Krista Stegall, who was a contestant on “Big Brother 2”, has filed a lawsuit against CBS over the criteria it used to choose contestants.
In one episode another contestant, Justin Sebik, apparently put a knife to Stegall’s throat and ask if she would be mad if he killed her. He claimed he was joking(!) but CBS kicked him off the show.
Clearly she’s got a good civil lawsuit case against Sebik, but her case against CBS contains an oddity. Her lawyers maintain that since Sebik had prior arrests for assault that CBS never should have allowed him on the show. Stegall’s attorney, Clayton Burgess, told the Associated Press, “I don’t think there’s any doubt (CBS) made a huge mistake letting him in and keeping in him in.”
That certainly makes sense, but her lawyers forget to mention that this standard would also have kept Stegall herself off of the show. Stegall lied to the producer’s of the show by telling them she had never been arrested. In fact she was arrested on March 27, 2001, for simple battery after a 4 a.m. fight with her boyfriend.
The police report noted that both Stegall and the boyfriend had “physical marks” indicating that both had committed “battery on each other.”
Like Sebik, Stegall was never actually prosecuted. Stegall’s boyfriend told the prosecutor he wanted the charges dropped and the prosecutor declined to proceed with the case.
Sources:
‘Big Brother’ player sues over knife incident. The Associated Press, July 4, 2002.