Hudson Valley Teacher Wins $4 Million in Defamation Case

A Hudson Valley teacher won one of the biggest defamation awards in the local area's history.

On Friday, a Rockland County jury made history awarding cyber-bullying victim Meredith Trussell-Slutsky $500,000 in compensatory and $3.5 million in punitive damages for libelous defamation, according to her lawyer.

"I am deeply grateful to the six members of the Rockland jury. They listened to the facts and decided to award a large amount of money to tell these defendants, and bullies in general, that this type of malevolence is not acceptable in our community," Trussell-Slutsky said.

Trussell-Slutsky, a longtime elementary school teacher in the Hudson Valley, was bullied for over six months in 2017 by a blogger in the Rockland Post who wrote malicious and fictitious articles about the teacher, her lawyers say.

"This case is about the defendant's reckless disregard for the truth and lack of concern about harming innocent people by publishing false accusations. The defendants' motivation was of the worst kind because she tried to profit by intentionally harming Meredith's good reputation," Finkelstein & Partners, LLP Trial Attorney Michael S. Feldman, who represented Trussell-Slutsky, said in a press release. The jury awarded 4 million dollars because they wanted to send a clear message that the story was false and they wanted to vindicate Meredith's reputation."

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