BREAKING: 2nd federal judge acts sua sponte: Judge Ozerden dismisses homophobic Mississippi blogger Douglas Handshoe's court filing

U.S. District Court Judge Halil "Sul" Ozerden, who is presiding over the conspiracy lawsuit filed by Mississippi blogger Douglas Handshoe against the National Geographic Society, the Toronto Star newspaper, and other defendants, issued an Order late yesterday striking Handshoe's latest court filing to amend his legal complaint.

THIS MATTER COMES BEFORE THE COURT sua sponte for consideration of the Second Amended Complaint for Damages, Declaratory and Injunctive Relief [22] filed by Plaintiff Douglas Handshoe on January 22, 2016, without Plaintiff first obtaining leave of Court or opposing parties’ written consent. For the reasons that follow, the Court will strike this unauthorized pleading.

Just before Judge Ozerden issued his order, lawyers for the Toronto Star had filed a motion seeking to strike the illegal Second Amended Complaint. They pointed out that Handshoe has already once been warned by a federal judge about precisely this practice of illegal amendments:

Plaintiff here should be familiar with the process of amending pleadings as he was recently admonished by a court for similar practices; see Handshoe v. Abel, No. 1;14-cv-159-KS-MTP, 2016 WL 110519, slip op. at *2 (S.D. Miss. Jan. 8, 2016) (striking Plaintiff’s amendments to add new claims and parties and warning “that the proper avenue for adding such claims and parties is through a motion for the Court’s leave or with opposing party’s written consent pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(2).”)

Indeed, within less than a month, both Judge Ozerden and Judge Starrett in the now-dismissed Handshoe v Abel case have acted on their own accord, that is "sua sponte," to prevent Handshoe from making illegal amendments to his various lawsuits. Judge Ozerden did not even reference to Tronto Star's motion in his decision. Legal observers say that district court judges acting sua sponte is very rate, and that this could indicate a pronounced shift in the way Handshoe is being viewed within the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.

That Handshoe, after being "warned" by one federal judge in the same court against amending without permission, Handshoe would two weeks later do exactly the same thing, could greatly favor Defendant Chris Yount's case that Handshoe should be considered a vexatious litigant. How long the district court judges--Kaith Starrett, Chief Judge Louis Guirola, and Judge Ozerden--will put up with Handshoe's conduct without taking action to sanction him is an open question. He currently has matters pending before all three

Yount in the Abel case is seeking sanctions against Handshoe, and the response from the inveterate blogger is due tomorrow. An exhibit filed by Yount shows that Handshoe has filed court papers against dozens of persons, including National Geographic, in the past three years.

Indeed, the table of litigation exhibit filed by Yount speaks for itself. When will the Mississippi courts stop being so accommodating to Douglas Handshoe?

 

 

 

 

Douglas K. Handshoe

Douglas K. Handshoe

Douglas K. Handshoe

Court orders deadline for homophobic Mississippi blogger to answer sanctions motion for vexatious litigation

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississipp immediately responded to a motion from Handshoe's former litigation opponent, process server Chris Yount. Within one day, Judge Keith Starrett has set a deadline by which Handshoe must answer Yount's request for sanctions against Handshoe, including possibly enjoining him from filing more lawsuits. The Mississippi blogger's case against Yount and Daniel Abel was thrown out in its entirety last week by the judge.

Yount is also asking for return of the money he had to earier pay Handshoe, reimursing him for service costs.

As an exhibit, Yount included an email he received from Handshoe on the same day the homophobic blogger entered a default against his co-defendant Abel. The default move would ultimately cause Judge Starrett to sua sponte issue orders dismissing allegations, and demanding that Handshoe show cause and amend his lawsuit so that it actually stated a proper claim. Handshoe failed on both. The email shows Handshoe threatening to sue Yount's minor son if Yount did not immediately drop his defamation lawsuit against Handshoe in Louisiana. Handshoe already owes Yount substantial attorney's fees awarded by a decision of the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal last year.

"I will be moving to incude your son . . . as a defendant in the federal court matter," Handshoe wrote to Yount on December 11, 2015, "If you do not move to dismiss the 24th JDC case by close of business Monday, I will be filing to amend this action to include" Yount's son. We will see what the federal judge makes of such a threat, which Handshoe characterized as a "settlement" offer. Suing someone's minor child unless they drop their valid lawsuit against you doesn't look like good faith to  legal observers.

Yount also filed a table he compiled of all the litigation Handshoe has started over the past couple of year, including suing the National Geographic Society for conspiracy, and earlier trying to get an injunction from the Mississippi federal court against the chief judge of New Orleans Civil District Court so that Handshoe would not have to answer discovery requests!  That table, filed as "Exhibit B" can be viewed here and is quite extraordinary.

Handshoe has sued some parties multiple times, often with seemingly overlapping claimsof conspiracy and "abuse of process" as well as misrepresentation under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. This includes gay couple Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret, who have judgments against Handshoe from Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Handshoe continues to publish homophobic comments on his blog. He had stated on his blog and in court papers that a drawing by Yount's son  showed "a young child being sodomized by a line of robots." This resulted in Yount suing him for defamation (that's not what the drawing depicted). Handshoe, in turn, sued Yount in the case that was just dismissed by Judge Starrett.

