A State Supreme Court judge has granted a default judgment in favor of former Suffolk Legis. Paul Tonna in his $50 million defamation lawsuit against The North Shore Leader, ruling that the newspaper, its publisher and reporters did not properly respond to the litigation on time.
Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Paul M. Hensley set a Feb. 11 hearing in Riverhead to set a schedule to begin discussing damages in the case, which stems from a September story in which The Leader linked Tonna, his lobbying and public relations firm, Praxis, and his Energeia Partnership to an alleged land-fraud scheme.
Tonna, who filed suit in October, has denied those allegations and demanded $25 million in general damages and $25 million in “special damages” for defamation of character, libel and “harassment.”