One of the hazards of the blogging trade, especially when the purview pertains to breaking/crime news, is to throw up an item that contains an egregious typo or flippant error of judgment. Despite a writer’s best efforts, it’s only after the item publishes that the transgression becomes apparent.

Such was the case Friday with OC Weekly staff writer Matt Coker. When his headline for a post about Anaheim police investigating the incendiary death of a 21-year-old Cypress College student caused outrage, he offered to permanently replace it with the best reader suggestion. And so, instead of “Burning Man Festival Comes to California,” the article now appears under the banner “Winning Headline: Asshole Writes a Shitty Half-Assed Story about a Tragic Homicide“.

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OC Weekly journalist Matt Coker has been named in a $75 million libel lawsuit against the paper by former Orange County congressional candidate Delecia Ann Holt. Holt, incidentally, is serving an 80-month prison sentence on a barrage of felony charges.

From the Weekly:

Holt, a self-styled “Republican with a heart” who is presently an inmate of the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, claims in a handwritten complaint that a series of 2009/2010 Coker news articles about her on the Weekly’s Navel Gazing blog, “defamed, libeled, invaded plaintiff’s privacy, caused the plaintiff emotional distress and physical distress . . . as well as put the physical well being and life of the plaintiff, her child and her other family members in danger of retaliation by other people . . .”

Though her lawsuit does not detail any alleged falsehoods, Holt also accused Coker and the Weekly of being negligent and sadistic because they published “falsehoods” that prompted commenters to leave “malicious and aggressive” responses attached to the reports.

The Weekly‘s lawyer Steve Suskin doesn’t think much of her suit, telling the paper, “Raw indignation is a poor substitute for actual merit in defamation litigation.”

The Conrad Murray documentary Michael Jackson and the Doctor: A Fatal Friendship is set to air tonight on MSNBC. Murray was allegedly paid $300,000 by NBCU to appear in the film. According to Radar Online, none of that money will go to Murray himself. Most of it is for his lawyers and some will go to his girlfriend. That deal, however, isn’t sitting well with Murray’s creditors. A company called Digirad Imaging Solutions is now suing Murray, MSNBC, NBCU and several other media companies, to get a hold of more than $147,000 it says it’s owed by Murray.

OC Weekly‘s Matt Coker has the story:

Filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Timothy Aires of the Aires Law Firm on Newport Center Drive, the suit also seeks court costs, attorney fees and interest of $40.48 compounding daily on the original $147,085.

MSNBC Cable LLC, NBCUniversal Media LLC, October Films LLC, October Films, What’s It All About? Productions, Zodiak Media Group Ltd. and Zodiak Media Group PLC are being used as “mere subterfuges employed by defendant Conrad Robert Murray to escape liability for his debts and obligations, including the judgment,” reads the Digirad complaint.

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The OC Weekly pulled in 11 Orange County Press Club honors at the recent awards dinner in Irvine. Not only did they take most of the big categories, including Best Feature and Best News Story, in what may be a first, OC Weekly writer Stacy Davies managed to tie…herself for first place in the Best Art or Culture category. Both Davies’ pieces “‘Art Shack’-ing Up” and “Laurie Hassold’s Creepy Crawlies” were named the winners.

OC Press Club vice president Kedric Francis told those in attendance at the ceremony that the accomplishment was unprecedented in club history.

Davies must have clearly been rubbing her victory in her colleague Matt Coker‘s face–who only managed to win first and a third place in the Best Music or Entertainment category.