Yount also points out in his brief that Handshoe has allegedly diobeyed rules regarding compulsory counterclaims precisely designed so the amount of lawsuits is not multiplied.

Handshoe has until January 29, 2016, to respond. In his final decision in this case, Judge Starrett found Handshoe went beyond the scope of his order, and also misrepresented facts to the court. It looks like Handshoe will have a busy January! Tick tock, tick tock . . . .

Homophobic Mississippi blogger Douglas Handshoe shows "a plain misunderstanding of copyright law"; federal court dismisses more of his allegations involving "gay robots"

Douglas Handshoe CPA

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi has just dismissed the remnants of homophobic Mississippi blogger Douglas Handshoe's lawsuit against a Louisiana process server and a civil rights attorney. Since 2013, "forensic accountant" Handshoe has taken to filing lawsuits replete with conspiracy theory in addition to targetting opponents on his blog, "Slabbed" with adjudicated false criminal allegations. Handshoe has sued at least 16 persons and companies, some of them twice since May, 2013. He has also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for his purported company "Slabbed New Media." Thus far, Mississippi courts have been deferential to Handshoe's questionable legal maneuvers, in the eyes of legal commentators, much too much so. That epoch has now ended.

One of the people Handshoe sued in Mississippi is Chris Yount, a Louisiana private investigator and process server who served Handshoe with civil process, but had no connection to the unrelated lawsuits he was serving on Handshoe. In apparent retaliation for Yount simply doing his job, in early 2014 accountant Handshoe delved into the court files of Yount's divorce case in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. The Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal has summarized the relevant facts in two recent decisions:

On February 13, 2014, Mr. Handshoe published on www.slabbed.org a pornographic drawing authored by Mr. Yount's 13-year-old son that had previously been filed with the court as part of Mr. Yount's divorce proceedings in the 24th Judicial District Court. Captions and comments authored by Mr. Handshoe and Mr. Truitt underneath the drawing described its graphic nature and clearly identified the author as a minor child and the divorce proceedings in which he was involved.

Subsequent to this initial publication, the trial judge overseeing the divorce proceedings sealed parts of the record, including the pornographic drawing, and ordered the drawing removed from the internet. Notice of copyright infringement pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was sent to the webhost of www.slabbed.org, who also provided Mr. Handshoe with a copy of the trial court's order. On February 18, 2014, the blog post containing the drawing as well as the www.slabbedorg website was taken down by the webhost in response to the copyright infringement notice and violations of the webhost's terms of service. Mr. Handshoe subsequently found a new webhost, brought the website back online, and republished the posts containing the pornographic drawing. On at least two separate occasions in Februaryand March of 2014 after the evidence had been placed under seal by the court, Mr. Handshoe authored additional posts where he published the drawing together with comments that clearly identified the minor child author and his father.

Handshoe has said in court filings that the drawing in question showed a "line of gay robots" engaged in questionable conduct, although no one else has opined as to the sexual orienation of the alleged robots. Daniel Abel has alleged in court documents that Handshoe is obsessed with the sexuality of other men; such allegations have not yet been proved in a court of law.

Consequently, Yount, with Abel acting as his attorney, sued Handshoe in Louisiana for defamation and invasion of privacy, among other things. In that case, both Handshoe and his co-defendant Bobby Truitt have had their anti-SLAPP special motions to strike denied by the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal. (SLAPP stands for "strategic lawsuit against public participation").

In reaction to being sued by Yount, Handshoe filed suit against Abel and Yount in Mississippi federal court, ironically alleging they had abused court process and made knowing misrepresentations under the Copyright Act for sending the above-mentioned notice of copyright infringement.

Ultimately, for unknown reasons, Abel never responded to Handshoe's amended complaint that was allegedly mailed to him, and a few days ago Handshoe had him noted in default by the clerk of court. Handshoe then filed a motion for default. That spurred the federal court judge into action.

Within two days, on December 16, 2015, Judge Keith Starrett took steps not only on the default motion, but sua sponte on issues of jurisdiction and the failure of Handshoe to state adequate claims in his legal pleading: "the Court does not find that Plaintiff has stated a claim on which relief can be granted for his misrepresentation claim under 28 U.S.C. § 512(f)"; "Plaintiff’s claims of malicious prosecution and abuse of process for filing the appellant brief in the Louisiana action will be dismissed without prejudice, and Plaintiff’s Motion for Default Judgment will be denied as to these claims"; "because the Court has neither diversity nor supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiff’s remaining abuse of process claim, the claim will be dismissed without prejudice and default judgment will be denied as to this claim". As to the Copyright Act intentional misrepresentation claim, Judge Starret wrote:

In his Amended Complaint, Plaintiff admits that the drawing at issue was drawn and published by the minor child on whose behalf Abel and Yount are claiming a copyright. (Amended Complaint [27] at ¶¶ 14, 17.) Plaintiff alleges that there is no copyright. Section 512(f) makes liable “[a]ny person who knowingly materially misrepresents under this section . . . that material or activity is infringing.” Under Plaintiff’s theory, Abel is liable under this section because the minor child held no copyright in the drawing. This, however, is a plain misunderstanding of copyright law. Plaintiff admits that the minor child was the author of the drawing. (Amended Complaint [27] at ¶ 14.) By that fact alone, the minor child possesses a copyright in the drawing under 17 U.S.C. § 102(a)(5). Plaintiff does not allege in his complaint that his use of the drawing was authorized by either the copyright owner or law, and asserts only that a copyright does not exist. As the Court must find that a copyright does exist, Plaintiff has failed to plead a misrepresentation under § 512(f). Additionally, Plaintiff does not adequately allege the amount of damages he has suffered as a direct result of his web host relying on any misrepresentation by Abel and Yount. As such, the Court must deny Plaintiff’s Motion for Default Judgment.

