Stadium Village mainstay Village Wok could file a defamation suit as early as today in Hennepin County District Court against local radio station KQRS.
The suit stems from comments an on-air crew allegedly made about the restaurant’s food “in or about March/April/May 1998,” the complaint states.
Village Wok, operating on Washington Avenue for more than 20 years, is asking for damages from loss of business amounting to $50,000 plus attorney’s fees.
Stephanie Abrutyn, a lawyer at KQRS’s parent company ABC Inc., said the company cannot comment on pending litigation.
The complaint states KQRS reported a customer at Village Wok complained about the food and returned it to the kitchen. The report stated the staff ejaculated into the food and was re-served.
The on-air crew then said the semen in the food caused the patron to contract herpes, according to the complaint. It also states that KQRS claimed the story came from a community newspaper, and that KQRS would not identify which paper printed the story.
Lawyers for KQRS filed an answer to the complaint Sept. 24 denying all allegations made in the complaint. Under Minnesota law, plaintiffs can serve suit to the defendants before officially filing the complaint in court.
While the answer to the complaint denies that the comments were made, it also claims that any allegedly defamatory remarks are protected under the First and Fourteenth amendments.
Officials at the Office of Minneapolis Public Health were not available to comment on whether the restaurant has been cited for health violations.
Village Wok owner William Chan said he did not hear the exact broadcast or the comments. He said a customer told him what he had heard on the radio.
“People kept calling and asking if it had happened,” Chan said. He added that the broadcast has affected his business, and he defended the restaurant by saying nothing like this has ever happened there.
Because the complaint did not specify the exact day the on-air crew made the comments, transcripts could not be located. Stephen Cooper, Chan’s attorney, said they might or might not have transcripts. He added the comments were made on a few different occasions, including a weekend “best of” show.
The station also ran into some problems over the summer regarding allegedly racist statements made about the Hmong community. Cooper said the Village Wok suit has nothing to do with those activities and problems.
Leslie McMurray, public relations director for Community Action Against Racism, said the Mall of America pulled its advertising from the KQRS Morning Show on Thursday because of the allegedly racist comments.