PITTSBURGH — A dispute between a billionaire newspaper publisher and a rival newspaper over sealed court documents detailing his acrimonious divorce and family fortune has drawn to a close — for now.
A judge on Sept. 26 denied a request by Richard M. Scaife that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette return the documents, which were obtained by the paper after they were posted online by the court — apparently in error — for several days last month.
Scaife, a Pittsburgh banking heir, publishes the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and other newspapers. He is known as a staunch political conservative who spent millions funding a series of investigations into former President Bill Clinton.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Alan Hertzberg agreed with the Post-Gazette's contention that the newspaper had First Amendment rights to retain and publish information about the divorce case.
Attorneys for Scaife had argued that the Post-Gazette's access and use of the documents amounted to criminal theft.
''We believe there's a criminal statute that covers this,'' Scaife's lawyer, H. Yale Gutnick, told the Associated Press. ''I don't know how far we will push that. We will probably take action on the civil front, but we're exploring everything right now.''
The Post-Gazette's lawyer, W. Thomas McGough Jr., said the newspaper had obtained the documents through a public Web site and believed it had the right to have the records and publish information about them to the extent they were newsworthy.
The newspaper reported information contained in the filings, including details about monthly temporary support payments of $725,000 awarded to Scaife's wife, Margaret Ritchie Battle Scaife.
Scaife, 75, and his wife are battling on several fronts, from how to assess and divide his vast wealth to custody of a yellow Labrador retriever named Beauregard.
A judge may also have to decide whether the $20 million to $30 million a year she claims he spends to support the Tribune-Review constitutes a business loss, as he contends, or spending on a hobby, as she sees it.
Forbes magazine has estimated Scaife's wealth at $1.3 billion, ranking him No. 380 on its list of the country's billionaires.
Margaret Scaife's lawyers put his monthly income from earnings on nine trusts at $3.9 million.
Records filed in the case suggest Scaife has spent $140 million to $244 million, depending on whom you believe, to subsidize the Tribune-Review since its inception in 1992. Scaife's other papers are generally profitable, the documents said.
Margaret Scaife, 60, kept a separate residence in Pittsburgh after the couple married in June 1991 and has been arrested twice since their split after domestic confrontations at his nearby mansion, the Post-Gazette reported. The trespass and assault charges were later dismissed.
She filed for divorce last year alleging infidelity, while he filed divorce papers this year. They do not have a prenuptial agreement, the newspaper said. He has two children from his first marriage to the former Frances Gilmore.