The federal judge also issued an Order to Show Cause to Handshoe. He now has 21 days by which he has to remedy what look like radical defects in what is left of his wrecked lawsuit. The countdown begins, tick tock.

Order to Show Cause directed at Douglas Handshoe

Handshoe has admitted that the sexually-explicit drawing in question was authored by Chris Yount's son, and the court has found "the minor child possesses a copyright in the drawing under 17 U.S.C. § 102(a)(5)." Attorney Abel was ordered by the Louisiana family court to do whatever was necessary to have the drawing removed from publication on Slabbed. Submitting a copyright infringement notificiation certainly seems like a reasonable way to achieve what the Louisiana court ordered, and where was the "misrepresentation" Handshoe claims?

In addition, legal observers say there simply exists no "abuse of process" tort in presenting the Louisiana court order to Handshoe's web host because this constituted an extra-judicial act not involving the court system or process. Simply showing a court order to a third party is not an "abuse of process."

One has to wonder when further legal action against Handshoe for abuse of process and malicious prosecution will begin? Perhaps the citizens of Mississippi should be upset with Handshoe for wasting taxpayer dollars and clogging the local judicial systems with lawsuits that keep being dismissed?

Federal judge allows homophobic blogger & legal clown Handshoe to sue Loyola University of New Orleans after sitting on motion to dismiss

District Court Judge Keith Starrett has approved homophobic blogger & St. Stanislaus alumnus Douglas Handshoe's motion to amend his lawsuit against civil rights attorney Daniel Abel to include as defendants Loyola University of New Orleans, the associate director of its legal clinic Ramona Fernandez, a process server, and a law school student. Handshoe's allegations against the university include abuse of process and malicious prosecution.

On Friday, March 13, 2015, Handshoe actually filed his amended complaint in Starrett's Mississippi court.

Judge Starrett issued the order on March 10, 2015, in part, he stated because Mr. Abel had failed to file an opposition to Handshoe's motion to amend the legal action to include the new defendants and claims. The lawsuit was previously only based on alleged misrepresentation under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The judge also said, however, that under federal law plaintiffs are generally allowed to make a first amendment.

The purported copyright violation by Abel was for "misrepresentation" in a take down notice sent to Handshoe's web host HostGator. As the Technology & Marketing Law Blog recently stated this will be a difficult case to make out:

 To discourage abuses of the notice-and-takedown system, Congress enacted 17 USC 512(f) to create a new cause of action for sending bogus takedown notices.

512(f) was a good idea, but it has failed terribly in the field. In the 2004 Rossi case, the Ninth Circuit gutted 512(f) by requiring 512(f) plaintiffs show that a takedown notice sender lacked subjective good faith. Absent a “smoking gun” email (which, almost certainly, will be found only in discovery and only if the 512(f) case survives a motion to dismiss), it’s virtually impossible for a plaintiff to prove the absence of subjective good faith.

Mr. Abel had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on August 6, 2014. Judge Starrett never ruled on the motion until the same day he decided in favor of Handshoe; that is more than 7 months after Abel's motion was filed. Legal observers say this is an extraordinary amount of time for the judge not to rule on a motion challenging jurisdiction. Federal court rules say motions on jurisdiction supposedly have priority. By contrast, Judge Starrett ruled on Handshoe's motion to amend in less than a couple of weeks since the deadline passed for Abel to file his opposition.

Legal clown Douglas Handshoe, CPA

The legal controversy is described in Handshoe's rambling legal complaint where he appears to allege that "abuse of process" and "malicious prosecution" occurred when Loyola participated in filing an ongoing appeal to the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal of a judge's order granting Handshoe's anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) motion in a defamation suit filed on behalf of a father and his minor child. Handshoe calls the appeal brief filed by the university legal clinic "scandalous."

Remarkably, Canadian court documents show that Handshoe was admonished in 2013 by judges there while he was a defendant in a copyright infringement and defamation lawsuit precisely for filing "rude" and scandalous materials with the court. Handshoe ultimately lost in that case, and also lost an attempt to have the resulting proceeding against him removed to federal court under the SPEECH Act.

Loyola's legal clinic was appointed by the Louisians state divorce court to represent the minor child's interests. The father--a process server who has served Handshoe with lawsuits on several occasions--was involved in a divorce proceeding. In what distinctly appears like payback for having served him with legal process, Handshoe took items from the divorce court file, including a drawing by the minor child, for publication on his blog. The court record was shortly thereafter sealed apparently due to Handshoe's publications on his blog. The father and Loyola jointly filed the appeal brief.

