Court Denies Motion By New York Times To Dismiss Kai Spears Defamation Lawsuit

Editor's Note: This story has been updated from its original publication with additional information from the order issued Wednesday.

TUSCALOOSA, AL — United States District Court Judge Scott Coogler on Wednesday denied a motion by the New York Times to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against the newspaper by Alabama basketball walk-on Kai Spears after a story was published earlier this year claiming he was present at a fatal shooting in January that grabbed national headlines.

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The news was confirmed to Tuscaloosa Patch on Wednesday by West Virginia attorney Stephen New, who is one of the attorneys representing Spears.

In the 21-page order, Coogler denied the newspaper's motion to dismiss the defamation lawsuit, while granting, in part, a motion by the New York Times to dismiss allegations by Spears that the newspaper acted with malice in intentionally portraying him in a false light.

As Patch previously reported, the initial 22-page civil lawsuit was filed in May in the Northern District Court of Alabama's Western Division by New and Tuscaloosa's Matt Glover — the legal counsel for Spears.

In the lawsuit, attorneys reiterate the claim that their client was not present in the car of former Tide and current NBA standout Brandon Miller during a Jan. 15 shootout on Grace Street that left 23-year-old Jamea Harris dead. However, in the immediate aftermath, a story was published by the newspaper that claimed Spears was one of several basketball players at the scene of the shooting.

Following the shooting, former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles and his childhood friend Michael Davis were charged with capital murder and both remain in jail without bond.

While Miller was parked at the scene during the shooting and his vehicle was struck twice, he has not been charged in relation to the shooting and has reportedly cooperated with every phase of the investigation.

The two-count lawsuit alleges the New York Times is guilty of libel/defamation and false light/invasion of privacy.

Spears is a walk-on guard from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who is listed as a sophomore on the 2023-24 men's basketball roster. He is the son of Marshall University athletic director Christian Spears.

The attorneys for Spears are seeking damages in excess of $75,000 after the New York Times failed to issue to a public retraction of the story.

In a correction published in June, the New York Times said:

"Based on information from a person familiar with the case, the article erroneously identified that person as Kai Spears, a freshman basketball player. After the article was initially published, Alabama’s athletic director and Spears’s father denied that Spears was present. The Times included those responses and reviewed its reporting, but did not conclude that any other change to the article was warranted at that time ... On Wednesday, Spears filed a defamation suit against The Times that included new details about the incident. Based on that information, editors assigned further reporting, which determined that the other person at the scene was not Spears but Cooper Lee, a student manager for the team. The Times regrets the error in the initial report."

The New York Times then said the online version of the story had been revised to remove the erroneous information, which came a couple of months before the newspaper filed its motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Attorneys for Spears say that following the Jan. 14 University of Alabama basketball game versus LSU, Spears met up with two friends who were in town visiting the weekend of the game.

Spears, at the time, lived in Bryant Hall in a four-person suite. The evening before the shooting, attorneys said the two friends planned to sleep on the couch and in the common area of the suite.

Attorneys claim the two friends picked up Spears to go to Waffle House the afternoon following the LSU game and went back to Bryant Hall to get ready to go out for the evening.

Later in the evening, Spears and his two friends went to The Strip, attorneys said, stopping at Houndstooth before meeting Alabama basketball star freshman Brandon Miller outside of the popular bar.

The group was then reportedly invited by Miller to eat at Moe's Original BBQ around 12:30 a.m. the morning of Jan. 15, but declined the invitation due to Spears' two friends having to leave early in the morning to head home.

Around 1:40 a.m. — roughly five minutes before the shooting that killed Jamea Harris, attorneys for Spears claim that UA basketball manager Cooper Lee was reported to have gotten into Miller's car, while Spears and his two friends returned to Bryant Hall.

The filing states that at 1:48 a.m., Spears placed a FaceTime call to Miller and Jaden Bradley to see where they ended up going. Spears said he was then informed that shots were fired through the windshield of Miller's car, but little else was known.

"Mr. Miller and Mr. Bradley were frantic and unsure what else may have transpired," the lawsuit states.

Spears and his two friends reportedly remained at Bryant Hall the rest of the night, with the Alabama walk-on contacting different individuals in the hopes of find out more about what happened.

New then said Cooper Lee contacted Spears so he could come to Bryant Hall and gather his thoughts, sometime after 2 a.m.

The following day, Spears went to the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit to be interviewed following the fatal shooting.

After investigators determined that Spears was not involved in the shooting in any way, he returned to his role with the team.

However, on March 15, Billy Witz of the New York Times approached Spears and asked him,“The night of the shooting, when you were in Brandon Miller’s car, were you scared when the shots were fired?”

After being taken aback and responding "no comment," Spears claimed the reporter continued to push the question, to which he again declined to comment.

"Including Spears, at least four Alabama players have now been placed at the scene of the shooting that took place in the early morning hours of Jan. 15, as bars emptied out along The Strip, a popular gathering spot for students near campus along University Boulevard in Tuscaloosa," the New York Times story reads.

Apart from Spears, the players being referred to are Miles, Miller and former Alabama basketball player Jaden Bradley, who transferred following the 2022-23 season and is now at Arizona.

Attorneys for Spears claim that later that night after the article's publication, Spears was inundated with texts, calls and mentions on social media claiming he was involved in the shooting.

"I have one thing to say — the report in the New York Times was 100% inaccurate and the writer had complete disregard for the truth," Spears said on his Instagram after the story was published. "I am trying to process and cope with these false statements that somehow have been published and then seen by so many."

After the family released statements denouncing the reporting, Spears, through his legal counsel, made a written demand that the New York Times publicly retract the story, which his attorneys claim the newspaper failed to do.

What's more, attorneys have argued that the New York Times failed to use reasonable care in publishing and disseminating the untrue statements regarding Spears’ presence at a crime scene.

As result, attorneys for Spears claim he was made the undue focus of public ridicule and contempt, with his denial considered by many to be untrue.

New is asking the court to order the New York Times to pay compensatory and punitive damages, attorney's fees, along with any other relief deemed suitable by the court.

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