Gay SF man sues for libel after tweet accuses him of murder
After reposting a tweet falsely accusing gay San Francisco health advocate Gary McCoy of murdering 1,500 people at the Tenderloin Linkage Center, writer and personal finance guru Erica Sandberg now finds herself the defendant in a $1.9 million libel lawsuit.The lawsuit, filed May 9 at San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that Sandberg, who has appeared on air as a personal finance expert at San Francisco-based KRON-4 and is a regular contributor to U.S.
News and World Report, retweeted April 18 the meme about McCoy, vice president of policy and public affairs at HealthRIGHT 360, a California-based health conglomerate. (McCoy is also a co-chair of the Alice B.
Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club and previously served as a district staffer for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco.)McCoy's attorney, Alex Lemberg, who identifies as nonbinary, called the murder allegation against their client "jaw-dropping and patently false." A spokesperson at the San Francisco Department of Public Health told the Bay Area Reporter there have been no deaths at the Tenderloin Center.
The facility remains open.The Tenderloin Center, the new name of the linkage center, opened in January near United Nations Plaza as part of Mayor London Breed's declaration of a state of emergency in the Tenderloin.