Legal observers say it is entirely unclear if Handshoe has actually stated any facts or law in his lawsuit sufficient to constitute "abuse of process" and "malicious prosecution." In addition, such complaints are usually brought within the court where the alleged abuse and malcicious prosecution occured. The fact that an appeal is ongoing also makes Handshoe's claims before Judge Starrett appear dubious. 

This started when Handshoe and Jack "Bobby" Truitt were sued by the process server, Chris Yount, for internet defamation. Handshoe and his Covington attorney Truitt allegedly defamed Yount through innuendo published on Slabbbed that he had molested the minor child. Truitt allegedly participated in identifying Yount and his child by posting comments on Slabbed. Handshoe claims the child's drawing showed "a young child being sodomized by a line of robots." On his blog he had published that the drawing depicted a male child being sodomized. The Louisiana divorce court apparently did not agree, and any reasonable person looking at the drawing could not come to that conlusion, which appears to be motivated by what attorney Abel termed Handshoe's personal obsession with other men's sexuality. Truitt has, since Handshoe's intention to sue Loyola became public, withdrawn the Truitt Law Firm's advertising from Handshoe's web site, distancing himself from the blog. Truitt graduated from Loyola Law School.

An open question remains as to whether Handshoe will "man up"--one of his favorite phrases--and actually serve Loyola, Fernandez, and the others with the lawsuit, or if he's simply engaged in using the courts to chill speech he doesn't like.

According to the district court order, Abel is free to again file documents seeking dismissals of the lawsuit, including possibly seeking attorney's fees, which started when Abel served a takedown notice on Handshoe's web host pursuant to an order from the Louisiana court. The aim was to have the sensitive drawing removed from publication on Handshoe's blog. Allegedly, Handshoe published the drawing yet again in another blog post. Remarkably, Judge Starrett also earlier denied Abel's motion to remove the sexually-explicit image from the public court file available online. 

Abel claims he has no contacts with Mississippi. One can only wonder how Handshoe and his wife Jennifer Handshoe or any other parents would respond to having their child's drawing published prominently on the internet, let alone alongside alleged accusations about sexual molestation.

Loyola, attorney Fernandez, and the other defendants will now likely have to answer Handshoe as well. They are likely to seek dismissal on various grounds as well as fees & costs.

If the case goes forward, it will pose numerous legal questions, including the boundaries of the First Amendment and a Mississippi federal court's power to interfere in the judicial process of Louisiana state courts. Handshoe's action could be seen as an illegal collateral attack. Handshoe's motives, privacy concerns and the protection of the minor child will be important issues.

Civil rights attorney Daniel Abel prevails in Louisiana Supreme Court against "fabled Slabbed legal team," day after legal clown Doug Handshoe sues Loyola University and its legal clinic

Friday the 13th wasn't a very good day for "super lawyer" Jack Etherton Truitt and his client Douglas Handshoe. 

On February 13, the seven Justices of the Louisiana Supreme Court unanimously denied the appeal by "Bobby" Truitt of a New Orleans trial court decision that Trout Point Lodge co-owner Daniel Abel's lawsuit against Truitt, homophobic blogger Handshoe, and former Jefferson Parish Assistant Attorney Anne-Marie Vandenweghe was purportedly an anti-SLAPP suit. SLAPP stands for "strategic lawsuit against public participation." This decisively puts to rest any contention by the three defendants that Abel is suing in defamation over a matter of public interest or that he is a public figure. There is no public interest at issue in Abel's lawsuit, the trial court, the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, and now the Supreme Court have decided.

Truitt, who once ignorantly denied in a Twitter exchange with this blog that the prevailing party in a Louisiana CCP Article 971 (anti-SLAPP) motion is owed attorney's fees by the losing party, will now indeed owe Mr. Abel his fees, which could be substantial. Truitt has for some reason removed that tweet--where he also questioned where Randall Cajun went to law school--from publication.

Mr. Truitt attended law school at Loyola University in New Orleans, as did Mr. Abel.

Loyola University sued by Handshoe
The day before the Supreme Court handed down its decision, February 12, Handshoe had filed a motion to amend his Mississippi federal court lawsuit against Abel for alleged misrepresentation under the U.S. Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). The amendment asks to include as new defendants Loyola University of New Orleans, the Loyola legal clinic Associate Director Ramona Fernandez, legal student Janey Lamar, and process server Chris Yount. Handshoe alleges counts of "abuse of process" and "malicious prosecution." He goes to the extent of ironically stating that he is being "harassed" and "defamed" through legal process by the University's legal clinic and the others. He also accuses the new defendants and Abel of "cynically using a minor child that was a non-party to the litigation" to do so. There was "misuse of the legal process, incuding the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and Louisiana's defamation laws to silence reporting on a matter of public interest," Handshoe wrote in his brief for Judge Keith Starrett. 

Fernandez and the non-profit legal clinic are representing the minor child in an appeal of a trial court decision that Yount's defamation lawsuit against Handshoe and Jack Truitt was indeed an anti-SLAPP suit. Lamar is simply a law student who works at the clinic, which was appointed by court order to represent the child's interests in legal matters, including the divorce.

