Candy Evans just got herself some more material to write about. But it’ll cost her. Evans, as you might know, once covered real estate for D Magazine and D Home. While working for us, she was the first one to learn the location of President George W. Bush’s pad. She’s dogged when it comes to tracking down real estate rumors and news. Lately, she has focused that doggedness on Richard Malouf’s house on Strait Lane. It’s big. He’s building a water park in his backyard. And Malouf has been the subject of media scrutiny for his high-flying lifestyle and the way his dental clinics conducted their business.
As you can see from the filing below, Malouf has had enough. He has petitioned for a temporary restraining order against everyone in the headline above, and he’s seeking damages for invasion of privacy, trespassing, libel, and defamation. In cases like this, my default is to side with the reporters for obvious reasons. Malouf doesn’t like the fact that WFAA flew a chopper over his house to take pictures (they must have used a pretty big lens, because Malouf’s house lies in the no-fly zone around Bush’s house). Don Henley sued us a number of years back for doing the same thing. Apologies to rich people with big houses, but the media are allowed to do this (and so is Google). Too, Malouf’s filing is about as purple as it could be, calling Evans’ work a “photographic assault” and saying that she has been “seizing images.”
But certain of Malouf’s claims, if true, I think will cause Evans trouble. He says that she approached a former house manager with the proposition of planting a hidden camera inside the Malouf house. Laura Wilson, mother of the famous brothers, lives next door. Malouf claims that Wilson colluded with Evans, allowing her onto the Wilsons’ roof to take pictures. And Malouf claims that a couple years ago Evans entered his property uninvited during his daughter’s birthday party and started interviewing the girl.
Really, though, it doesn’t matter whether Malouf’s claims are true. Fact is, the man clearly has money, and he’s clearly pissed. He has the means and the motivation to rack up some stout legal bills. WFAA has the resources to deal with this challenge. Candy Evans? The increased traffic to her site that this development will bring won’t begin to cover it.
See the suit document after the jump.
