Bristol Palin sued for defamation (VIDEO)

GlobalPost

The man who heckled Bristol Palin in a Los Angeles bar in September 2011, is now suing the newly minted reality star for defamation. 

Stephen Hanks, a talent manager in LA, has also filed suit against the cable channel Lifetime, which included footage of the 2011 incident in Palin's upcoming reality TV show, according to Reuters. Hanks claimed he had not given the program's makers his permission to be filmed. Hanks is claiming emotional distress and invasion of privacy.

The amount of damages has not been specified but Hank's lawyer, Los Angeles-based Michael Gulden, said the suit had been filed in federal court because the plaintiff was seeking more than $75,000, Reuters reported. 

More from GlobalPost: Bristol Palin's Obama blog post causes uproar

In September, the Washington Times reported on the incident saying that during a trip to the Saddle Ranch Chop House on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, Palin rode a mechanical bull for several minutes before falling to the floor. As she fell, Hanks yelled, “Her mother is a [expletive] whore, she’s the devil.”

Palin then walked over to Hanks and asked, “What did she do wrong?” Hanks replied, “She lives, she breathes. If there was a hell … she gonna be there.”

The entire incident can be seen in this clip: 

In the lawsuit Hanks claims that Palin later told In Touch Magazine that the incident was one of the reasons she had decided to leave Los Angeles and return to her home in Wasilla, Alaska.

However, Hanks believes he can prove this to be untrue as Palin had already purchased a home in Alaska before the bar incident ever took place. 

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