Unfortunately for Handshoe, the Chief Judge of New Orleans Civil District Court, the Court of Appeal, and now the Supreme Court have now said public interest is lacking with regards to Abel and Trout Point Lodge, undercutting Handshoe's conclusory allegations in Mississippi federal court. Handshoe has repeatedly referred to Abel and his associates as "SLAPP Happy Nut Jobs," an allegation now definitvely reputiated by three Louisiana courts. Handshoe will pay the consequences, but will he cease his blogging of falsehoods?

Notably, Handshoe is also now suing Yount and Abel for "abuse of process" and "malicious prosecution" in two courts at the same time, which appears far more than legally dubious. All of his legal adversaries, according to Handshoe's various legal filings, are part of a grand international conspiracy to silence his blogging, which a U.S. federal district court described in 2012 as a "campaign" to harass, damage, and embarass his targets. 

In addition, Handshoe's primary allegation that attorney Abel is guilty of "misrepresentation" under the DMCA looks like pure folly. Abel was the legal representative of the father of a minor child when a DMCA notice was served on Handshoe's web host. By law, the father was guardian of all intellectual property generated by the child, and therefore had legal standing to serve the DMCA notice regarding Handshoe's publication of the child's drawing on his web site "Slabbed." Handshoe's Mississippi brief also suggests, Abel had been ordered by the court in Louisiana to see that the drawing was removed from publication on Handshoe's web site. Handshoe claims that order was immaterial.

According to legal commentators, Abel, as the father's attorney, was fully within his rights to act as the father's agent in serving the notice; in fact, attorneys commonly draft and serve DMCA notices. In addition, over 5 months ago, Abel challenged the very jurisdiction of the Mississippi federal court over him. The judge in that case, however, has not issued any rulings since early September, 2014. 

As previously mentioned, in addition to being sued for defamation by Abel in New Orleans, Handshoe and attorney Truitt are also being sued for defamation in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana by Chris Yount, a process server and private investigator who has worked for Abel. According to Handshoe's web site and court documents, Yount served Handshoe with legal process on several occasions over the past few years. This included in two Nova Scotia Supreme Court cases where plaintiffs including Trout Point Lodge have won $817,000 in damages against Handshoe for defamation and copyright infringement. To many observers, Handshoe's publishing about Yount's child and now his lawsuit against Yount looks like payback, including using the legal system ironically in just the kind of abuse of legal process that Handshoe is now alleging against Loyola University and the others. 

There is currently an appeal pending in that case to the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, which will consider anti-SLAPP issues in Mr. Yount's case, where Ramona Fernandez represents the minor child, nearly identical to those Mr. Abel so succesfully litigated in Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans. The Supreme Court denial of Mr. Truitt's appeal could have serious positive implications for the pending Yount appeal. 

Abel's motion to compel Handshoe to answer discovery in Abel's lawsuit against him, Truitt, and Vandenweghe, will be heard next month; a hearing on attorney's fees can't be far behind.  Legal observers say Handshoe has little chance of winning, and will for the first time in all his various legal battles be subject to discocvery alongside Truitt and Vandenweghe. 

Notably, self-styled as the Gulf South's premier legal affairs blogger, Handshoe tried to have the enforcement of the Nova Scotia copyright infringement judgment against him in state court removed to the same federal court where he is suing Abel, but was miserably unsuccesful. Handshoe had argued for protection against the $180,000 judgment under the Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage (SPEECH) Act, but failed last November when Chief Judge Louis Guirola determined that enforcing the copyright order had nothing to do with defamation.

Attorney Abel served his copyright notice on Handshoe's then-web host Dream Host because Handshoe was publishing on Slabbed a sexually explicit drawing authored by the minor child. (Handshoe admits to twice making such publications in his amended suit). Dream Host apparently had enough and dropped Handshoe, who now uses HostGator. According to the allegations in Yount's suit against Handshoe and Truitt (which appear in an appeal brief filed by Fernandez), they used Slabbed not only to publish the drawing after the court file was sealed by a judge in a Louisiana divorce proceeding, they also both published text on Slabbed to create the false and defamatory innuendo that Yount was sexually molesting his child. If true, that would be defamatory per se under Louisiana law. Courts in both the United States and Canada have repeatedly found that Handshoe publishes homophobic material on Slabbed.

In his amended legal complaint, Handshoe writes that the drawing shows "a minor child being sodomized by a line of robots." The divorce court apparetly did not agree with Handshoe's conclusions, as Mr. Yount has custody of his child, and the child has serious legal representation in the form of Ms. Fernandez and Loyola University. 

More news on the "no holds barred" Handshoe/Truitt legal circus coming soon . . .

SLAPPed down redux: Doug Handshoe loses his anti-SLAPP motion . . . twice . . . a legal jackassery update

Homophobic blogger Douglas K. Handshoe, a Mississippi accountant, has not once, but twice failed to get the Chief Judge of New Orleans Civil District Court (CDC) to accept his motion purporting that civil rights attorney Daniel G. Abel's damning defamation lawsuit against him is somehow designed to prevent public discourse on a matter of public interest. These types of motions are called "anti-SLAPP" (strategic lawsuit against public participation).

