Oprah to defend school comments (From Crewe Guardian)

Oprah to defend school comments

5:27pm Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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Oprah Winfrey is expected to spend two weeks defending herself at trial in a defamation case linked to the sex-abuse scandal at her girls school in South Africa.

A federal judge this week refused to dismiss the suit filed by the US media mogul's ex-headmistress, paving the way for a March 29 trial in Philadelphia.

The billionaire talk show host, as a named defendant, must be in court and has rearranged her TV production schedule to do so, her lawyers said in a recent court filing. She also appears likely to be called as a witness.

After the abuse complaints surfaced in 2007, Oprah said she had "lost confidence" in headmistress Nomvuyo Mzamane and was "cleaning house from top to bottom".

A dorm matron who worked under Mzamane was later charged in South Africa with abusing six students.

The judge found that Oprah made both Mzamane and the dorm parents appear "culpable" by telling parents, "I'm going to find a new head of the academy for the school ... Dorm parents are gone, (Mzamane) is gone."

The statement suggests Mzamane had a role in the mistreatment of the students, "which clearly would tend to 'blacken' plaintiff's reputation or injure her in her profession," US district judge Eduardo Robreno wrote in a 128-page opinion.

Oprah's lawyers sought to dismiss the suit on grounds the remarks she made at an October 20, 2007 meeting with parents and at a November 5, 2007 press conference reflected only her opinions.

The TV star opened the 40 million dollar school for impoverished girls amid great fanfare in January 2007 and recruited Mzamane, a Lesotho native, from a private school in Philadelphia.