE ISNT TO BLAME.

    ________

    M&E: We are big Nancy Grace fans for the work she does with missing & exploited children; however, she went way too far here. Her job is not to interogate. She should have known better especially since she had prior knowledge that Melinda was unstable.

    The media needs to understand their place and their limits. NG put herself in the position. No one can honestly say that what went on in the interview did not contribute to what Melinda did.

    Our position is, if its always about finding the missing child, then an alive Melinda Duckett is much better than one who killed herself. Especially if the police think Trenton is still alive.

    RED

    Comment by shirley richards | November 21, 2006

  4. Nancy does a fine job searching for the truth.
    If you don’t want to be truthful don’t go on Nancy Graces
    show!

    _________

    M&E: Let’s be truthful here. NG does a good job overall. She could stand to LISTEN from time to time and not just jump to conclusions with preconceived notions. A host brings a pundit or expert on a show for a reason … generally to get their point of view, not shut them down just because they do not agree with her.

    If she continues to do this, she’s going to have a hard time booking. Being hard nosed is one thing, being impossible to talk to is quite a different story.

    R

    Comment by c | November 22, 2006

  5. OH, PLEASE!! A two year old child is missing. Maybe instead of filing suit, the grandparents and great-grandparents should be on TV asking for help finding him. I hate when people try to profit from something so horrible. It is cold today in Florida and where is Trenton? I would walk through the depths of hell to find one of my children or grandchildren. They should have helped Melinda long ago. Parents, take responsibility for your actions and don’t try to profit from their death. Nancy Grace might have been hard on Melinda but Melinda was hard on Trenton. At least he was innocent and didn’t ask to be born in such as messed up family.

    _________

    M&E: Yup, Trenton is the only victim in this situation. Did anyone care prior to his disappearance?

    R

    Comment by Angela | November 22, 2006

  6. Your absolutely right, Where were they prior to Trenton’s disappearance? According to Josh, Melinda’s parents have never even seen Trenton and they had nothing to do with Melinda. Now their distraught? Please, their greedy, and still don’t give a damn about the child. They have not searched for him or made one plea for him. People like this make me sick.

    Also anyone with half a brain can figure out that Melinda was behind this disappearance, just as she sent the email to herself.
    When she realized that people aren’t that stupid and she was going to be exposed she didn’t want to face it so she took the cowards way out. Once again, all about her, not her son.

    Comment by Dominique | November 23, 2006

  7. What the Grand Parents and parents need to do is point the finger back at there self’s they had to see see sign’s of the the girs mental state before all this happen I have yet to hear any thing about this girs parents or grand parents worrying are say anything about Trenton. Are they out looking for him i dout it Nancy Grace did not cause this girl to fake the child beeing kidnaped throw away his picture his toys. she Hadn’t even talk to Nancy at that time
    The are trying to blame nancy >Did Nancy cause her to take money from where she worked I think not

    Comment by betty | November 24, 2006

  8. I agree with Betty. Melinda’s parents should hold responsibility for the actions of Melinda. Joshua is not responsible for that and Nancy Grace was only trying to find Trentons whereabouts (which was more than Melinda’s family was doing). I think they know more than what they say and are trying to divert the attention to Nancy Grace and Joshua since the FBI has stepped in. I believe Trenton is still alive, I believe Melinda turned him over to someone to keep the father from getting him. The police should check out Melinda’s family………

    Comment by Billi | November 27, 2006

  9. Melinda’s parents had nothing to do with the intervention of Nancy Grace affecting to death of thier daughter. that is just the facts of that matter. It may be simplier for those people who hold some accountability to the grandparents to understand the facts that the grandparents did provide for mental heath treatment of Melinda for some of her discernments, end of story. It is time to stop blaming the grandparents and look who was a mediating, and influencing factor to the death of Melinda Ducket. NANCY GRACE. She desearves to go to prison for this. Wonder if Nancy’s show will cover what Nancy gets served for dinner in prison? She better not get any ice-cream!

    Comment by Michelle from Madison | December 1, 2006

  10. Melinda was an adult, so her parents have zero responsibility. It appears the grandparents did everything they could for Melinda’s mental heath issues as they were the driving force for Melinda’s pall previous mental health therapists issues. To blame the grandparents of anything is contrary to the Law, and contrary to the facts of the Duckett case. The latest lawsuit against Nancy Grace will likely prevail for the Plaintiff’s since according to the filed-Complaint against Nancy, she is clearly guilty of the claims made against her. Accountability should be placed, in part, upon that dispicable father of Trenton who has a whole host of issues the authorities will contend with by the time this case is all done and over. Bett bring your checkbook to court with you Nancy. Is it not right of Nancy to continue to victimze the victims, it is even unlawful at times, as so Nancy demonstated recently.