Handshoe has referred to his legal adversaries repeatedly as "SLAPP Happy Nut Jobs." Now it appears the only nut job is Handshoe and his dwindling coterie of followers. 

Inspection of CDC documents reveals that Handshoe first attempted his anti-SLAPP motion in October of last year, and when the court flatly denied it, he tried again a few months later, only to have the same result confront him. How the extremely litigious Mr. Handshoe could file two motions for the same relief in the same court is unknown, but it could be deemed an abuse of the New Orleans court's process. In the same hearing, Handshoe co-defendant and former attorney Bobby Truitt attempted to quash Abel's subpoenas, and failed:

Handshoe, however, apparently thought he knew better than the court, and attempted his at this point idiotic and ill-conceived motion again a few months later. On April 25, 2014. the judge again denied Handshoe's anti-SLAPP motion.

Douglas Handshoe, CPA

Legal Jackassery at its finest!

Handshoe owes some $817,000 in Canadian court judgments to Abel's business partners Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret as well as Trout Point Lodge. An effort to collect a copyright infringement judgment against Handshoe is currently winding its way through the Mississippi court system.

Handshoe's campaign to damage and embarrass those he has chosen to target using the Internet may be entering a new chapter as Abel's lawsuit moves inevitably forward.

CDC documents also show that Abel has applied for a default judgment against Handshoe and his co-defendant Vandenweghe. The court set a hearing to confirm the default on September 3, 2014.

Handshoe, who has claimed to be the premiere legal affairs blogger in the Gulf South, apparently will have some serious lessons to learn about legal process.

Stay tuned for more Douglas Handshoe legal jackassery from the federal courts of Mississippi . . . 

Douglas Handshoe's "interest in the sexual activities of other men"

After miserably loosing his limp-wristed attempt at an anti-SLAPP motion in New Orleans Civil District Court (SLAPP stands for "strategic lawsuit against public participation"), Mississippi homophobe & blogger Douglas Handshoe has now taken to making allegations about a minor child's sex drawing he has distributed on his blog Slabbed and now (allegedly illegally) using the U.S. federal courts online PACER system.

Louisiana civil rights attorney Daniel Abel is reportedly acting as attorney for the child's father and legal guardian, who has sued Handshoe and his fellow blogger Jack Truitt for defamation in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Handshoe has in turn "dubiously" sued Abel in Mississippi federal court under the Copyright Act for allegedly misrepresenting his role as agent for the owner of copyright in the drawing. A lawyer "misrepresenting" that he's the legal agent of the father? Huh?

Anyway, in his first court filing in that latest lawsuit brought by Handshoe, the defendant Mr. Abel has drawn attention to what he alleges is Mr. Handshoe's obsession with the sexual lives of other men (and now, children):

Slabbed Nation member and financial backer Jack Truitt has already found out that courts do not favor the kind of alleged private libel that the Slabbed blog dishes out on a daily basis (Truitt lost his anti-SLAPP motion too), and Abel's tack will ensure Slabbed publisher and primary author Handshoe will soon have serious explaining to do in federal court. Why a Wiggins CPA is so interested in gay men and sex drawings found in Louisiana divorce documents raises a lot of questions about Mr. Doug (or is it Ms. Doug?).

On July 3 Abel let the federal court know exactly what he thinks of Handshoe's conduct involving exposing the minor child and his drawing to public scrutiny:

The legal brief filed by Abel speaks for itself. While asking for more time to answer Handshoe's charge of "misrepresentation," it also claims serious violations of civil procedure and criminal law by Handshoe.

Indeed, it appears to be much more serious than violating civil procedure. Douglas Handshoe has apparently made serious accusations on Slabbed related to child molestation, and also published what he himself claims is child pornography. His conspiratorial, homophobic mentality is on full display in this episode of how Slabbed crumbles.  There are laws against such actions; that Handshoe has not only allegedly used his own blog, but also illegally used the federal court's Public Access to Court Electronic Records (P.A.C.E.R.) system to distribute such materials astounds even the most jaded of legal observers.

Again, Abel's motion speaks for itself:

And now PACER shows that copyright troll/hypocrite Handshoe has yet again taken to the federal courts of Mississippi to try to stop the enforcement of a CAN $180,000 final court judgment against him for 4 kinds of copyright infringement on Slabbed and elsewhere. Apparently, his arch enemies Chalres Leary and Vaughn Perret enrolled their newest Nova Scotia money damages award against him in Mississippi state court. This was after Handshoe appeared in Canadian court, defended, filed all sorts of motions, and then when things didn't go his way, retreated back to Gulf Port. Having subjected Slabbed readers to the full extent of his engagement of the Canadian judiciary, Mr. Doug might be in trouble this time.

Seems like there's a pattern here of blogger Doug stealing the creative words and images of others, and then hurling allegations at those whom he had robbed.

Handshoe's serial copyright infringement on his blog might finally catch up with him . . . and accusing Abel of violating the Copyright Act? Really, Doug?

"Gay robots," Doug?

Mr. Abel may be on to something in Handshoe's seeming obsession with gay sex . . . 

