A U. S. judge on Friday said Elon Musk must face a defamation lawsuit by a British diver who said he was falsely branded a pedophile and child rapist by the chief executive of electric car company T…
By Jonathan Stempel| Reuters
A U. S. judge on Friday said Elon Musk must face a defamation lawsuit by a British diver who said he was falsely branded a pedophile and child rapist by the chief executive of electric car company Tesla Inc.
U. S. District Judge Stephen Wilson in Los Angeles said a reasonable jury could conclude that Musk’s comments were more than merely opinions, and scheduled a trial for Oct. 22.
The judge had on April 26 denied Musk’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit brought by diver Vernon Unsworth, without explaining his reasoning.
Musk’s lawyers did not immediately respond on Friday to requests for comment.
Unsworth, who said in his lawsuit he shared a house in the Thailand countryside with a 40-year-old woman who owned a nail salon, was part of a team that helped rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a Thailand cave last July 10.
