A Hennepin County judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by a Minneapolis man serving an 85-year federal sentence for his notorious family business of sex trafficking young women and minors — one of whom penned a trilogy that was subject of the litigation.
Hennepin County judge dismisses convicted sex trafficker's lawsuit against accuser
The accuser penned three books about being a victim-survivor of a sex-trafficking ring family business.
November 24, 2023 at 8:16PM
Judge Joseph Klein dismissed Derry Evans' lawsuit with prejudice, meaning Evans cannot refile allegations against Eleana Ross, a St. Cloud author who self-published books in 2020 about being a sex trafficking victim-survivor. Evans and his mother accused Ross of defamation, but legal experts opined after the lawsuit was filed in March that it would be challenging for them to prove, given Evans' convictions.
Evans, 51, who is incarcerated at high-security federal prison in Colorado, was indicted in 1999 along with a dozen relatives spanning three generations. It was the largest federal prosecution of a juvenile sex trafficking ring in U.S. history and gained national attention.
Klein wrote in his recent 14-page decision that Evans' lawsuit was lodged against Ross "for an improper purpose" and ordered him to pay Ross' attorney's fees.
"This was the right result and our client is very happy," said Jacob Elrich, one of Ross' attorneys, in a recent phone interview. He declined to comment further.
The legal team argued Evans' claims were baseless and nothing more than a fishing expedition to obtain evidence otherwise denied to him in his criminal proceedings in an attempt to reduce his lengthy sentence.
Klein agreed earlier this month after taking the case under advisement in August.
Evans can't relitigate claims already proven at trial. Further, Minnesota recognizes the legal doctrine that a statement or communication is substantially accurate if its essence or "sting" — not every word — is true.
In motions to dismiss, attorneys for Ross wrote that any inconsistency or minor variations are irrelevant because it produces the same effect on the reader, that Evans is a "violent sex trafficker who beat and raped Ms. Ross while trafficking her when she was a minor."
Evans' lawsuit listed 16 claims of alleged defamatory statements. Half of the claims focus on dates and ages that are allegedly incorrect in the books, which he alleged contradict Ross' grand jury testimony in Evans' federal trial in Missouri.
His mother, Alice Turner of St. Paul, was never convicted and claims in the lawsuit there are two photos of her hugging Evans used without her permission in Ross' books.
Klein wrote that, "taken as a whole," the lawsuit was improper because of the timing of it in conjunction with attempts to modify Evans' sentence, and failure to deny the purpose of the case was to obtain discovery.
In response to requests for comment about the dismissal, St. Paul attorney Nico Ratkowski wrote in a statement that he's surprised by Klein's decision. He called it "a travesty of justice" and said they are "mulling over their options on appeal."
"Apparently, stopping Defendant Ross from implicating innocent third parties in federal crimes does not affect the public interest," he wrote. "Apparently, when authors intentionally and falsely claim their books are true, causing more book buyers to purchase their book, Minnesota will side with the author to the public's detriment."
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