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Trainer has backers in suit against Mannings By Mel Antonen, USA TODAY In a book he authored with his father in 2000, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning wrote: "If nothing else in life, I want to be true to the things I believe in, and quite simply, to what I'm all about. I know I'd better, because it seems whenever I take a false step or two I feel the consequences. Like with the 'mooning' incident that made such a stir in Knoxville before my junior year" at the University of Tennessee. According to a judge in Florida, Manning's next few paragraphs of Manning: A Father, His Sons, and a Football Legacy may literally constitute a false step. And while the legal consequences may end up being for a jury to decide, the public relations consequences may be felt quickly by Manning and his alma mater. Manning and his father, as well as their ghost author, John Underwood, and publisher, HarperCollins, were sued for defamation in May 2002 by Jamie Ann Naughright, a former Tennessee assistant trainer. She claims that Manning's characterization of her in the book as having a "vulgar mouth" is false and cost her a subsequent job. In pursuing that claim, she has challenged Manning's version of what he called "the 'mooning' incident," alleging a more offensive act occurred. She also has raised questions about the conduct of Tennessee's associate head trainer at the time, who has said he was the first to term the incident a "mooning." Court documents raise questions about Manning's veracity. In denying Manning's request for dismissal, Polk County Circuit Judge Harvey A. Kornstein wrote, in part: "Even if the plaintiff is a public figure, the evidence of record contains sufficient evidence to satisfy the court that a genuine issue of material fact exists that would allow a jury to find, by clear and convincing evidence, the existence of actual malice of the part of the defendants. ... University of Tenn. Naughright "Specifically, there is evidence of record, substantial enough to suggest that the defendants knew that the passages in question were false, or acted in reckless disregard of their falsity. There is evidence of record to suggest that there were obvious reasons to doubt the veracity of Peyton Manning's account of the incident in question. The court further finds that there is sufficient evidence to permit the conclusion that the defendants entertained serious doubts as to the truth of the passages in this case." The defendants' New York-based lawyer, Slade Metcalf, declined to comment on the ruling or whether they will appeal. Naughright's lawyer, Robert Puterbaugh of Lakeland, Fla., also declined to comment. Revered figure Manning, 27, is a son of Archie Manning, a fabled quarterback during his career at the University of Mississippi. Archie Manning played 14 NFL seasons, mostly for the New Orleans Saints, and passed for 23,911 career yards. Peyton Manning is one of the most revered college athletes in Tennessee history and on many levels has continued to be cited as an example of what is right in college sports. He stayed at Tennessee for a full four seasons when he could have left early for the NFL. He holds a list of the Volunteers career passing records and is their leader in total offense with 11,020 yards. He was an academic All-American and had a school-record 89 touchdown passes. Hundreds of children of both sexes statewide have been named Peyton. And there's a street near the Vols' Neyland Stadium named for Manning, Peyton Manning Pass. Drafted as the first overall pick by the Colts in 1998, he was an all-pro in three of his first five seasons and has become one of the NFL's most marketable and marketed players. He has endorsements with, among others, DirecTV, which features him in its ads for its NFL satellite TV package, and Gatorade. This season he has led the Colts to a 7-1 record, their best start since 1977. Naughright, from New Jersey, was the first member of her family to attend college. She enrolled at Tennessee in 1986. She did a work-study program in the intramural recreation department and graduated with a degree in exercise physiology in 1991. In 1992 she earned a master's degree in health education and a promotion from Tennessee. And in 1996 she received a doctorate in health education, also from Tennessee. She worked for the Lady Vols athletic teams, and in 1989 she was transferred to men's athletics (Tennessee maintains separate men's and women's athletic departments), where she became the first female associate trainer in Tennessee's history. At the time of the 1996 incident, she was known by her married name, Jamie Whited. Conflicting versions Manning claimed in his book that, while in the training room, in response to a track athlete who made a remark, Manning dropped his shorts to moon the athlete. "I did it thinking the trainer wasn't where she would see. ... Even when she did, it seemed like something she'd have laughed at, considering the environment, or shrugged off as harmless. Crude maybe, but harmless." Naughright and her lawyer provided a different version of events. In a court filing, her lawyer wrote that she was examining Manning to see why Manning was having pain in one of his feet and was crouched behind