
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 4, 1990                   TAG: 9005040446
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA                                LENGTH: Short

$34 MILLION LIBEL AWARD BELIEVED TO BE RECORD

A former city prosecutor won a $34 million libel award from The Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday in a verdict one expert said was the biggest ever against the news media.

The jury's decision was set up by the paper's appeal of a far smaller award - $4.5 million.

Richard Sprague, a former first assistant district attorney, was awarded $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $31.5 million in punitive damages by a Common Pleas Court jury.

Sprague sued in 1983 over articles dating to 1973 in the Inquirer, which has won 17 Pulitzer Prizes in 16 years, many for investigative stories. Sprague sued over stories questioning his actions and decisions as a prosecutor.

The paper will appeal again, said Eugene L. Roberts Jr., the Inquirer's executive editor and president. - Associated Press

by CNB