CLEVELAND, VA—A lawsuit has been filed in District Court here by Mitzi Galloway, 39, accusing the local newspaper The Cleveland Herald of fraud, asking damages for faulty advertising and the intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In her lawsuit, according to her attorney Maxwell Dingle, she asserts that she has been a faithful reader of the newspaper for over ten years, and relied upon it for its accuracy and truthfulness in reporting the news and furnishing valuable information to its readers. Miss Galloway has particularly been a constant reader and follower of the defendant's advice column, "Ask Miss Amy," purportedly authored by an unmarried woman named Amy Featherstone.
The plaintiff alleges that she has frequently written to "Miss Amy" with requests for advice on many personal matters. Sometimes, she alleges, that advice turned out to be good, but sometimes, when she took that advice and did as "Miss Amy" advised, the results were disastrous, especially causing harm to her in her personal relationships; specifically, it caused a man to whom she was engaged to break off the engagement.
The plaintiff alleges that when she went to the offices of the defendant newspaper with the intention of confronting "Miss Amy" personally, she was told on several occasions that the advice columnist was "not in the office" or "unavailable" or "does not accept visits from subscribers."
About the fifth attempt to visit the columnist at the newspaper offices, a copy boy overheard the plaintiff's request to see "Miss Amy," and he informed her that "there ain't no such person, really," and that the real author of the columns was the city editor, who at the moment was at Riley's Bar on the corner. Miss Galloway became furious, and marched to the bar, where she found Ralph Boyce, the city editor, smoking a cigar and playing pool with two other men. Boyce, 57, when confronted by the plaintiff, said, "Honey, you don't need advice. You need a drink! Let me buy you a beer!"
As he tried to get her over to the bar, said Miss Galloway, Boyce place a hand on her buttocks and muttered "Nice butt!"
The newspaper declined to comment for this article.