Louisiana Voice

If courtroom drama is your thing, then clear your calendar and plan to spend a few days in 1^st Judicial District Court up in Caddo Parish (if, indeed, the matter ever goes to trial, which I doubt) to drop in on Case No. 657648A, William Lunn v. Nexstar Media dba KTAL, Daniel and Jacquelyn Jovic.

It’s not a murder trial, armed robbery or even a felony, for that matter – just a good old defamation of character libel type of case that, had the results not ended a bright career in television news, would be on a comedic level of the movie ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY.

I mean, the entire episode is almost a parody of what local television news has become: a burlesque show of local crime reports peppered by the exponentially-growing number of loud, obnoxious personal injury attorney ads.

But first, let’s set the stage. Nexstar Media Group is a $5.4 billion company with 13,000 employees and 201 stations nationwide, including a handful in Louisiana (Baton Rouge, Shreveport, two in New Orleans, three in Lafayette). Those 201 stations reach 70 percent of U.S. households.

KTAL, a co-defendant, is Nexstar’s Shreveport affiliate and the husband and wife team of Daniel and Jacquelyn Jovic work for KTAL News. The plaintiff in this matter, William Lunn, formerly worked for KTAL competitor KTBS-TV. Are you starting to see a picture emerge here? No? Then let me bring it into better focus.

For years, Lunn and the Jovics were direct competitors in the Shreveport/Bossier market with KTAL’s Jovic-led newscasts generally relegated to the hind mammary gland behind both KTBS (ABC) and CBS-affiliate KSLA. The Jovics were co-anchors at NBC affiliate KTAL and Lunn was anchor for KTBS.

Then, on May 27, 2024, Lunn used his mobile device to log into the social media platform Tinder, which for the uninitiated, is an online dating app “used by millions of adult Americans,” according to Lunn’s petition, which goes further to explicitly point out that he used his real name, a real photo and “reflected that he was a single man…looking to meet women.”

Now, as unsavory as that might seem to some, bear in mind that he is a grown-ass single man and that, in and of itself, is not illegal.

That same day, a woman claiming to be 19-year-old “Jasmine” expressed an interest in the 54-year-old Lunn. “Jasmine” subsequently “initiated a sexually-explicit exchange,” the petition says. Again, distasteful perhaps, but no laws violated.

Unbeknownst to Lunn, there was no “Jasmine” and the original text in which she claimed to be 19 was edited to change her age to 16. Lest anyone doubt that claim, there is a method whereby one may edit a text message but it’s only within a narrow window, time-wise. In this case, a screen shot of Lunn’s cellphone clearly shows that the age 19 was indeed edited to 16.

Two days later, on May 19, “Jasmine” gave Lunn an address in Shreveport and suggested that they meet “at her home.” Once there, he was led into the house by a woman he believed to be “Jasmine.”

Instead, once inside, he was “immediately surrounded by three men” later identified as Antonio Coleman, Kataurio Grigsby and Cameron Kennon “and was beaten and robbed of his belongings.”

He somehow managed to escape and call 911. He then waited and told his story to Shreveport police: that he was there to meet a woman he had met online. Police questioned Coleman, who lived at the address “Jasmine” had given Lunn, and Laura Robinson, the woman Lunn had thought to be “Jasmine” who had lured him into the house.

During the entire investigation, Lunn sat in the back of a police squad car with the door open and his hands free from any restraints. He was never arrested and a police corporal retrieved his phone, keys, credit cards and driver’s license from the assailants. Lunn voluntarily showed the officer the messages on his phone and gave the phone to investigating police to perform a forensic analysis. It was only at that point, Lunn says, that he saw that the age 19 had been edited to read 16.

Lunn was not prohibited from leaving the scene and in fact, did not leave. He was “not ticketed, admonished or charged with any crime” and immediately reported the events to his family, friends and employer,” his petition asserts.

Enter Ron Burgundy Daniel Jovic. On Saturday, June 1, Jovic sent a text to a police department source inquiring as to whether Lunn was caught “with a 14-year-old girl and ran from the police.”

On June 3, police told Jovic that the investigation was ongoing but that Lunn had not run from authorities and that no arrests had been made (emphasis added). Jovic and a camera crew then embarked on a quest to find and interview Coleman, Grigsby and Kennon, who claimed to be “child predator hunters” supported by local authorities and that they had “caught” 10 men over the past three weeks through their vigilante efforts.

And here is where it gets really dicey.

“Defendants, led by Jovic, suspended all critical analysis, assessment, and logic in service of an unbelievable story from three young men who had admitted to deception and criminal activity,” the lawsuit says. “Upon information and belief, Jovic did not challenge the source, report on the existence of an edited text message, or contact the local authorities to determine the credibility of any of these claims. Instead, he rushed to the newsroom to edit and package the hit piece (in mere hours) to take out a longtime competitor.”

The story was aired on KTAL by the husband-wife news anchor team of Daniel and Jacquelyn Jovic. “With gusto, the Jovics led the 10 p.m. news with the rushed. reckless, false, and defamatory story about Lunn. The Newscast featured footage interviewing three men, Coleman, Grigsby, and Kennon, who admitted that they had committed crimes in attacking Lunn,” according to the petition.

Daniel Jovic, in his unbridled enthusiasm over his “exclusive,” even texted his police corporal friend, giving him a heads-up: “Hey Corporal: watch at 10 pm.”

That 10 p.m. newscast began with the Jovics tag-teaming the introduction to the “blockbuster” story:

DAN: Tonight, we are sharing an explosive report claiming a local news anchor, who also served as the organization’s news director. is the subject of an on-going investigation by Shreveport police. Good evening, I’m Dan Jovic.

JACQUE: And I’m Jacque Jovic. The investigation was sparked due to the efforts of three local men who say they’ve made it their mission to catch men trying to have sex with underage girls.

Then, two of Jovic’s depicted “heroes,” Coleman and Grigsby, the self-described vigilantes, were subsequently arrested “for nearly identical, brutal and violent crimes inflicted on other victims…on dating apps who were lured, beaten and robbed.”

Somehow, Jovic’s story had “Jasmine” going from a 16-year-old minor to a 14-year-old and finally in the story that aired, a 15-year-old. And just to throw in the TV theatrics we’ve become all too accustomed to with local news Jovic capped his “scoop” with sprinkles by staging a video recording of himself as he called Lunn’s cell phone for comment. “Jovic’s false representations were undermined by his personal knowledge that Lunn’s cellphone was in (Shreveport Police Department) custody and that Lunn could not answer the call,” the petition pointed out.

It would be bad enough had KTAL been the only news outlet to run the story, but it ran in The Guardian, The New York Post, Yahoo, MSN, Fox 26 in Houston (with more than 615,000 YouTube subscribers), The Daily Mail (2.8 million followers), on X (22 million followers, Facebook, Instagram, KEEL Radio in Shreveport, Nexstar affiliate stations WKRG (covering Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida), KTVE in Monroe and KPEL in Lafayette.

Lunn, meanwhile, resigned his long-held position at KTBS and currently works for a moving company.

KTAL has apparently found itself between the proverbial rock and hard place. On the one hand, KTAL has dug in its heels by proclaiming that it stands by its story. On the other hand, word is the station has “marginalized” the husband and wife team, whatever that might imply, because to fire them outright would be tantamount to an admission of liability on Nexstar’s part.

Ah, television journalism at its best. Where’s Les Nessman when you need him?