• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, May 10, 2019

There’s a new twist in Ralph Watson’s defamation suit against four anonymous New York defendants in the Diet Madison Avenue case.

One of them, known only to the public as “NY Doe 1,” has denied writing a single word about Watson. In fact, she says she doesn’t even know the man.

And you wouldn’t lie about a thing like that in court, would you? I don’t think so. That could get you in serious trouble.

Watson is the former Crispin Porter Bogusky creative who was let go last year after he was accused of sexual assault anonymously on the Diet Madison Avenue Instagram account.

He has sued alleged defamers in New York and Los Angeles and his former agency for wrongful termination in New York and Colorado.

Earlier this week, NY Doe 1’s lawyer wrote a letter to the judge hearing the defamation case in New York’s Southern District Court requesting a pre-motion conference related to her client’s intention to file a motion to dismiss petition.

“NY Doe 1 does not know Mr. Watson, has never had a professional relationship with him and had no role in writing or publishing the subject posts to the Diet Madison Avenue Instagram account or any other platform,” the lawyer letter stated.

And just be clear, the letter added, the defendant doesn’t know who wrote the alleged defamatory missives about Watson and does not “own, operate, maintain or control the account and has no association with the account.”

With one exception. NY Doe 1 acknowledged commenting on others’ comments on certain DMA posts, but none relating to Watson.

So far, Watson’s side has not responded to the letter in court, nor has Judge John Koeltl who is hearing the case.