Homophobic blogger Douglas Handshoe loses attempt to get a court to censor free speech about him

Homophobic Mississippi blogger Douglas Handshoe's campaign of endless litigation aimed at chilling free speech about him has hit another brick wall as U.S. district court judge Keith Starrett has dismissed Handshoe's lawsuit against the Toronto Star and one of its investigative reporters.  In addition the court has recently dismissed lawsuit allegations Handshoe made against Loyola University, civil rights attorney Daniel Abel, and process server Chris Yount in a seperate legal action (update coming up).

Handshoe sued the Star and the Halifax Chronicle-Herald newspapers in March, 2015, for referring to him as homophobic, claiming the statements were defamatory despite the fact that his homophobia was enshrined in published court decisions about him.

"Nova Scotia couple wins copyright lawsuit against homophobic U.S. blogger" was the title of the article in question, written by Peter Edwards.

Now, it seems, the article will remain in publication, as it has since February, 2014, when it was first published. Handshoe's lawsuit against Nova Scotia's largest daily, the Chronicle-Herald, was also dismissed, with no retraction from that newspaper.

There was no doubt that in February, 2014, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court found Handshoe, an accountant, to have published homophobic material about the Canadian gay couple. Justice Kevin Coady reiterated the findings of a previous court decision about Handshoe: "The statements also contained anti-gay rhetoric and homophobic comments." As the Justice found:

The following is but a taste of the defamation plead: Mr. Handshoe has continued to repeatedly publish words referring to the personal plaintiffs as "girls", "bitches", "bottom boys", "wives", "perverted" and "queer fag scum."

Judge Starrett in Mississippi federal court found that Handshoe's lawsuit against Canada's largest-circulation newspaper did not accord with the U.S. Constitution:

Though Mississippi is mentioned in the article, it is mentioned only in-so-much as it identifies where Plaintiff resides and conducts his blogging, which is the conduct on which the Canadian lawsuit is based. Instead of focusing on Plaintiff’s Mississippi activities, the article focuses predominantly on the lawsuit those activities inspired in Canada and the decision of the Canadian court.

Because the subject of the article is the Canadian lawsuit, the targeted audience was Canadian readers, and no Mississippi sources other than Plaintiff himself were used, the Court finds that the focal point of the article was Canada, not Mississippi. As such, the Court cannot exercise personal jurisdiction over Defendants under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

In another lawsuit before the same federal judge, Handshoe also recently had his conspiratorial allegations against Loyola University of New Orleans and its legal clinic dismissed as well. The blogger's campaign of pointless litigation in Mississippi aims to stop free speech about him and his actions on his blog "Slabbed," precisely the kind of civil rights that he endlessly proclaims for himself in justifying his online commentary on others. What's good for the gander is not good for the goose in Handshoe's case. The hypocrisy in his recent lawsuits in his home state is readily apparent.

Homophobic blogger Douglas Handshoe: "Bashing can be beautiful for its own sake."

Doug K. Handshoe, copyright violator 

Douglas K. Handshoe, is a Mississippi accountant and blogger who has targeted Charles Leary, Vaughn Perret, and their Nova Scotia business Trout Point Lodge for years. He has said he's "not homophobic at all."

On Friday, February 14, 2014, Justice Kevin Coady of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Canada, released his decision on Trout Point Lodge et. al. versus Douglas Handshoe. The Nova Scotia Courts then published the eighteen pages of well-articulated reasons at http://www.courts.ns.ca/decisions_recent/documents/2014nssc62.pdf. The judge summarized some of Douglas' publications about his legal opponents:

Handshoe seems to have completely embraced his fervent anti-gay sentiments, and put out on Twitter last month the statement that "bashing can be beautiful for its own sake" while discussing gay donors backing of Mississippi political candidates.

Indeed, even the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals referred to Handshoe's anti-gay invectives as "grotesque" and "reprehensible."

Back in April of last year, Doug wrote about how he's actually the victim of "harassment" from Canada. Huh? He also made sure everyone knew that he would teach those Nova Scotia judges a thing or two, because they've been "beclowned."

I guess you did some educating, right Doug? An additional $390,000 worth! You really taught those Canadian judges a lesson!

Looking at the Valentine's Day decision, it seems like Mr. Handshoe dealt with more than one Nova Scotia judge, and that he actually appeared and defended. No technical default this time. Oh yeah, and now Douglas is on the line for infringing copyright, not just defamation. Unless something has suddenly changed, the SPEECH Act doesn't block copyright judgments, Mr. Doug. In fact, looks like Canada-U.S. treaties mean that each country's copyrights get national treatment. Uh oh.

