Bogdan Badiu, 59, of Park City, says the town's three media outlets published defamatory news coverage when Summit County prosecutors charged him last summer with 10 counts of alleged sexual exploitation of a minor. Those charges were later dismissed.
The lawsuit, filed July 22 in 3rd District Court, says the media outlets repeated “false assertions about Mr. Badiu that were published or disseminated by the police.”
In July 2024, prosecutors charged Badiu with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, claiming Park City Police found pornographic images on his phone. They were referring to photos of Badiu’s young, naked child.
But in November 2024, a 3rd District judge dismissed all the charges based on evidence of different cultural understandings of nudity.
Badiu’s attorney explained his client did not consider the photos sexual. The public defender said Badiu was sharing the images with family members in his home country of Romania, who had never met the child.
During the case, Badiu was prohibited from seeing his child, and he lost his jobs in Utah and Florida. He was previously employed as a tennis instructor for Solamere in Deer Valley.
In the defamation lawsuit, Badiu claims that KPCW, The Park Record and TownLift “directly or indirectly… accused [him] of possessing” child pornography.
He also asserts Park City Police “lied” about what they found on his phone. He says he only had pictures of “his own toddler in the bath, on the beach, or in other benign situations.”
Neither the Park City Police Department nor the prosecutors who charged Badiu are named as defendants in the suit.
Badiu says he has suffered emotionally, lost his job and experienced reputational harm because of news coverage of the charges. He also says his relationships with his child and other family members have been damaged because of the articles.
He also argues it’s harmful for the news coverage of the charges to remain online, saying outlets have “[done] little to alleviate damage done from anyone searching the internet for Mr. Badiu’s name and not reading in detail.”
The lawsuit contends the three news outlets published “false or defamatory” information and intentionally or recklessly inflicted emotional distress. It asks for damages, an injunction against any more news coverage of the allegations and a jury trial.
Management from KPCW, The Park Record and TownLift declined to comment on the pending litigation.
