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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 11, 1994                   TAG: 9405120154
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C.                                LENGTH: Short

FOOD LION TO FIGHT MAGISTRATE'S RULING

Food Lion will challenge a federal magistrate's recommendation to dismiss the supermarket chain's racketeering and wiretapping complaints against ABC News, a Food Lion attorney said Tuesday.

``We will be filing briefs asking the judge to reconsider the magistrate's ruling,'' Bill McCanless, Food Lion's vice president for legal affairs, said in an interview from the company's Salisbury headquarters.

Food Lion sued the network last year for $30 million following a highly-publicized ``PrimeTime Live'' expose of the chain's food-handling practices. The company accused the network of racketeering, trespassing, illicit eavesdropping and wire fraud.

In a recent 59-page opinion, U.S. Magistrate Judge Trevor Sharp proposed that federal Judge Carlton Tilley throw out two of the most serious charges against ABC.

In the lawsuit, Food Lion argues ABC violated federal racketeering laws by fraudulently gaining employment with Food Lion for two ``PrimeTime Live'' reporters. Sharp rejected those claims, saying that the First Amendment protects ABC from damages relating to the broadcast itself.

by CNB