LOS ANGELES (KNX) — Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Daniel Murphy took a suit under submission on Tuesday brought by the Abbey bar against a comedy writer and actress for alleged defamation. White is being sued by the popular West Hollywood nightlife spot after she claimed she was drugged by a bartender there in a series of Instagram posts earlier this year.
Murphy did not say when he would render a final decision on whether the suit would move forward, citing a need to further study the issues at play.
In his tentative ruling, the judge said he was inclined to drop the bar’s claims against Haely Smalle, professionally known as Haely White, for defamation and trade libel, allowing only a claim for breach of contract to proceed to trial.
Murphy said that based on online comments she read of others allegedly being served spiked drinks at the Abbey, the White had a reasonable belief that she may have been drugged by an Abbey bartender and therefore did not act with the “actual malice” required of a successful defamation claim.
"From all of this evidence, I concluded that, like the other people who reported similar experiences, I had been roofied during my visit to the Abbey," White stated in a sworn declaration to the suit. "I attributed this act to a bartender, but now that I have reviewed the video provided to me by the Abbey, I can see that neither the bartender nor anyone else tampered with my drink after it was poured."
The Abbey filed its suit in August seeking more than $5 million in damages. The restaurant’s owners claimed they suffered substantial business loss due to White's comments, including event cancelations and a dip in patronage.
"What Ms. White did was disgusting and this court is the forum to hold her accountable," Christopher Reeder, attorney for the bar, said.
The Abbey sent White a cease-and-desist letter after she made her initial posts to social media. White partially removed some of the statements at issue, but not all of them, prompting bar owners to follow up several times, according to the suit.
White and the Abbey reached a settlement agreement, releasing White from liability as long as she prominently posted a correction statement by a certain deadline. The Abbey claims her statement was not posted as prominently as agreed, and she breached the terms by contradicting and retracting her correction in later postings.
White subsequently tweeted, "Obviously, what happened to me that evening was shocking and painful ... however, based on my review of video footage, I now believe that what happened to me that night was not the fault of the Abbey or their staff.”
Less than 24 hours after posting that correction, White posted another statement to Instagram, which read in part:
"Since earlier publicly posted details lacked key information, it's important you hear the entirety of what happened. The video footage that I have reviewed does not show the bartender placing anything in my drink. There is an important additional detail — the footage also shows me collapsing off the seat at a booth not long after having my drink. It shows me being assisted out of the bar by a friend ... I was completely coherent in a phone conversation with my husband just 15 minutes before entering the bar, and didn't get my drink at the Abbey until nearly 30 minutes after arriving, at least a full hour after a drink I had at dinner. I also have NEVER felt so sick in my life with one exception — when I was roofied many years ago..."
The Abbey claimed the subsequent Instagram post was a breach of the settlement agreement.
