Tarrant County Woman Takes The Beat's Rickey Smiley to Federal Court Over Prank Call

Morning-show hosts, beware: Lucy Rose does not take a prank call lying down. (Well, she might -- I wasn't there when she answered the phone ... hi-yo!) But, seriously. Yesterday, Rose had her attorney go down to the federal courthouse in Fort Worth and file this 11-page suit against one...

By Robert Wilonsky

April 21, 2009

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "18855504",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17105533",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105532",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105535",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

Morning-show hosts, beware: Lucy Rose does not take a prank call lying down. (Well, she might -- I wasn't there when she answered the phone ... hi-yo!) But, seriously. Yesterday, Rose had her attorney go down to the federal courthouse in Fort Worth and file this 11-page suit against one Rickey Smiley, morning-show chatter on KBFB-FM (97.9, The Beat) and someone for whom the prank call appears to be serious business, judging by the copious amounts of chains being yanked all up and down YouTube.

Not sure to which prank call Rose is referring in her suit -- there's something about a "Llama Call," don't even want to know -- but she says Smiley rebroadcast it without her permission in January '09, a year after it was originally made. The suit names the station as a defendant and alleges that Smiley told Rose he wouldn't air the call again without her OK. The suit also claims the call caused Rose "serious physical and emotional harm," and among the myriad things she wants is the "loss of earnings in the past." I wonder if she knows Fat Joe left Atlantic.

Become A Member

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Dallas Observer has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.