October 17, 2025
By Barrett Seaman–
More than six years after Journal News Tax Watch columnist David McKay Wilson wrote a series of articles asserting that Jesse Lubinsky, then the Director of Technology for the Irvington Union Free School District (IUFSD), was being paid by a subsidiary of Google to promote its products at the same time he was in the employ of the school district. According to Wilson’s reporting, Lubinsky collected both a paycheck and travel expense reimbursements from Google’s EdTech while also receiving a salary as Technology Director—in effect, double dipping.
In the wake of Wilson’s stories, Lubinsky resigned from his school job, and the IUFSD Board of Education referred the case to the Westchester District Attorney. However, Lubinsky would later file a lawsuit against Wilson and the newspaper for defaming him.
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Last week, New York State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Quinones dismissed the case, concluding that Wilson’s allegations were “substantially true,” that he had not acted out of “actual malice” towards Lubinsky, and that Lubinsky, as an high-ranking administrator in a public school district, was a “public figure.” That meant that he had to meet a higher standard of proof in claiming defamation than he would have as an ordinary citizen. “[A]n individual is a public official for defamation purposes when his or her position is of such apparent importance that the general public would have an independent interest in his or her qualifications and performance,” the judge wrote in dismissing the case.
Richard Roth, Lubinsky’s attorney, disagreed. “The judge wrongfully concluded that an employee at a school district is a public figure,” he wrote in an email to The Hudson Independent. “We will be filing an appeal.”
Earlier this fall, Wilson retired from the Journal News.
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