From Judge Mia Roberts Perez's opinion Monday in Monge v. Univ. of Penn.:
Dr. Janet Monge, an anthropologist and former curator of Penn Museum, brings this action against several individuals and news outlets following statements they made concerning her work with human bone fragments recovered from the 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia….
Hyperallergic Media ("Hyperallergic") is a New York corporation that operates an online arts and current events magazine. On October 31, 2021, Hyperallergic published an article titled "How the Possession of Human Remains Led to a Public Reckoning at the Penn Museum." …. Dr. Monge contends that the article "falsely blames [her] for a racially motivated investigation of the bone fragments" by stating that "Consuella [sic] did not consent to Monge's continued use of her daughter's remains for research. Even after those objections, Monge used Tree Africa's remains for teaching." …
"[C]ourts applying Pennsylvania law have found that even where the complained-of statements are literally true, if, when viewed in toto, the accurate statements create a false implication, the speaker may be liable for creating a defamatory implication." As such, "the literal accuracy of separate statements will not render a communication true where the implication of the communication as a whole was false." …
Dr. Monge alleges that she "sought to contact the MOVE family"—specifically, Katricia (Tree) Africa's mother, Consuewella Africa—for a DNA sample to assist in identifying the remains. "Despite multiple efforts to communicate with Consuella [sic] … Dr. Monge failed to retrieve a DNA sample from any of Katricia's relatives." Without a DNA sample, "Dr. Monge was forced to label the case 'cold' …."
Dr. Monge further alleges that, after attempting to contact the MOVE family, she used the bone fragment remains in her Coursera course to "compar[e] those fragments to other similar bone fragments and models for comparison and explain[] how forensic techniques could be used to determine the age of the remains." Thus, it is literally true that Dr. Monge did not obtain Consuewella Africa's consent to use the bone fragment remains for research, and Dr. Monge then used the bone fragment remains when teaching her Coursera course.
