PITTSBURGH – A man shamed publicly for hitting young geese with his car says he was trying to avoid hitting the big one and never saw the little ones.
Eric Cassidy was surprised to find himself the subject of a social-media video titled “Man intentionally runs into gaggle of geese one dies instantly.” He is suing the poster, Diane Bandy, for slander in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.
Cassidy, a high-school wrestling coach, said he voluntarily went to the McCandless Police Department, which found the incident an accident. But the online hate continued, and Bandy called him a “predator who killed the babies.”
Co-defendant Frances Kelley called him a “psychopath” and contacted the North Allegheny Board of School Directors, the suit says. She encouraged others to do the same.
“As a result, Plaintiff suffered damage to his reputation and standing in the community, personal humiliation, fear for his and his daughter’s safety, and physical and mental anguish,” the suit says.
It was 9 p.m. on May 25 when Cassidy noticed a white goose in his lane. He avoided striking it and slowed down to make sure it was OK, his suit says.
But he had hit goslings that he says he couldn’t see. Bandy had been filming the geese when the accident happened.
She posted it to the McCandless Township Open Discussion Facebook page, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Pittsburgh’s CBS affiliate even interviewed Bandy, who said Cassidy committed a “cruel, sadistic and malicious act” and that she heard him rev his car.
Online comments ranged from “use him as target practice” to “I’d like to run him over.” Direct messages provided even more hatred.
Bandy even went to his workplace with a sign that said he is a “baby goose killer.” A school board meeting in August had Bandy and Kelly speaking against him, and Bandy even put a tombstone with his name in her yard in October that read “coach, father, baby goose killer.”
Elizabeth Tuttle of the Law Offices of Joel Sansone represents Cassidy.
