Add The New York Post on Google The friends of tragic teen Nolan Wells ripped into “The View” co-host Sonny Hostin, blasting the lefty broadcaster as a “moronic” and “toxic” liar — as they threatened to sue her for defamation.
Lawyers representing three of Wells’ friends wrote to Hostin Wednesday demanding she retract, delete and apologize within 10 days for defamatory comments they say she made –– or face legal consequences.
“Your brand of ‘journalism’ is no Sunny Delight: rather, your ‘brand’ is toxic, moronic, and daft,” attorneys Edward Andrew Paltzik and J. Tyler Cox wrote in the blistering pre-suit demand letter seen by The Post.
“We now understand why, instead of seeking justice, you now work for The View, a show that long betrayed any semblance of fairness, reason, or common sense,” they added.
Paltzik and Cox represent Warren Hudson, Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour, three pals who were with Wells on Horn Island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast before he went missing during a July 4 boating trip.
The college football player, 18, was found dead on the shoreline two days later, prompting questions from Wells’ parents and online amateur sleuths about why his friends left him behind and were allegedly in possession of his phone and keys.
Authorities have said they believe Wells drowned and do not suspect foul play, while official autopsy results have still not been made public over two months on.
Paltzik and Cox took aim at former federal prosecutor Hostin, 57, over comments she allegedly made about the case on The View’s “Behind the Table” podcast on July 13 and on a segment about the Wells case aired on The View the following day.
According to the pre-suit letter, she referred to “a lot of inconsistencies” regarding Wells’ cell phone and “social media profiles being erased,” an apparent reference to claims that Snapchat messages may have been deleted from Wells’ phone.
Hostin said she found it “extremely odd” that “the three boys he went on the boat with” had not faced separate interviews at the police department, adding, “I don’t know that that’s happened here, and that is shocking to me,” according to the letter.
In the segment which aired on “The View” the following day, Hostin allegedly said that there were “some racial undertones” to the case and that Wells “was the only black kid on an island full of kids that were white,” according to the letter.
She was also said to have claimed “three boys with him that were good friends with him” had “kept his phone and didn’t give it to his parents.”
Contrary to those claims, Paltzik and Cox denied that their clients ever touched or had “actual possession of Nolan’s phone,” which they said had been brought back to land by the wider group of friends and kept safe in another pal’s truck.
The lawyers said of their three clients that “at no time did they alter, delete, modify, or erase any data or information on Nolan’s phone” and claimed that the phone was returned to a friend of Wells’ family “without incident or delay” by a female friend.
They claimed that Hudson, Pitalo and Seymour had, in fact, traveled to the island on different boats from Nolan and had never been alone with him there.
They also denied that Wells was “the only black kid on an island full of kids that were white,” and claimed that their clients had “repeatedly cooperated with law enforcement and turned their phones in for inspection long ago.”
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The lawyers described Hostin’s comments as “allegations of murder, hindering prosecution, and tampering with physical evidence,” adding that they have “no basis in evidence or reality.”
“It is hard to fathom the pure negligence and recklessness you have shown through your multiple interviews regarding these young men and the tragic death of their friend, Nolan Wells,” their letter stated.
“Your unwillingness to research the most basic facts surrounding the incident before commenting publicly is downright baffling.
“Moreover, as a former prosecutor, you of all people should know the importance of ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ You swore an oath with that principle in mind.”
The lawyers also blasted Hostin for allegedly having a conflict of interest in covering the case due to her “extremely close personal relationship” with Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney representing Wells’ family.
They claimed that Hostin was “starstruck” by Crump and admitted on air that her daughter Paloma was interning with him this summer.
“It is abundantly clear that you were not acting as an objective journalist when you defamed Warren, Jax, and Morgan, but rather, you were acting as a mouthpiece for Mr. Crump,” Paltzik and Cox wrote. “This is unacceptable.”
Last month, the lawyers sent a separate pre-suit demand letter to the Reverend Al Sharpton, who has publicly supported the Wells family and officiated Wells’ funeral in his hometown of Ocean Springs on Jul. 20.
Sharpton has denied defaming or accusing Hudson, Pitalo and Seymour of any crime and insisted that he has been asking questions at the center of the investigation into Wells’ death, CNN reported.
The Post reached out to a rep for Hostin for comment.
