Rutgers Baller Sues Don Imus and CBS

Four months ago, Rutgers University was in the midst of an amazing run in the women's college basketball tournament. Led by their energetic coach, Vivian Stringer and a talented group of young ladies, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights women's team surprised the nation, making their way to the college basketball championship game before falling to Pat Summit and her Tennessee Lady Volunteers. A few days after the championship game, all that joy turned to madness when shock jock, Don Imus called the women on the women's basketball team nappy-headed hoes. With that comment tattooed on the conversation of America, the Rutgers team made their case for a richer America than the one that allows comments like that which Don Imus made to be acceptable.

Within days, Don Imus was fired by CBS and all was seemingly back to normal. In a few days, those same women will be returning to New Brunswick and Piscataway to begin their college classes. One of them though, Kia Vaughn, seems to have suffered a bit more during the time away from campus. So much so, that she recently filed a lawsuit against Don Imus and CBS for slander and defamation of character. In the lawsuit, the Rutgers center alleges that Imus' comments brought shame and degradation to Vaughn as she became the object of ridicule and open mocking because of the comments that Don Imus made on his morning radio show.

After Imus made the comments the entire nation went into an uproar. With CBS gauging the temperature of its advertisers it went ahead and pulled the plug on the long-running, successful talk show that was simulcast on the MSNBC network. While CBS was investigating in-house how to handle the furor, the Rutgers team along with their coach, Vivian Stringer went on a bevy of talk shows including Oprah Winfrey where they talked about the need for America to have a conversation on morality and ethics as well as respect for women. The term ho is an urban slang word used to denote a woman who is scandalous and sexually free. Prostitutes also have been called hoes. It was under the guise of this umbrella that Imus labeled the women of the Rutgers team.

The team includes women who are hard-working and good students. They are pursuing degrees and making significant advancements in the classroom to be the very best women they can be. While Imus' comments were not intended to cause such a melee, the fact that he made them is significant and the women on the Rutgers team, including Kia Vaughn suffered because of it. Vaughn alleges in her complaint that her life has ceased to return to what was normal before Imus made his comments. In fact, she is unable to live her life separated from the comments.

In her lawsuit, Vaughn alleges that the full extent of the damages made to her by Imus' comments have yet to be fully assessed. It can only be estimated how much of a tangible impact Imus' comments had on the lifestyle and opportunities of each of the women on the Rutgers team as they were confronted continually by the questions and had their lives married to Don Imus' nappy-headed ho comment for a series of weeks.

Even as Kia Vaughn filed her paperwork in District Court, Don Imus was finalizing issues with CBS. With terms of his contract and breach-of-contract lawsuit agreeable to both parties, Don Imus is now free to negotiate with a new media company and return to the radio waves sometime this fall. While Imus' comments were egregious, Don Imus has done a lot of good with his annual fundraiser for kids with cancer. He annually raises over one million dollars to go towards supporting kids with cancer.

Regardless of the work that Don Imus undertook before his comments or the apologies he made post-April 4, Kia Vaughn believes her character and life have suffered harm and she is soliciting the court to bring her relief.