SLAPP? Douglas Handshoe, Anne Marie Vandenweghe et. al. apparently unsuccessful in Louisiana court

Real Malice received an interesting email from an anonymous source.

Apparently the legal efforts of Douglas Handshoe, Anne Marie Vandenweghe aka Boudreaux, and others to have the Louisiana Civil District Court strike down the Daniel Abel defamation lawsuit against them did not work so well. Reports indicate Chief Judge Piper Griffin said that the Abel lawsuit was not a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation aka SLAPP. So much for SLAPP Happy Nut Jobs. She also reportedly denied the Vandenweghe claim of failure to state a claim and lack of personal jurisdiction. Real Malice cannot wait to see that Court Order. If true, this mean mandatory fees for Mr. Abel.

Not sure of all the details yet or when this happened. More information to come . . .  Why has Mr. Handshoe not mentioned this outcome on Slabbed, especially given his recent comments about the alleged bias of federal judge Suzie Morgan?

Anyone else have any details?

BREAKING NEWS on the "famed" Slabbed legal team: Blogger Handshoe's Baldwin Haspel legal team loses on motions to sanction the attorney who is suing Handshoe for defamation, more

On May 9, 2013, Doug Handshoe, CPA, was openly gleeful that federal judge Susie Morgan had issued an Order telling attorney Daniel Abel to show cause why he had issued a subpoena to Jefferson Parish regarding former Assistant Parish Attorney Anne-Marie Vandenweghe's blogging activities. Handshoe even put up a countdown clock on Slabbed, leading to the minute the hearing was scheduled to begin.

Abel was suing Handshoe and Vandenweghe for defamation in federal court. "We’re going for his license to practice in federal courts as Danny Abel has a history, habit and pattern of disobeying the Louisiana and Federal Courts," stated Handshoe. Handshoe was defended in the lawsuit by New Orleans' own Baldwin Haspel, a firm that may now be wondering what they've gotten themselves into with Handshoe, an adjudicated defamer and inveterate blogger, who will even openly and notoriously break federal court rules to continue blogging and tweeting.

A conspiracy theorist, Handshoe has for years accused Abel and his two business associates of involvement in federal crimes related to the criminal investigation, indictment, and guilty plea of former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard. All three men are gay. Broussard, in fact, was never indicted or sentenced for any crimes relating to Abel, his partners, or their businesses, including Trout Point Lodge in Nova Scotia. Abel is self-represented. Handshoe has repeatedly accused the trio of being members of organized crime, racketeering, and money laundering, among many other unfounded allegations. No one except Handshoe and Vandenweghe have made such claims, and various publications on Slabbed are fervently anti-gay and homophobic.

Judge Morgan had for months not acted on Abel's motion to remand the case to Louisiana state court after Vandenweghe revealed in her first court filing that she now resided in Harahan, Louisiana not Pass Christian, Mississippi. In the mean time, both Vandenweghe and Handshoe tried their best to have the case against them dismissed, revealing their legal strategies in extensive court filings. Last week, Judge Morgan suddenly indefinitely cancelled oral argument scheduled for Handshoe's attorneys, and denied his attempt at getting sanctions against sole practitioner Abel. That was defeat number one for well-reputed firm Baldwin Haspel, followed by a reprimand from the judge after she found out that Handshoe was tweeting and emailing from inside the courtroom during oral argument, which is against the law. He was seated at counsel's table next to his Baldwin Haspel attorneys while breaking the law. Morgan actually reconvened the hearing to advise Handshoe and his attorneys about Handshoe's rule-breaking conduct, apparently after her staff discovered the online publications.

Judge Morgan had allowed Abel to voluntarily dismiss the federal lawsuit (which had been necessitated by Vandenweghe and Handshoe both living in Mississippi) without prejudice, which meant he is free to file against them anew in Louisiana state court. Abel in fact has told the federal court he plans to sue in state court soon. 

Balwin Haspel associates Scott Sternberg and Brodie Glenn then tried to get attorney's fees from Abel by court order, even going to the extent of questioning the judge's prior ruling regarding §1927 sanctions and her decision that Abel could dismiss voluntarily without prejudice. Sternberg is an avid defender of blogger rights and access to public records, however defamation--like publicly accusing people of major crimes and corruption without any proof--is not free speech under Louisiana or United States law. The Baldwin Haspel attorneys claim that Handshoe's allegations were simply opinion or hyperbole, however anyone vaguely familiar with Slabbed would find such a suggestion laughable. Handshoe also claims to be a journalist, and points to coverage of his blog by the Times-Piacyune web site nola.com as proof.

Morgan's decision is legally significant because it means that a special motion to strike under Louisiana's anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) rules does not amount to a motion for summary judgment, at least under federal court rules. To win on such an anti-SLAPP motion, Handshoe would have had to show how Abel's private business was somehow a matter of public interest, and it cannot be so just because Handshoe said it was on Slabbed. 

It is notably ironic that both Handshoe as represented by Baldwin Haspel attorney Sternberg and a self-represented Vandenweghe were opposing Abel's attempts to get at Jefferson Parish public records, as both are prior users of public records laws and Vandenweghe was the Assistant Parish Attorney in charge of public record requests while the Broussard criminal investigation was underway by both journalists and prosecutors. Sternberg has represented two student newspaper editors in cases involving Louisiana public records laws, at Tulane and Louisiana State University.

