Judge refuses to dismiss Grace suit

A federal judge in Florida has refused to dismiss a lawsuit that claims CNN’s Nancy Grace pushed the mother of a missing toddler to suicide through aggressive questioning.

CNN and Grace argued that the wrongful death lawsuit brought by Melinda Duckett’s family would “severely chill” journalists’ coverage of missing-persons cases. But U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges on Thursday denied their motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Duckett, 21, was on Grace’s show after her son Trenton went missing from her apartment in August 2006. Grace grilled the woman, accusing her of hiding something because Duckett did not take a polygraph test and answered vaguely regarding her whereabouts.

Duckett fatally shot herself before the network aired the taped interview.