Amy Jacobson Bikini Pool Party Video Case Headed to Supreme Court

Amy Jacobson, Lisa Stebic and Craig Stebic

Former TV reporter Amy Jacobson is taking her case against CBS Chicago to the Illinois Supreme Court. Seven years ago, Jacobson lost her job with NBC 5 after rival CBS 2 aired video of her in a bikini at the Plainfield home of Craig Stebic, whose wife Lisa had been missing for two months.

Lisa remains missing. Her husband has been under a cloud of suspicion ever since, having been named a person of interest in her disappearance. And Jacobson, who brought her two little kids to swim in Stebic’s pool, was fired.

Jacobson, a reporter at NBC 5 for 10 years, sued CBS, claiming defamation and invasion of privacy. She also claimed CBS implied she was having an affair with Stebic when the station aired the footage of her at a Stebic family pool party in the summer of 2007.

A state appeals court recently ruled against Jacobson. In the ruling, Justice Thomas Hoffman, writing on behalf of the three-judge panel, stated:

“There can be no dispute that the plaintiff inserted herself into a prominent position in the controversy. Already a well-known local personality and high-profile reporter, the plaintiff worked steadfastly to become the ‘owner’ of the Stebic story, admittedly throwing herself into the case, frequenting the site of the Stebic home with a camera crew, participating in public vigils and searches with a camera crew, or, at times on her days off, urging the public to come forward with any clues shedding light on Lisa’s disappearance.

“She also solicited and achieved close professional relationships with the families of both Lisa and Craig, gaining unique access to the story as one of these families’ ‘favorite journalists.’ She admittedly worked ‘tirelessly’ in the ongoing efforts to find Lisa. She was highly respected by the local law enforcement authorities and testified that she communicated with the police regarding the case and ultimately broke most of the major stories in the case of Lisa’s disappearance. The plaintiff also testified that, although Craig Stebic had declined to speak with the police by the second week after the disappearance, he did discuss the case with her.

“It was the plaintiff’s existing notoriety, combined with her access to the Stebic family and her tenacious aspiration to ‘get to the bottom’ of the case, that thrust her even further into the public spotlight, invited scrutiny of her methods, and gave rise to the ethical predicament in which she found herself on July 7. ... Further, it cannot be disputed that her conduct in going to the Stebics’ that day was germane to the controversy. As became clear soon after the reports surfaced in the Chicago Tribune and the Sun Times, the plaintiff’s coverage of the Stebic case created widespread public outcry and debate as to her journalistic ethics and judgment. Evidence in the record in the form of public correspondence to NBC, as well as media commentary, demonstrates that her actions affected the way the public perceived her reporting on the Stebic story, as well as generally.

“Finally, as a public figure, she could and did avail herself of effective communication channels to explain her side of the story, choosing from an onslaught of media outlets which were pursuing her, and finding the ones that would best help her to clear her name.”

Jacobson’s attorney Kathleen Zellner told the Chicago Sun-Times the question of whether Jacobson was a public figure is a key issue in her Supreme Court appeal.

Jacobson contends the CBS video “purports that Jacobson was engaged in a sexual relationship with Stebic and that she used sex and seduction to do her job.”

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» read the appellate court ruling