malformed error message causing fatal error in contact.php

Fatal error: Cannot use string offset as an array in /var/www/civi/sites/all/modules/civicrm/CRM/Import/Parser/Contact.php on line 810

The line of code in question
$contactID = $newContact['error_message']['params'][0];

Result of print_r($newContact); directly before said line:

Array
(
[is_error] => 1
[error_message] => No valid email address
)