It’s not an uncommon feeling in comic book circles that Newsarama’s Mike Sangiacomo is a bit of a doofus. Anyone who’s read his columns over the years has seen his tendency to gloss over facts lazily or just plain get information flat out wrong. That may be acceptable when your talking about ultimately inconsequential tings like comic book movie reviews or Rob Liefeld’s biography, but apparently Sangiacomo standards aren’t any higher for his “real” news reporting.

Recently, a young man in Ohio was arrested because he refused to show his receipt to a Circuit City employee, despite the fact that there is absolutely no legal basis for him to be compelled to do so. After several weeks of back and forth with the local DA, all charges were dropped. Apparently, Sangiacomo’s reading comprehension of the event was a little lacking, and he reported bad info in the Cleveland Plains Dealer, resulting in additional frustration for the wrongly arrested gentleman.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on my agreement with the prosecutor in today’s issue. When I read their take on what happened I was outraged. Michael Sangiacomo of the Plain Dealer claimed that I “agreed that a police officer did nothing wrong in arresting [me] after [I] refused to show [my] driver’s license.” This is an outright lie. I never said such a thing and would never say such a thing. In fact, I’ve never even spoken with Michael Sangiacomo. He emailed me looking for a quote and I referred him to my attorney. As far as I know Michael Sangiacomo hasn’t even seen the release that I signed with the prosecutor. I consider the outcome of my legal battle to be a victory, yet today’s paper portrays it as defeat.

Understandably I received a lot of hate mail today from people who read the Cleveland Plain Dealer article and were horrified to see that I “caved” under pressure. If I was a third party to the situation I think I would have given Michael Righi a piece of my mind as well.

The article is wholly unfair, and a complete misrepresentation of the release that I signed with the prosecutor. I uploaded a PDF version of the release and I encourage you to read it and decide for yourself. Although the police department did not admit guilt in the release, nowhere in it did I claim that they were justified in their actions.

Nice one, Mike.

Spread the word!