JOHN GRISHAM - GRISHAM FACES COURT APPEARANCE FOR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS

GRISHAM FACES COURT APPEARANCE FOR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS

Author JOHN GRISHAM must appear in court to answer allegations he deliberately caused a woman emotional problems, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled yesterday (12JAN07). The court reinstated KATHARINE ALMY's lawsuit against THE FIRM writer and a couple he knows, teacher ALAN SWANSON and his wife DONNA, after Almy alleged they caused her severe mental distress by blaming her for a series of anonymous letters they'd received. The case centres on several handwritten letters Donna Swanson received between 1996 and 1998 accusing her husband of infidelity, and one anonymous letter Grisham received in 1998. Almy claims Grisham and the Swansons launched a campaign to prove she wrote the letters, hiring a handwriting expert and sending a police officer to her home to confront her, allegedly causing her upset. THOMAS E ALBRO, the attorney for Grisham and the Swansons, declined to comment on the ruling.