An “exclusive” story about Jodi Arias suing Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Nancy Grace for, among other charges, using a dirty needle during medical help that caused her to contract hepatitis C turned out to be false.
TMZ, the source of the story, claimed that it obtained “new legal docs.”
However, the lawsuit doesn’t actually exist and the real source of the story appears to be an inmate notorious for such fraudulent court submissions, reported the Smoking Gun.
The lawsuit carries that name of a second plaintiff, Christoper Alexander, whose addressees is listed as a state prison in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.
Records the for Department of Corrections don’t show an inmate by that name and the prisoner ID number included on the lawsuit and envelope isn’t currently being used.
“The prison in Bellefonte is now home to Jonathan Lee Riches, a 37-year-old Pennsylvania man whose litigious exploits have been detailed in these pages. While serving ten years in federal prison for fraud, Riches filed hundreds of fatuous lawsuits naming as defendants a roster of celebrities and other public figures,” reported the Smoking Gun.
“A Pennsylvania corrections department spokesperson told TSG that inmates place letters anonymously through a mail slot, and that prison officials do not review the accuracy of names listed along with the return address. Riches, who was released from federal custody in April 2012, was arrested on a state probation violation charge eight months later after engaging in a tasteless stunt in Newtown, Connecticut, two days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.”
Another lawsuit back in 2012 was also reported on by TMZ but turned out to come from Riches, who listed on his Facebook at the time that he was a creative writer for TMZ.
TMZ has not made any correction to its story.
