“WVUE’s Investigative Reporter Lee Zurik Sued by LA State Trooper”

A Louisiana State Trooper is claiming in a lawsuit that investigative reporter Lee Zurik defamed him in a WVUE Fox 8 News series titled, “State of Unrest,” which aired from 2017 to 2018.

The trooper, Eric Curlee, who lives in Metairie, Louisiana, filed the 2018 action in Orleans Civil District Court and is representing himself in the matter. The case has been allotted to Section I, Judge Piper Griffin, however, no action has been taken yet by Curlee to move the suit forward.

Curlee claims in his petition for damages that Zurik undertook covert video surveillance of him wearing civilian clothes when he was off-duty and not working. Zurik then falsely and maliciously accused Curlee of goofing off while on duty during a WVUE Fox 8 News broadcast. Curlee alleges that Zurik knew in fact he was off-duty due to Zurik having previously obtained his timesheets from the State Police through a public records request.

Curlee is seeking damages for the time he was placed on administrative leave and having been referred for criminal prosecution to the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s Office, based on Zurik’s reporting. Curlee was later cleared by State Police of wrongdoing

and the District Attorney refused to pursue any criminal charges against him.

In a separate 2015 online news article published by WAFB Channel 9 in Baton Rouge, Curlee was honored in a State Police ceremony for having saved the life of a chocking victim that couldn’t breathe during a traffic stop on I-10.

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