Boston Herald Is Fined $2 Million in Libel Case

More than half of the award, $1.4 million, stemmed from several articles in which the paper reported, without naming sources, that Murphy had made callous comments about the teenager who had been raped. The sole source who testified to hearing Murphy's remark -- David Crowley, a former Bristol County assistant district attorney -- said that the Herald, a tabloid with a circulation of about 300,000, had accurately reported the "gist" of what Murphy had said.

But he quibbled with the wording, recalling that the judge said: "You can't go through life as a victim. You're 14. You've been raped. Get over it," rather than, "Tell her to get over it," as the Herald reported.

Others who were present at the meeting testified that they remembered no such remark.

Two penalties of $175,000 each were imposed for statements Wedge made on "The O'Reilly Factor." In one instance, host Bill O'Reilly asked the reporter, "Are you 100 percent sure that Judge Murphy said that the rape victim should get over it?"

"Yes, he said this. He said this to three lawyers," responded Wedge, who acknowledged during the trial that he may have misspoken on television.

Murphy's attorneys argued throughout the trial that the Herald's reporting was shoddily sourced and based on local prosecutors with a "vendetta" against the judge. As the stories circulated, he was bombarded by threatening mail and purchased a gun for protection.

"There's a lesson here for the media, and that is that in our world of instant global communication, people like David Wedge need to think before they put their fingers on the keyboard," said Murphy's lawyer, Howard M. Cooper.

Herald attorney M. Robert Dushman maintained that Murphy's status as a public figure made his judicial record fair game. Media law experts said news organizations found to have committed libel tend to fare better on appeal.

Researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.