him when "entirely unprovoked, Peyton Manning decided to pull down his shorts and sit on Dr. Naughright's head and face." As Naughright described it in a deposition entered into the court record: "It was the gluteus maximus, the rectum, the testicles and the area in between the testicles. And all that was on my face when I pushed him up. ... To get leverage, I took my head out to push him up and off." The court record includes a letter to Manning from former Tennessee cross country runner Malcolm Saxon, who Manning said was the intended target of the mooning. Written in December 2002, the letter reads, in part: "Bro, you have tons of class, but you have shown no mercy or grace to this lady who was on her knees seeing if you had a stress fracture. ... "She was minding her own business when your book came out. Peyton, the way I see it, at this point, you are going to take a hit either way, if you settle out of court or if it goes to court. You might as well maintain some dignity and admit to what happened. ... Your celebrity doesn't mean you can treat folks that way. ... Do the right thing here." In a court filing, Naughright's lawyer says his client reported the incident within hours to the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Knoxville. According to a filing by Naughright's lawyer, Manning at first didn't call the incident a "mooning." The lawyer wrote that Manning "denied" that anything had occurred between him and Naughright. An associate trainer, Mike Rollo, was never a witness to the incident, but he got involved because he tried to intervene to help Manning come up with a story. In a deposition cited in the filing, Rollo was asked if Naughright had ever referred to the incident as mooning. "No, unfortunately, I think that tagging is with me," Rollo answered. The next question: "In other words, you were the first person to characterize it as a mooning, is that correct?" "Unfortunately." Reached by telephone Monday, Rollo referred questions to Tennessee's lawyers, who didn't return telephone calls Monday. In court documents, Naughright's lawyer wrote that after the incident with Manning, Manning taunted her by re-enacting his conduct on two occasions. The document also said that Manning called her a "bitch" during a drug test, when he snatched a pen, which he was supposed to use to sign and date the specimen, and threw it across the room. Little support Manning wrote in his book that he thought Naughright had a "vulgar mouth." In a deposition entered into the court record, Manning said he could relate one incident when he remembered an exact time and place that Naughright spoke words that were "vulgar." While four Tennessee athletes were on a trip to Charlottesville, Va., for a conference on drug education, he said Naughright asked him to accompany the athletes, whom she called "mother(expletive)." None of the athletes on the trip supported Manning's story, according to court filings by Naughright's lawyer. In an affidavit, Geno Devane, now a medical student in Miami, said that at no time during the weekend did he hear those words. "I can assure you that I would remember," he said. "I would have been very upset if that had occurred. That type of language would have been completely out of character because she was always very professional around me and other student-athletes." Eric Lane, then a teammate of Manning's, said that he couldn't recall Naughright using those words. Tying it together Naughright agreed in August 1997 to leave Tennessee as part of a settlement related in part to the 1996 incident. In the fall of 1998, she accepted a job at Florida Southern College, a United Methodist liberal arts school in Lakeland, Fla. Her first job there paid her $45,000, according to one of her court filings. In two years her work was good enough to increase her salary to $63,022, the filing said. She was the program director of the Athletic Training Educational Program and an assistant professor. According to the filing, Naughright was a highly respected program director, and her supervisor, Kathleen Benn, recommended Naughright for an "exemplary" salary increase, the highest increase in the school's promotional system. In spring 2001 Benn wrote in Naughright's evaluation: "I know that if I need anything done, Jamie will not only do what I ask but will go above and beyond my request to enhance the physical education program." Benn's evaluation was written a few weeks before Naughright returned from South Africa — where she led a group of students to study emergency medical treatments — and found an envelope addressed to "Dr. Vulgar Mouth Whited." The envelope contained excerpts from Manning's book. According to court documents, Benn had opened and read the letter and then resealed it. A semester later, according to Naughright's filing, her evaluations went from "outstanding, excellent and asset to our campus" to describing her as "demanding, hostile and vindictive." And Naughright says in court documents that the letter addressed to "Dr. Vulgar Mouth Whited," was the "turning point" that led to Florida Southern demoting her and removing her as the program director. The lawsuit said that copies of the book that pertained to Naughright were distributed around campus and at the school's athletic events.