Skip to main content

    Spike Lee sued for angrily posting wrong Zimmerman address on Twitter

    Spike Lee sued for angrily posting wrong Zimmerman address on Twitter

    /

    Director accidentally posted elderly couple's address

    Share this story

    Spike Lee (Spike Lee on YouTube)
    Spike Lee (Spike Lee on YouTube)

    An elderly couple is suing Spike Lee after he mistakenly posted their address on Twitter. Lee, incensed by a lack of legal action against George Zimmerman in March last year, directed his followers to an address in Sanford, Florida. Although Lee believed the address was Zimmerman's, it in fact belonged to Elaine and David McClain, a couple of Florida residents with no connection to the man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin the month before.

    The lawsuit, published online by The Smoking Gun, acknowledges that Lee soon realized his error and deleted the original tweet, but notes that tweets featuring the McClains' address still continue to appear on Twitter — the most recent was posted November 10th 2013, a full 18 months after Lee's mistake. Many of the tweets attempt to incite others to take the law into their own hands and head to the address to kill Zimmerman.

    It's because of this continued threat that the McClains are suing Lee — the director actually settled with them just days after the original tweet, and also made a public apology, but the problem has clearly not gone away. The Smoking Gun reports that the McClains' attorney believes the lawsuit could be worth over $1.2 million, although the document notes the couple are seeking "in excess of $15,000" in damages.