Judith Regan Files Lawsuit Against News Corporation

By Dermot McEvoy -- Publishers Weekly, 11/14/2007 5:19:00 AM

In a civil complaint filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Judith Regan, former publisher of Regan Books, filed a lawsuit that seeks $100 million in compensation for a campaign to smear and discredit her by her employers at News Corporation, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

The complaint centers around Regan’s relationship with Bernard Kerik, former New York City police commissioner and close confidant of Rudolph Giuliani, Republican candidate for president. Regan published Kerik’s autobiography, The Lost Son, in 2001.

"Defendants were well aware that Regan had a personal relationship with Kerik," the 70-page complaint states, "In fact, a senior executive in the News Corporation organization told Regan that he believed she had information about Kerik that, if disclosed, would harm Giuliani’s presidential campaign. This executive advised Regan to lie to, and to withhold information from, investigators concerning Kerik."

HarperCollins declined to comment.

Regan was fired on December 15, 2006 after the controversy surrounding O.J. Simpson’s If I Did It and 7: The Mickey Mantle Story, a novel by Peter Golenbock.

"We are fully confident that the evidence will show that Judith Regan was the victim of a vicious smear campaign engineered by News Corporation and HarperCollins," said Brian C. Kerr, one of Regan’s lawyers.

The lawsuit went on to say that "This smear campaign was necessary to advance News Corp.’s political agenda, which has long centered on protecting Rudy Giuliani’s presidential ambitions."