In a special action, the Arizona Court of Appeals granted relief to The Arizona Daily Star and two reporters, concluding that a lower court erred by denying their request for summary judgment in a defamation suit stemming from coverage of a dispute between a judge and a man who appeared in an eviction action before him.
On Feb. 14, 2021, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department received a report about a man dumping trash on the driveway of Judge Adam Watters, a justice of the peace. The suspect, Fei Qin, had appeared before Watters in an eviction action, but had allegedly dumped trash at the judge’s home and slashed tires on previous occasions, according to the May 25 opinion by Division Two of the Arizona Court of Appeals.
