Boston star scholz sues newspaper over delp suicide article

Boston star Tom Scholz is suing the Boston Herald newspaper and two columnists for defamation after they suggested he was partly responsible for late bandmate Brad Delp's 2007 suicide.

Scholz took offence to Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa's insinuations in their Inside Track column following the Delp tragedy.

One article, headlined 'Pal's Snub Made Delp Do It: Boston Rocker's Ex-wife Speaks', suggested Delp committed suicide after Scholz fired his close friend Fran Cosmo from the Boston touring line-up.

They wrote that Delp’s ex-wife, Micki, blamed Scholz for the singer’s death.

In his legal documents the guitarist states the defendants "falsely suggested in headlines, content and via innuendo" that Delp was under pressure to perform with Boston as well as a Beatles tribute band featuring Cosmo. The libel case also claims Fee and Raposa were purposely slandering Scholz on behalf of a publicist friend who represented the tribute band, according to TheRockRadio.com.

Howard Cooper, the lawyer representing Scholz, says, "We have filed this complaint in an effort to correct the very substantial defamation by the Boston Herald and its reporters of Tom Scholz at the time when his former Boston bandmate took his own life.

"It is unfortunate that some chose that tragic occasion to sensationalize a false story about Mr. Scholz."

Scholz has already sued Micki Delp, who under oath denied ever making the statements to the Herald's columnists. That case is still pending, according to Boston.com

Delp died from from carbon monoxide asphyxiation.