ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 17, 1997 TAG: 9704170061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE THE ROANOKE TIMES
STAFF WRITER LISA GARCIA CONTRIBUTED TO THIS STORY.
The victim's husband's letter to the advice columnist was printed in 1,200 papers worldwide.
Montgomery County Jail inmate Michael Knowles thinks Ann Landers' 2cents' worth should be worth $100million to him.
In a letter to the syndicated columnist in February, Knowles said he had killed his estranged wife, Angie. However, he has pleaded not guilty and will go to trial next month.
Landers published Knowles' letter, and he now claims in a lawsuit filed in Roanoke federal court that, by doing so, she slandered him and condemned him "without a jury."
Despite the number of controversial issues Landers regularly addresses, this may be the first time she has ever been sued, said Anita Tobias, executive vice president of Creators Syndicate, which distributes the advice column to 1,200 newspapers worldwide.
"It's quite a surprise," Tobias said Wednesday after being told of the suit. "There is absolutely no substance to it."
Angie Knowles died during surgery several hours after being shot in the abdomen at her Christiansburg home March 20, 1996.
"Did you know a woman can leave her home and take her children without giving any specific reason? Well, she can - and she did," Knowles wrote to Landers. "The court ordered me to give her $410 every two weeks. I thought about how unjust this was and decided to kill her."
He said that he believed she had begun an affair with a man she met chatting via computer and that he was writing to warn Landers' readers about the dangers of the Internet. (The prosecutor has said there is no evidence Angie Knowles was having an affair.)
Landers chastised Knowles, responding: "Several months ago, when I warned my readers that the Internet could lead to 'trouble,' I never imagined a letter like yours.
"While the Internet may increase the opportunities for an affair, the danger to your wife came from YOU, not the computer. Blaming the Internet is a cop-out. You killed your wife because she left you."
An assistant to Landers said at the time that the columnist was under the impression that Knowles had already been convicted.
Knowles' suit accuses Landers of slander, defamation of character, causing mental anguish and mental cruelty. He said her actions in telling the public that he killed his wife amounted to obstruction of justice and asked for $100million in damages. He wants 25 percent to go to his children, 25 percent to the American Cancer Society and 25 percent for the study of "drugs and alcohol mixed effects."
Knowles' attorney, Max Jenkins, said he was unaware of the lawsuit, which Knowles filed in handwritten form without a lawyer. Jenkins said Landers shouldn't have printed the letter and that the statements made by his client would hurt his case.
"I hope the boy gets his money," he said. "It must have been obvious that poor old Mr. Knowles was under some type of impairment."
Jenkins declined to comment about the possibility of using an insanity defense.
A mental evaluation of Knowles conducted in mid-December showed him to have "schizophrenia, paranoid type," according to a report filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court. But despite the obvious mental problems Knowles displayed, he understood the charges against him and could help in his own defense, according to a psychologist who examined him.
Knowles will go on trial May 27. He is charged with the murder of Angie Knowles and the malicious wounding of their daughter. Vanessa Knowles' fingertip was shot off during the fatal confrontation. Vanessa Knowles, then 18, tried to stop her father from shooting her mother by putting her finger in the barrel of his shotgun, she has testified.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 linesby CNB