Judge orders Badiu to pay most attorney fees in defamation case

A Summit County judge has turned Bogdan Badiu’s failed defamation case into a costly legal bill, ordering him to pay nearly all of The Park Record’s attorney fees after throwing out the suit with prejudice.

Judge Matthew Bates dismissed Badiu’s claims against The Park Record on Jan. 23, 2026, then later awarded the newspaper its fees in May 2026. The ruling means the Park City tennis coach cannot refile the case, and it leaves him responsible for much of the cost of defending a lawsuit that targeted one of Summit County’s main news outlets.

Badiu, who is from Romania and had worked as a tennis instructor in Park City, filed the defamation suit in July 2025 against The Park Record, KPCW and TownLift. His complaint sought damages, an injunction to stop continued publication of the allegations, a jury trial and recovery of his own costs and attorney fees.

The lawsuit grew out of criminal accusations that dated back to July 23, 2024, when Park City Police arrested Badiu on 10 counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor. Third District Judge Richard Mrazik later dismissed those charges with prejudice in November 2024. Prosecutors had sought dismissal after the defense said the images involved Badiu’s young child and reflected a different cultural understanding of nudity.

KPCW reported that Bates said The Park Record’s reporting was protected by Utah law because it was based on court documents. That legal finding was central to the outcome, and it helped set up the later fee award under Utah Code 78B-5-825, which allows courts to award reasonable attorney fees to a prevailing party when a civil action is frivolous or lacks a reasonable basis in law or fact and is brought to harass, delay, increase costs or abuse the judicial process.

The case narrowed over time. KPCW and Badiu agreed in November 2025 to dismiss the claims involving KPCW, with each side covering its own attorney fees. TownLift claims were dismissed by Feb. 5, 2026.

The Park Record said Badiu lost jobs in Utah and Florida, and his lawyer said the criminal case upended his life, including restrictions on seeing his daughter while the case was pending. Badiu’s suit argued that the outlets left damaging coverage online and that anyone searching his name would still encounter the allegations. The Park Record also noted that its article about the criminal charges was updated on Nov. 13, 2024, after the charges were dropped.

For Summit County readers, the fee award sends a clear warning: a defamation case aimed at local reporting can end not only in dismissal, but in a court-ordered bill that makes the loss much more expensive.