Tom Scholz, the co-founder and the Rockman of Boston, is suing the Boston Herald and two of its gossip columnists for implying he had something to do with the suicide of Boston singer Brad Delp.
The lawsuit names Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa, who ran the Herald’s “Inside Track” column at the time of Delp’s death in 2007. The “Track” ran a couple of columns devoted to Delp’s death, one of which headlined “Pal’s Snub Made Delp Do It: Boston Rocker’s Ex-wife Speaks.”
The defendants “falsely suggested in headlines, content and via innuendo” that Scholz was responsible for Delp’s death, according to the lawsuit. “At least two” statements attributed to Delp’s second ex-wife have been rescinded in her testimony involving a pending lawsuit, according to the claim.
The lawsuit alleges that Fee and Raposa falsely implied, with knowledge that the information was incorrect, that Delp’s suicide was in part because a friend of his, Fran Cosmo, was dropped from a summer tour – an allegation that Scholz denies. Delp was also allegedly pulled between opposite forces – performing tours with Scholz and Boston, and playing with two former Boston members, who have had a falling out with Scholz, in a band called Ernie & The Automatics.
But the libel case doesn’t stop there. The lawsuit alleges the gossip columnists had an agenda because they were doing a favor for a publicist, who also had an axe to grind with the Boston guitarist and who was publicist for the ex-members' band, according to the suit.
It was through “knowing, intentional and/or reckless reporting” that the public was led to believe Scholz somehow motivated Delp to commit suicide, in his apartment, by monoxide poisoning, the lawsuit claims.
Scholz is represented by an attorney who has reportedly already won a $2 million libel suit against the Herald.