Walter Jacobson - Legal Problems

Legal Problems

In February 1977, Jacobson failed to make WBBM's 10 p.m. newscast because he was being booked at a police station, charged with making an illegal left turn and driving on a suspended license. A few weeks later, Jacobson was pulled over and charged with driving at night with defective headlights.

In a landmark case in media law, Jacobson and WBBM's owner, CBS, were found guilty by a federal jury in Chicago in November 1985 of libeling the Brown & Williamson tobacco company in a November 1981 expose in which Jacobson accused the cigarette manufacturer of marketing cigarettes to children and teens. The next month, the jury awarded Brown & Williamson $5.1 million, with Jacobson personally liable for $50,000. An appeals court ultimately cut the award to $3 million, but let Jacobson's share stand. "I feel some outrage, some fury as well as disappointment. I am outraged at the cigarette industry for trying to intimidate the press. I don`t feel intimidated," Jacobson told the Chicago Tribune in an article that appeared on December 6, 1985.

In September 1997, Jacobson was arrested and charged with grabbing a restaurant owner in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood who wouldn't answer his questions about homeless people interfering with businesses in the neighborhood. Jacobson ultimately was acquitted of misdemeanor battery, trespass and disorderly conduct charges a few months later.

In May 2004, Jacobson was arrested in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood and charged with driving under the influence, running a stop sign, invalid registration and obstructing traffic after he allegedly double-parked his 2004 Saab outside a Lincoln Park pizzeria and was seen by police "stumbling" out of the shop. Jacobson reportedly was advised by an officer not to drive his car pending a sobriety test, but he went ahead and did so anyway, and after several blocks was pulled over by officers. Jacobson ultimately passed the Breathalyzer test, and the DUI charge was dropped, just four days before his induction into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame. Jacobson ultimately pleaded guilty to negligent driving, obstruction of traffic and running a stop sign, and he was sentenced to four months' supervision and was fined $450. He also agreed to undergo evaluation of his use of alcohol. After the incident, Jacobson responded—with his Perspective commentary—on Fox News, claiming he was pulled over by an unmarked car full of people in baseball caps, not policemen. He later went on to say that he was "mishandled" by the police.

On June 18, 2008, Jacobson was arrested near his home in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood for DUI charges after failing a field sobriety and Breathalyzer test. In April 2009, Jacobson pleaded guilty and received supervision, according to Cook County records and local bloggers. Image 49.