Gov. Arnold Can't Avoid Libel Case

British Court Rules Television Host Can Sue Over Fondling Incident

(AP)  A British appeals judge ruled Thursday that a libel case being brought by a television host who says she was groped by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will go ahead.

Sean Walsh, a Schwarzenegger spokesman, had attempted to have the case struck out, claiming that allegations brought by Anna Richardson had no chance of succeeding if they reached court.

Richardson claims the "Terminator" star fondled her breast during an interview in London in 2000 and that his staff subsequently damaged her reputation as a professional interviewer by alleging she encouraged the behavior.

She alleges she was libeled by Schwarzenegger, Walsh and Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Sheryl Main in an October 2003 article in the Los Angeles Times that also appeared on the Internet.

Lord Justice Swinton Thomas, presiding in the Court of Appeal, dismissed Walsh's attempt to stop the case, saying it wasn't yet possible to judge the case's prospect of success.

Walsh tried but failed in a lower court to stop the trial from going ahead, arguing that English courts had no jurisdiction.

Schwarzenegger has been accused by more than a dozen women of groping or sexually harassing them since the 1970s.

When allegations emerged during his 2003 election campaign, he apologized for having "behaved badly sometimes" toward women and doing some things that "were not right, which I thought were playful."

A date for the libel trial has not yet been set.