Third District Judge Matthew Bates dismissed a defamation case against The Park Record on Friday immediately after hearing oral arguments, and ruled the complaint cannot be refiled. Bogdan Badiu, a tennis instructor in Park City from Romania, filed suit against the paper, KPCW and Town Lift in J uly 2025, nine months after criminal charges of alleged sexual exploitation of a minor were dismissed. Park City Police had arrested him on July 23, 2024, after officers discovered dozens of images of a child later determined to be appropriate photos of his daughter. He was charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. The paper and other news media outlets had covered the story from police records, the court case, and comments from Badiu’s defense attorney, Cliff Venable, who explained that the photos were of Badiu’s young daughter, “age appropriate and they were not sexual in nature.” “The photos are not child pornography,” Venable said when the criminal case was dismissed in November 2024. “Mr. Badiu’s life was upended by the filing of these charges. He lost his job, he suffered irreparable harm to his reputation in the community, and he wasn’t allowed to speak to his daughter for over three months while the case was pending. He is a good person who is passionate about tennis and cares deeply for his daughter.” Badiu filed his civil complaint against the media outlets that covered the case in November 2025. “What the police did in this case to Mr. Baidu may have been unjust, but that doesn’t make accurately reporting on what happened defamatory,” Park Record co-owner Matthew Prince said after the ruling Friday evening. “I’m happy the judge dismissed this baseless lawsuit with prejudice. The Park Record will vigorously defend our right to serve our community through fair and accurate reporting in this case and any others, including seeking reimbursement of our attorneys’ fees under Utah’s anti-SLAPP law.” Baidu’s attorney, Steve S. Christensen, argued in his complaint that the local news media had defamed the tennis coach even with accurate accounts of his case. Third District Judge Matthew Bates wasted little time dismissing the civil complaint with prejudice on Friday afternoon after hearing the arguments from attorneys on the motion to dismiss the case from the Salt Lake City firm Burbidge/Mitchell. “The only thing the news organizations are vaguely alleged to have done ‘wrong’ is to disseminate news of these charges,” the motion to dismiss states, which is not grounds for defamation. The post Tennis instructor’s defamation case vs. Park Record dismissed with prejudice appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less