http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...orld-headlines
October 30, 2004, 2:59 PM EDT
LONDON -- A television host who says she was groped by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger four years ago and then libeled by his aides can take legal action in a British court, a judge ruled.
Judge David Eady on Friday rejected a claim by Schwarzenegger aide Sean Walsh that British courts had no jurisdiction in the case. Anna Richardson claims Schwarzenegger, 57, fondled her breast during an interview in London in 2000 and that his staff subsequently damaged her reputation as a professional interviewer by alleging she encouraged the behavior.
Richardson alleges she was libeled by Schwarzenegger, Walsh and Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Sheryl Main in an October 2003 article in The Los Angeles Times, which also appeared on the Internet. Richardson said the article claimed she "deliberately and dishonestly fabricated" her allegations against Schwarzenegger.
Eady ruled that because the article was published on the Internet and could be read in Britain, it was appropriate to take action in British courts.
The bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-governor has been accused by more than a dozen women of groping or sexually harassing them since the 1970s. When allegations emerged during Schwarzenegger's 2003 election campaign, he apologized for having "behaved badly sometimes" toward women and doing some things that "were not right, which I thought were playful."