Dolan Media Newswire Story
Subject: Family of slain U.S. soldier pursues $40 billion class-action against Flagstaff T-shirt vendor
Pub: Arizona Capitol Times
Author: Christian Palmer
Category: Justice,Military,Apparel,Retailing
Sub-Category: Courts
Issue Date: 05/02/2008 Word Count: 16
Family of slain U.S. soldier pursues $40 billion class-action against Flagstaff T-shirt vendor
by Christian Palmer
Dolan Media Newswires
© Dolan Media Newswires 2010.PHOENIX, AZ -- The Tennessee parents of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq are attempting to open a $40 billion class-action lawsuit against Flagstaff T-shirt vendor Dan Frazier.
Frazier sells shirts emblazoned with the phrase “Bush Lied, They Died,” along with the names of thousands of soldiers killed in Iraq.
The latest court filing by Robin and Michael Read asks that heirs of all U.S. armed service members killed in combat since Sept. 11, 2001, be compensated, according to a story by The Associated Press. The Read family claims Frazier is illegally profiting from the sales by using the names of dead soldiers without permission from their families.
The Reads want Frazier to pay $36.5 billion in punitive damages and $4 billion in compensatory damages, according to The Associated Press.
Last week, the Tennessee couple filed a $10 million federal lawsuit against Frazier over his refusal to pull their son’s name from his product.
Frazier claims it’s his right to sell the shirts and that he’s protected by the First Amendment. Plus, he said demand for his T-shirt has dwindled.
In a recent interview with the Arizona Capitol Times, the Flagstaff resident said he believes that the anger of family members is misdirected.
“I feel that I am on their side, in that I don’t want to see other families going through what they’re going through,” he said.
The Read’s son Brandon, a sergeant in the U.S. Army, was killed in 2004 in a roadside bombing near an Iraqi airfield seized by American forces. The family issued a statement last week mourning their son and requesting privacy. Brandon was 21 when he was killed.
According to The Associated Press, Frazier will request to move the lawsuit to a federal court in Arizona, where last October a judge struck down a portion of Arizona law criminalizing the unauthorized use of dead soldiers’ names.
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