Ida Wells

Parents

1999 In 1999, Motz ruled against Ida Wells, a former secretary for the Democratic National Committee, who had sued G. Gordon Liddy for defamation. Liddy, a White House 'plumber' for President Richard Nixon, had endorsed a theory in the book Silent Coup (1991), in Liddy's first major public statement about the Watergate case after his four-and-a-half-year prison sentence. The book argued White House counsel John Dean had orchestrated the Watergate break-in to find and conceal evidence that his then-girlfriend had been involved in prostitution, and some of the evidence was secreted in Wells' desk. Motz declared a mistrial, stating no "reasonable jury" could have ruled in favor of Wells.[5]