Judge Morgan today denied Handhshoe and Vandenwege's motions for attorney's fees, blow number three for the New Orleans law firm. It's an open question as to whether Handshoe has paid the firm a cent, as the Baldwin Haspel attorneys seemed desperate to get a fee award, filing multiple briefs to Judge Morgan. The firms advertises on Slabbed's front page.

This setback echoes Handshoe's defeat in Mississippi federal court in February, where Judge Guirola denied he and his attorney Bobby Truitt's attempt to get attorney's fees in another court case where Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret were seeking to enforce a $425,000 Canadian defamation judgment against Handshoe. The federal judge unequivocally denied the motion, and said there was no suggestion that Leary & Perret's appeal to the Federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeal was frivolous.  That appeal is pending.

Final page of Judge Morgan's Order stating that Handshoe's legal argument was "inapposite"

In today's opinion, Judge Morgan noted that Handshoe filed a special motion to strike Abel's lawsuit only after Baldwin Haspel opposed the motion to move the lawsuit to state court, and refused to countenance their complaints that Abel had acted in some vexatious manner. Abel had simply amended his lawsuit once to add new allegedly defamatory statements Vandenweghe and Handshoe had allegedly published on Slabbed. He also filed a brief in Morgan's court making a strong argument unmasking Vandenweghe's multiple blogging personalities, a technique known as "sock puppetry." Interim Jefferson Parish President Steve Theriot had publicly accused Vandenweghe of blogging while a Parish employee and on Parish time. Theriot and Jefferson Parish then sued in defamation trying to get information on anonymous online identities publishing on nola.com and Slabbed. Abel has submitted Public Record Requests to Jefferson Parish relating to Vandenweghe's online activities and that prior lawsuit, which was later withdrawn. Abel stated in court filings that Jefferson Parish had indicated to him that it has documents and records responsive to his inquiries about Vandenweghe.

Abel's analysis of writings on Slabbed is similar to what was done to unmask federal prosecutors Salvadore Perricone and Jan Maselli-Mann as anonymous bloggers, a scandal still reverberating through the New Orleans U.S. Attorney's Office. The unmasking was done by Frederick Heebe, co-owner of the River Birch Landfill, and his legal team. Vandenweghe attended law school with Maselli-Mann and her former boss U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, who resigned amidst the uproar. More recently, attorneys for Waste Remediation of Plaquemines and Concrete Busters of Louisiana retracted and then dismissed allegations they had picked up from Slabbed that implicated Abel, Leary, and Perret's companies in a criminal racketeering conspiracy with Aaron Broussard and Frederick Heebe. The law firm Smith & Fawer laid blame for such false allegations squarely on Handshoe's shoulders.

The U.S. Attorney's Office called off all criminal investigation involving the River Birch Landfill contract in an unprecedented move after Perricone, Maselli-Mann, and Letten's resignations citing "evidentiary concerns." Smith & Fawer has now just dismissed with prejudice the entirety of their lawsuit on behalf of the two competing waste companies, citing the Letten's U.S. Attorney's Office as having "mislead" them with regards to its investigation. 

Today, Judge Morgan termed Baldwin Haspel's legal argument in Abel's case as "inapposite," meaning out of place or inappropriate.

Notably, Handshoe has been completely silent about his losses in Judge Morgan's courtroom, despite his glee in publishing prognostications about Abel's fate earlier in the month. 

Coming soon, more on Handshoe's questionable assertions made to courts in both the United States and Nova Scotia, where he is again being sued in Nova Scotia Supreme Court for copyright violations. 

The Slabbed Nation Part 2(a): Doug Handshoe & Anne-Marie Vandenweghe Defendants in Federal Lawsuit

The other day on Slabbed, Doug Handshoe told his audience to "stand by for an important announcement from Slabbed New Media."

Normally such semi-cryptic public proclamation means that Doug has, much to his apparent glee, encountered a new legal entanglement to make hay with.

A few hours later Mr. Handshoe did not publish a lawsuit or other primary legal filing, but a strangely self-sourced document, seemingly put together for no reason other than to fulfill anticipation for a real "document." Forensic accountant Handshoe had drafted a letter to "Dear Readers," curiously placed online as an embedded pdf rather than a simple blog post. You can see it, self-importantly named "Slabbed announcement" here.

Doug has made notable use of PACER, "Public Access to Court Electronic Records." So what better place to look for Doug's anticipated surprise to his readers, unfulfilled by his pdf letter?

Here's the result of a "Handshoe" search on PACER:

Did his attorney advise him not to admit knowledge of the lawsuit, fearing constructive notice? Or did Ms. Vandenweghe tell him to shut up? Then again, his attorney and that of Ms. Vandenweghe are one in the same, so who knows?

That phrase about the plaintiff being a "representative for all persons equally situated" would concern the most reasonable of people.

In fact, it looks like Ms. Vandenweghe has already been served:

Guess Mr. Handshoe is next.

Federal court, so . . . more to come.