'Psychic' who reported mass grave north of Houston must pay $7 million

[csziggy]

21. Yes, why did the judge let the sheriff's office off the hook?

From the article linked in the OP:

The suit alleges that Gridley called the Liberty County Sheriff's Office and falsely claimed that 25 to 30 dismembered bodies were buried in a mass grave at the plaintiffs' residence.

The sheriff's office repeated the false statements to various news media organizations and provided the plaintiff's address, the suit states.

<SNIP>

When initially filed, the suit's defendants included Liberty County and six media outlets, which over time were dismissed.

Since media is no longer "news" in any sense, I can sort of see letting them off, even though they embellished the story to a ridiculous extent. But the sheriff's office should have had more sense than to accept a psychic's unsubstantiated word or to repeat that fakery to the media as fact OR to give out the location alleged to be a crime scene.

If it had been a legitimate tip to a crime scene, the location and the process of investigation would have been damaged due to the media frenzy. Since it was from a dubious source, why would they give out that information? The SO should have just kept their mouths shut until at least an initial investigation was complete.

IMO the Liberty County Sheriff's Office should be at least as culpable as the "psychic"!