BOULDER, Colo. (CN) - Claiming the statute of limitations has long run out, the owner of the Denver Post asked a Boulder judge on Wednesday to toss a consumer protection lawsuit filed by a man who has long disputed the paper's 2017 reporting on him.

The Denver Post published a series of articles in 2017, reporting financial mismanagement at the nonprofit Humanwire, owned by entrepreneur Andrew Baron.

Following the reporting, the 20th Judicial District Attorney's Office charged Baron with charity fraud, to which he eventually pleaded no contest. In 2018, a Boulder judge sentenced Baron to a one-year deferred sentence and ordered him to pay restitution. To this day, Baron denies wrongdoing and has long sought a correction from the newspaper, even posting his own version of the story on his blog Dembot.

"This case is Mr. Baron's attempt to rewrite history," said attorney Michael Beylkin on behalf of Alden Global Capital, owner of MediaNews Group and the Denver Post.

"No one has 'the right to be forgotten,' which they have in Europe, because we have the First Amendment," added Beylkin, who practices with the Denver firm Zansberg Beylkin.

Colorado law requires defamation claims to be brought within a year of an article being published. On Jan. 17, Baron instead sued the Post's investment fund owner Alden Global Capital, along with its president and chief of investments, claiming the company was misleading consumers through policies promising to pursue the truth.

"People think it wasn't an accident, they think it was a scam," Baron said, representing himself in court. "For several years, I believed their promise that they would fix it if they only knew the facts."

Baron claims to be the victim of a general decline in news quality prompted by Alden's mismanagement of its newspapers and practice of cutting resources even when publications turn a profit.

In the 50-page complaint, Baron claimed the company violated consumer rights "by promoting themselves as publishers of ethical journalism through their operational policies, while failing to meet such policy standards in practice."

In the lawsuit, Baron said he counted 120 inaccuracies across six stories reported on him in the Denver Post and the Daily Camera.

The lawsuit, Baron wrote, was not just about repairing his reputation, but "protecting the production of ethical journalism, justifying the true need for good faith journalistic protections, and preventing similar harms to others."

Although the Colorado Consumer Protection Act has a three-year statute of limitations, Baron produced emails showing his continued pursuit of a newspaper correction through 2024, when editor Lee Ann Colacioppo told him to stop defaming her reporter.

In court, Beylkin countered that one recent email is not enough to change the litigation timeline. Beylkin also said the paper's policies were aspirational and protected under the First Amendment along with the news reports, and did not fall under the state Consumer Protection Act which regulates commercial speech.

Twentieth Judicial District Judge Michael Kotlarczyk also seemed skeptical of allowing any recent email to restart the clock on a consumer protection claim. Nevertheless, the judge gave Baron half an hour to lay out his argument.

"I believe in my case and believe this is a larger issue for the community, and that it would be an abuse to have it end here," said Baron, who is the son of famed trial lawyer Fred Baron.

Kotlarczyk explained the high bar protecting free speech. 

"You put your story out there, to rebut the press, which is also protected by the First Amendment," Kotlarczyk said. "The cure to speech is more speech."

Ahead of the hearing, Baron disclosed that he had employed ChatGPT as a research tool to help write his legal briefs.

"I use it a lot for code, and I learned that the law is essentially code," Baron said. "I feel out of place here, and wouldn't have made it this far without ChatGPT."

Kotarczyk said he had no problem with people using artificial intelligence as an aid, but cautioned against falling into "a false sense of certainty."

Taking the case under advisement, Kotlarczyk promised to issue a written order in June.

Source: Courthouse News Service