Riverside, California, July 1, 2022
Photo: thomasmoresociety.org
Peter “Giacomo” Sanfilippo, the editor of the pro-LGBT site Orthodoxy in Dialogue (OiD), has been ordered by a U.S. District Court to pay Fr. Josiah Trenham $300,000 “for publishing false, malicious, and defamatory statements and accusations concerning the priest and his ministry, and for harassing the Trenhams,” reports the Thomas More Society, which took up Fr. Josiah’s case.
The suit was brought last July, accusing “Sanfilippo and three Orthodoxy in Dialogue colleagues of multiple instances of defamation, and includes claims of conspiracy, harassment, extortion, interference with prospective economic advantage, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
It was also argued that OiD intentionally doctored video footage of one of Fr. Josiah’s sons to attack the priest and his ministry. Fr. Josiah was long a target for OiD due to his out-spoken defense of the Orthodox Church’s view on marriage and sexuality.
However, the order issued by Judge John Holcomb of the United States District Court for the Central District of California restrains Sanfilippo from further attacks against Fr. Josiah, his family, his parish, or his ministry.
Sanfilippo is also ordered to remove the “defamatory and privacy-invading posts” from his sites and is forbidden to further disseminate such materials.
The order states that “The Court deems that Defendant Peter J. Sanfilippo admits the allegations of the First Amended Complaint to be true with respect to the aforementioned claims for relief.”
The allegations that Sanfilippo admitted include “defamation, civil harassment, trade libel, false light, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, negligent interference with prospective economic advantage, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy.”
Charles LiMandri, Thomas More Society Special Counsel and partner at LiMandri & Jonna, LLP, stated, “We are, of course, pleased with the outcome of this case. Sanfilippo repeatedly and viciously attacked Fr. Trenham and his wife Catherine, their church and ministry, via his online website. He published a multitude of reprehensible defamatory articles over a period of several years, beginning in 2018, with the intent of destroying the personal reputations of Fr. Trenham and those involved in ministry with him.”
The Judgment, issued on May 23, can be read here.
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