Arizona Republic
A more than year-long legal dispute between California lawyer Thomas P. Riley and Phoenix restaurant owner Oscar Graham has come to an end.
Riley, a prolific attorney who often represents sports distributors, has slapped lawsuits on hundreds of Arizonans for allegedly broadcasting events, such as boxing matches and soccer games, without the right to do so.
But some defendants have accused undercover investigators, who get paid for documenting incriminating evidence, of setting them up. The investigators reportedly grabbed control of the TV remote, convinced business owners or staff to stream the event, or pursued other means, defendants told The Arizona Republic and other news organizations.
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CARLSBAD, California A city councilwoman who filed frivolous restraining orders against two local bloggers critical of her liberal politics has been ordered to pay $47,191 in attorney fees, a Superior Court judge ruled Friday.
Democrat Cori Schumacher is also facing a recall for the incident in addition to attempting to push through COVID-19 punishment measures against businesses and residents who defied California’s yearlong lockdown.
“She doesn’t understand that the public is allowed to criticize her for virtually any reason,” said Scott Talkov, attorney for blogger Noel Breem who was one of the defendants. “She thought she could silence her critics and do it by force. The court told her, No, you can’t do this. This remedy is not available to you. This will hit her hard because she doesn t make a lot as a councilmember. She only made $42,564 in 2019, according to Transparent California.”
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CARLSBAD
A Superior Court last week dismissed the restraining order a Carlsbad councilwoman obtained in September against two of her constituents whom she claimed harassed her on Facebook and other online forums.
Councilwoman Cori Schumacher obtained the order against three people, Anthony Bona, Noel Breen and Larry Posner, although Posner was released from the case in October. The three men had criticized Schumacher for her positions on a number of community issues and posted comments that she considered threatening.
“The issue here is essentially whether Bona and Breen were engaged in a course of protected political commentary (legitimate conduct) or made unprotected “true threats” constituting harassment,” wrote Judge Cynthia A. Freeland in her tentative ruling released Thursday. “The only reasonable interpretation of these posts is social commentary, not personal threats.”
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