Local activist sues Hollywood actor

CHILLICOTHE - A local activist is suing actor James Woods in connection with items posted on Twitter during the presidential campaign season a year ago, a legal action that an attorney representing the actor called bogus.

Portia Boulger, a vocal supporter of Bernie Sanders during the campaign, filed the lawsuit March 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. She is asking for at least $1 million in compensatory damages and at least $2 million in punitive damages, along with attorney fees and costs and any other relief the court may deem justified. The complaint alleges that Woods defamed her through his Twitter activity and as such invaded her privacy by portraying her in a false light.

Boulger said the principle, not the money, is the biggest reason behind the lawsuit.

"I'm not in this for the money, I'm in this for justice," she said. "If a little money comes along, so be it, but I'm in this to show people, especially prominent people, that they just can't grab a hold of common citizens and attack them and bully them and falsify who they are and make severe, nasty statements calling me a Nazi, inferring that I am a Nazi, inferring that I would raise my hand to Hitler. It's beyond the pale for me, having been a social justice advocate all my life since I was in my teens. And this went around the world."

The root of the lawsuit can be found in a photo posted on the Chicago Tribune's Twitter account of a woman at a March 11, 2016, rally for Donald Trump in Chicago who was wearing a Trump t-shirt and offering the recognizable Nazi salute. From that photo, a Twitter user going by the name @voxday posted the photo March 12 as part of a tweet stating that Boulger was the woman in the picture.

That same morning, Woods' Twitter account, containing a blue verified badge that is supposed to indicate the account is authentic, tweeted the same photo and information that identified Boulger asking the question "So-called #Trump 'Nazi' is a #BernieSanders agitator/operative?" Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr. also re-tweeted the @voxday tweet with a comment, and in re-tweeting Woods' tweet mentioned that "she runs Bernie Sander's women for Bernie site. It's all staged."

Later the same day, @voxday issued a correction stating the woman was Birgitt Peterson of Illinois and not Boulger, which led Trump Jr. to remove his tweets about Boulger. According to the lawsuit, despite the fact that both the Tribune and New York Times posted stories identifying the woman as Peterson, "Mr. Woods did not remove his tweet identifying Ms. Boulger as the woman who made the Nazi salute. Mr. Woods' tweet was re-tweeted more than 5,000 times; his account has more than 350,000 followers."

Woods did indicate in a tweet later March 12 that some of his followers had mentioned the person might not be Boulger, but his original tweet stayed up, according to the lawsuit, until March 22 after Boulger's attorney had sent letters to both Woods and Trump Jr. requesting retractions and apologies. Boulger's attorney contacted Woods' attorney again the next day seeking a public retraction and apology, resulting in three new tweets from the actor.

The first stated he had the chance "to clarify something I challenged immediately when it hit Twitter. Portia A. Boulger was NOT the 'Nazi salute lady.'"

The second said Boulger had reached out to him asking him to use his followers to keep people from harassing her, which he was happy to do, and the third said that even though she supports Sanders, he was "happy to defend her from abuse," noting "I only wish his supporters would do the same for other candidates."

The three tweets, Boulger said, not only did not contain a direct apology but also cast her in a false light.

"That really infuriated me because people most often do not go to their oppressor and ask for help," she said. "... It was very misogynistic, and even now it wells up so much anger with me."

Boulger further said that the fallout from the original tweets regarding posts to her and about her on Facebook and Twitter and through phone calls was full of hatred. Some of the more dangerous ones are used as examples in the lawsuit — including language that would be considered vile and obscene — saying such things as hoping she gets cancer and dies and hoping she gets raped and one poster stating the implied threat that he was off to buy a gun and some ammo. Some of the posters re-tweeted Woods' original tweet with what they sent.

She also said she was receiving several phone calls regularly from people who would call and just stay on the line without talking, something she is still getting periodically to this day.

The defamation claim accuses Woods of making the original false statement on Twitter "with the knowledge that the statement was false and/or with reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the statement," thus harming Boulger's reputation. The false light invasion of privacy claim is tied to the false suggestion that she would offer a Nazi salute or in some way be connected to Nazi ideals and that she would, in her role as a Sanders volunteer, attempt to pose as a Trump supporter.

Woods' attorney, Michael E. Weinsten of Lavely & Singer in Los Angeles, disputed Boulger's claims.

"My client is no doubt surprised by this patently bogus lawsuit," Weinsten told the Gazette. "In response to a rumor circulating on the internet about Ms. Boulger's alleged affiliation with a Trump rally, Mr. Woods tweeted a question seeking clarification. On its face, that is not defamation. In fact, Mr. Woods went out of his way to defend Ms. Boulger against alleged harassment. This case proves the adage 'no good deed goes unpunished.'"

No suit was filed against Trump Jr., Boulger said, because he acted more quickly in taking down the false tweets and responding to her request for a retraction and apology. The filing of the lawsuit a year after the initial incident, she said, is simply tied to the amount of time needed for attorneys to collect the necessary information.

Woods has starred in more than 50 feature films, including such titles as "White House Down," "Any Given Sunday," "Diggstown," "Salvador" and in a voice-over role in Disney's "Hercules."