The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - 35

F LY N T V. FA LW E L L

THE GOOD
JUDGE TURK

COURTESY OF RODNEY A. SMOLLA

At the time of the case, Turk had served as a federal judge for
12 years. Before that, the Roanoke County native had served
another 12 years in the Virginia Senate before being appointed
to the bench by President Richard Nixon. Steve Haner, a
Roanoke Times reporter from 1976 to 1986 who now works
as a lobbyist in Richmond, says Turk was a moderate Mountain
Valley Republican, belonging to a group that also included former
Gov. John Dalton and U.S. Rep. Caldwell Butler. At a time
when Democrats still held a dominant majority in the General
Assembly, Republicans like Turk were often appointed to the
federal bench.
Smolla got to know Turk in the late '00s while serving as the
dean of Washington and Lee University Law School.
"He was an extraordinary gentleman and the kind of judge that
lawyers love," he says. "He's prepared, he's respectful, he's balanced.
I always got the impression that everyone thought they were
getting someone who had done their homework and someone
who was incredibly respectful and fair."
Even so, many observers entered the jury trial believing
that the case's location in Roanoke favored Falwell because of
his proximity. Think of it as a home court advantage. Flynt's
background, however, offered its own advantages.
"Larry Flynt is a product of the mountains, a product of rural
Appalachia," Smolla notes. "He's a regular guy who managed to
make it good. There were probably people who identified with
him. They may not have believed anything he said, but they
identified with him as much as they identified with Falwell."
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Flynt also entered the case in a much better state of mind and body
than during the deposition earlier that year. By the time he rolled into
the courtroom in his gold-plated wheelchair, Flynt had received a surgery
that relieved him of much of his pain, as well as the need for drugs to
dull that pain.
In considering Flynt's wild deposition recorded six months earlier,
Judge Turk initially ruled that the interview should be excluded due to
Flynt's obvious irrationality, but he then reversed himself and allowed
it to be played for jurors.
Smolla said Turk faced a tough challenge in handling other similarly
difficult rulings, an inherently thorny case, and aggressive lawyers. He did
so in an even-handed way that prevented the courtroom from spiraling
out of control.
"He took control and managed to create order out of chaos," Smolla
says.
The controlled environment within the courtroom didn't prevent
sensationalism in its coverage by national outlets.
"It was one of those situations where I was more interested in how
the national press was playing it for their own purposes and sometimes
distorting it," says Haner, who watched the case play out from his desk at
the Roanoke Times. "They loved to demonize Falwell, which I thought
was hilarious. Falwell loved being demonized in the national press. ...
He loved being in the paper. He loved it."

NO LIBEL,
BUT DAMAGES
Falwell sued Flynt for invasion of privacy, libel and intentional infliction
of emotional distress. Only the latter two went to trial, as invasion of
privacy was done away with in a summary judgment before the trial.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019

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