    Comment by Michelle from Madison | December 3, 2006

  11. Wrong again there Billi/Shelly. But, there is some new news that Nancy Grace was totally wrong about the Duckett case, as well as Nancy being wrong on the Duke-rape case, and she is proven wrong again on the Natalee Holloway case again in just the recent days. How many thousands of errors do you need to see Nancy Grace commit before you start to even question Nancy’s reliability? 5,000 errors by Grace? 25,000 errors by Grace? 50,000 errors by Grace? How many?

    Comment by Michelle from Madison | December 15, 2006

  12. Bill(i) has just been re-released again. So, if Bill(i) returns here to post her comments. (sometimes she uses other names). Please understand that she has undergone some traumatic psychological difficulties as of late, and she remains under constant mental-supervision to attempt to correct some of her difficult entities of her struggles. Let her “spout” and make unfounded claims, at least she is now mandated to be in an approved treatment program. We welcome her back. Good luck Bill(I). Better luck to you this time around.

    Comment by Michelle from Madison | January 18, 2007

  13. Thanks again Billi, for proving all my prior points about you again. Don’t give up on Billi, there posters. I receive a ton of direct-emails each week about Billi suggesting options from having Billi re-committed into her psych-unit again, to suing Billi for her continued attacks against every poster that posts facts that Billi is unable or unwilling to understand or verify on her/his own. Well, people, that is one of the many reasons Billi lost custody of all of her children some years ago, and why Billi calls other people she feels inferior to nasty names or different names, and often says those people are cross-dressers and have been institutionalized, or are currently institutionalized like she is or has been. There is not a single psychological facility in the United States, contrary to Billi’s claim, that allows any of their patients to communicate unsupervised on the internet. Educated people know Billi is just exhibiting some of her documented schizophrenia-responses, and see her/him as nothing more than amusing entertainment. The latter info is found on the University-site under the POLLS option. She/he is definitely “Job-Security” for the mental health professionals. Good luck Billi, hope you can remain on the “outs” for a longer period of time this time, then what happened during the recent holidays. Again, try to focus on the topic of the site-page, and not on your attacks on everyone you feel so inferior to. Good luck.

    Comment by Michelle from Madison | January 22, 2007

  14. It now alledged that Trenton Duckett is now overseas. So who did Melinda Duckett kill? Nancy Grace alleged Melinda killed someone, but who? Sounds like Melinda Duckett handed off Trenton before she killed herself after being falsely accused of killing Trenton by Nancy Grace. Ouch, that is surely going to hurt Nancy Grace in her upcoming lawsuits. And, good for Melinda to save that child from that dispicable trash of a dad Josh.

    Comment by Michelle from Madison | January 24, 2007

  15. On the Nancy Grace show tonight on Thursday, Nancy finally covered some of the Trenton Duckett case where Nancy is alleged to have assisted and been connected to assisting in Trenton’s mother’s death. Nancy finally spoke about some of the information that Trenton is likely overseas right now, which I suspected from Day-One in many of my posts on the sites that cover some of Nancy’s illegal and unprofessional conduct. She sure is slow now-a-days getting to the up-to-date facts. That news is more than four months old already. I guess the stress she is experiencing facing the potential loss of millions of dollars is finally starting to get to her demeanor. It has already cause Nancy to fire her first two-of-three Damage-Control Specialist Firms, and has gotten her on an in-patient status three times since Nancy contributed to Melinda’s untimely death. Nancy had on Josh, that scum-bag sorry-excuse-of-a-father idiot and he just proved himself useless again on the show. Hopefully, Josh ends up with sanctions after the upcoming cases against him and Nancy get some true justice. Like MSNBC television has stated before, Nancy is scared to death right now. Good for Nancy. She should stop victimizing non-convicted victims. .

    Comment by Michelle from Madison | January 25, 2007

  16. Another victim of Nancy Grace’s unfounded slanderous allegations, and confirmed acts-of-criminal-defamation and erroneous speculation, dies today. Poor Anna Nichol Smith. What is the “magic number” of victims of Nancy’s ‘bashing’ will it take before Nancy is finally behind bars where she belongs for the crimes Nancy continues to inflict against non-convicted victims?

    Comment by Michelle from Madison | February 8, 2007

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