Radio host Caplis sues Churchill backer
Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
Published April 29, 2005 at midnight
Radio talk show host Dan Caplis on Wednesday filed a defamation lawsuit against a Longmont city employee who has emerged as a vocal supporter of embattled University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill.
Caplis, who co-hosts an afternoon program on KHOW-AM with fellow attorney Craig Silverman, sued Glenn Spagnuolo, 34, in Arapahoe District Court.
Spagnuolo made the comments Tuesday night during a speech supporting Churchill at a campus rally in Boulder, and they were broadcast Wednesday on the Peter Boyles Show, another KHOW program, Caplis said.
He declined to reveal the comments he cited in his lawsuit, saying it was filed under seal.
But, according to the excerpts played by Boyles, Spagnuolo accused Caplis of assaulting a "pregnant woman of color" during a 1977 melee at CU while Caplis was a student there.
Spagnuolo claimed that Caplis - who had just resigned as one of the student government's tri-executives - suffered a concussion in the melee, which was related to a bill to limit the use of student fees.
Boyles repeatedly played the excerpts Wednesday morning of Spagnuolo's Tuesday night speech, which were recorded by a reporter for KOA radio.
"It's a frivolous lawsuit and Dan knows that," Spagnuolo said. "It's just one more attempt to try to silence truth in this country.
"I believe the statement to be true that I made. I have witnesses (of the incident) . . . and if Dan wants to play this out in court, he'll be the one that is embarrassed by it. I was appalled to hear the man would attack a woman of color."
Spagnuolo, who directs programs for Longmont's at-risk youth, is being investigated by the city for alleged improper use of a city cell phone and for pursuing his political activism on city time.
Caplis and Silverman have declared their intent to see that Churchill is fired from his job as a tenured ethnic studies professor.
Churchill became a center of national controversy for his published essay comparing victims at the World Trade Center to Adolf Eichmann. His academic and scholarship record are now under review.
Spagnuolo is one of numerous local activists to support Churchill.
Brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2742
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