Cops are suing a teen for invasion of privacy after allegedly false arrest goes viral

“Nathan Winter of the Newton Police Department convicted of domestic abuse after beating up his ex girlfriend,” Galanakis wrote in one caption. A subsequent caption stated that Winters had “beat the shit out of” his girlfriend. Though Winters had a protective order filed against him, the counterclaim states that he has not been charged or convicted of domestic abuse.

Sounds like this Winters guy is going to "Streisand effect" his domestic abuse, conviction or not.

Does anyone know what the liability looks like when someone makes an error in a defamatory statement like this where the correct statement would have a similar reputational effect? Like it sounds like this kid would have been in the clear if he had instead said “Winters is under a protective order for beating his girlfriend” rather than “Winters was convicted of beating his girlfriend”.

Some more details https://www.newtondailynews.com/news/local/2022/09/19/city-responds-to-arrest-of-newton-man-after-escalation-on-social-media/

Newton News learned the protective order between Winters and his former girlfriend states he is restrained from committing any further acts of abuse or threats of abuse. So although no criminal charges were filed against Winters, the act of a domestic abuse is implied through the order itself.

The protective order in question: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.iasd.82628/gov.uscourts.iasd.82628.4.2_1.pdf

And all the court filings: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/66782778/galanakis-v-city-of-newton-iowa/