"Ms. Cornwell is a bestselling crime novelist whose ability to write is dependent upon the ability to avoid distractions," the lawsuit contends. "A quiet, uninterrupted environment, free of the distractions of managing her business and her assets, was essential to her ability to write and to meet her deadlines. Further, Ms. Cornwell openly acknowledges her diagnosis with a mood disorder known as bipolar disorder, which, although controlled without medication, has contributed to her belief that it is prudent for her to employ others to manage her business affairs."

Cornwell's lawyer told me she ruefully recalls a conversation she had several years ago with Oprah Winfrey, when both found themselves sitting together on a dais. "They were chatting about various things, and Patricia was inquiring about Oprah’s business practices. And Oprah said to Patricia, 'I have one guiding principle: Always sign your own checks.' Patricia says she wished she had lived by that advice. She will from now on."

Judge Norman K. Moon ordered Leslie R. Sachs to cease spreading 45 specific lies about Cornwell as he issued a permanent injunction. The statements were "calculated to expose plaintiff to public contempt or ridicule," said Moon.

Cornwell has tried to ignore Sachs, but sued him for libel when the Internet attacks accelerated. "I'm trying to keep a cap on my anger," Cornwell told the Boston Globe, "because anger makes you sick, and I don't let myself get hateful because that just poisons you. But when a schoolyard bully punches me in the nose, I'm going to have to hit back."

Sachs first accused Cornwell of plagiarism back in 2000 when he claimed his self-published book The Virginia Ghost Murders was a basis for Cornwells The Last Precinct. A libel suit ensued and the judge ordered Sachs to remove a sticker that proclaimed "the must-read gothic mystery that preceded Patricia Cornwell's newest best seller." Sachs was also ordered to stop using Cornwell's name in promoting his book. Sachs, who claims he is a "political refugee," purportedly moved to Europe in 2004 to escape Cornwell's legal actions.

Cornwell wants the court to enforce an injunction issued in 2000 against Leslie R. Sachs and seeks a broader ban to prevent Sachs from further writing negatively about Cornwell on Web sites or allowing such statements to remain on those sites. She also seeks unspecified financial compensation for defamatory postings since Aug. 14, 2000.

In an e-mail response to Cornwell's attorneys, Sachs called the lawsuit "hilarious." Sachs, whose last known U.S. residence is listed in court documents as Woodbridge, Va., called himself a "political refugee" who moved to Europe in 2004 to escape Cornwell's legal actions. A hearing in the case is scheduled for May 22 in U.S. District Court in Richmond. The injunction in 2000 stemmed from Sachs' book, "The Virginia Ghost Murders," a mystery published in 1998 about a modern-day sleuth who becomes involved in solving a Civil War-era murder. Claiming that Cornwell was about to publish a novel ripping off the plotline from his book, Sachs placed on the cover of his book: "The MUST-READ gothic mystery that preceded PATRICIA CORNWELL'S newest best-seller!"

Cornwell's complaint, filed in late April, claims that Sachs refused several requests to remove the Cornwell reference on his book and to stop making such statements about Cornwell, a former Richmond resident who now lives in Massachusetts. Sachs also published claims on two Web sites that the plot of Cornwell's 2000 book, "The Last Precinct," mimics that of his book, and put stickers on about 350 copies of "The Virginia Ghost Murders" claiming that Cornwell threatened to destroy his book. "The Last Precinct" involves Virginia's fictional medical examiner Kay Scarpetta being tapped to solve the violent slaying of one of America's first settlers at Jamestown in the 1600s.

The successful US author has spent years and a considerable amount of money trying to establish the murderer's identity. In her 2002 book -- Portrait of a Killer, Jack the Ripper: Case Closed -- she purports to have "exposed" the 19th century killer as artist Walter Sickert.

Her theories have been questioned by Ripper experts, including American Stephen Ryder, who describes her claims as "largely inaccurate." Authors of books on Sickert, such as Richard Shone and Matthew Sturgis, also reject her allegations. In full-page advertisements thought to cost more than $20,000 each in The Independent and The Guardian, Cornwell challenged her critics to prove her wrong.

"My ongoing investigation is far from an obsession, but an excellent opportunity to provide a platform for applying modern science to a very old, highly visible case in the hope that we might learn something that could help solve modern crimes," Cornwell wrote in the ads, published in The Independent and The Guardian.