Judge dismisses Stanford suit against Lafayette newspaper

A district judge has dismissed a defamation suit a former Stanford Group Company financial adviser filed against the Independent Weekly in Lafayette. District Judge Thomas Duplantier threw out the suit from Tiffany Angelle, saying The Independent “reasonably relied on a confidential informant.” Angelle sued the weekly newspaper after it reported on April 22 that she took an investor on a trip to Antigua and presented him with a Rolex watch so that he would not pull money out of Stanford. Stanford was shut down earlier this year after the SEC charged the company was operating a multibillion dollar investment scheme. Angelle, who reportedly refused numerous interview requests from the newspaper, has denied taking investors on trips or giving them gifts to keep them from withdrawing money. The Independent asked Duplantier to throw out her suit, saying Angelle’s real purpose was “to chill the paper’s First Amendment rights” to investigate charges of wrongdoing at Stanford’s Lafayette office. For the Independent story about the dismissal, click here.