Trout Point Lodge pointed out on its blog that one of the sponsors of the SPEECH Act, U.S. Senator Leahy, has written about how important copyright is to "free speech." Imagine that. In a speech to the Media Institute, Leahy said:

Our Constitution is the source of another example – the protection of intellectual property.  The only place in the Constitution as initially ratified that specifically mentions a “right” is in the intellectual property clause, which authorizes Congress to provide authors with the exclusive right to their works. 

Copyright protection is not inconsistent with free speech.  It actively advances the goals of the First Amendment by supplying the economic incentive to create and disseminate ideas.  Justice O’Connor famously wrote that copyright law is the very “engine of free expression."

The opposite is also true.  Allowing unfettered theft of copyrighted works, whether online or in the physical world, is a disincentive to speech.  This is most often thought of as a problem for the music or movie industries.  But the news organizations represented here also know that if their work cannot be protected and monetized, they have to cut reporters and editors, and our democracy suffers from fewer sources of quality news reporting and ideas as a result. 

I will continue to promote the Internet but also want to protect the rights of creators in their works, so that there is more expression available for all of us to consider and consume.  This protection for copyrighted works must exist in both the physical and the digital worlds.

Other voices on Douglas K. Handshoe of Mississippi

• "what a judge calls an “outrageous and highly reprehensible” homophobic Internet smear campaign from a Mississippi blogger." Toronto Star
• "online attacks are relentless, nasty and homophobic" MSN Canada News 
•  "A Mississippi blogger owes the owners of a Nova Scotia fishing lodge almost a million dollars after targeting them online in a homophobic smear campaign that tied them inexplicably to a corruption scandal." Daily Brew, Yahoo! Canada News
• "the principals behind Trout Point Lodge in Yarmouth County have won a defamation case against an anti-homosexual blogger in Mississippi involved in “a misguided attempt to destroy” the businessmen and their East Kemptville inn." Halifax Chronicle-Herald
• "reprehensible homophobic comments" "grotesque" Judge Walker-Elrod, U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal

Examples of hate speech published by Douglas Handshoe on Slabbed.

Federal court says "no" to International Cyber Bully: Appeal not frivolous

Homophobic Blogger Douglas Handshoe

Today Mr. Doug Handshoe is spouting lies again, this time referring to "the frivolous appeal . . . . pending before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals." Yet for some reason, when a Mississippi federal district court filed its decision February 25, 2013, flatly denying the Slabbed blog publisher's motion for a whopping $60,000.00 "appeal bond," it did not end up published on Slabbed.  

Mr. Handshoe's usual dispatch in publishing court documents had vanished. In fact, some web site in Nova Scotia had to break the news. Wonder why? Slabbed blog publisher Handshoe and his attorney had been unequivocal about their money victory:

"This has been a hard fought and significant victory; but, it is not over, as they will now owe you for your attorney’s fees under the SPEECH Act, and they have submitted to the Court’s jurisdiction." Handshoe attorney Jack "Bobby" Truitt, December 19, 2012 

---

". . . .  a litigation instigating loser pays the fees. . . .  Perret and Leary landed themselves in the position of paying for my excellent lawyer, Bobby Truitt. (Thanks guys)  The bottom line is the federal court system has very efficient ways of dealing with frivolous litigation designed to “sue” a journalist “into bankruptcy”."

. . . . .

"As I understand it the court will require the bond before the appeal can move forward. As I understand it my lawyer intends to enroll the award in every foreign jurisdiction these nuts job have property located plus here in the US.
Jr if not for other people’s money Perret would be in a white coat working for Pip Brennan."

As I understand it the court will require the bond before the appeal can move forward. As I understand it my lawyer intends to enroll the award in every foreign jurisdiction these nuts job have property located plus here in the US.
Jr if not for other people’s money Perret would be in a white coat working for Pip Brennan.
- See more at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KrrLI9s5oIIJ:www.slabbed.org/2012/12/28/reality-check-time-for-trout-point-lodge-a-eco-libel-tourism-update/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=de&client=firefox-a#sthash.NnxuhKKC.dpuf

As I understand it the court will require the bond before the appeal can move forward. As I understand it my lawyer intends to enroll the award in every foreign jurisdiction these nuts job have property located plus here in the US.
Jr if not for other people’s money Perret would be in a white coat working for Pip Brennan.
- See more at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KrrLI9s5oIIJ:www.slabbed.org/2012/12/28/reality-check-time-for-trout-point-lodge-a-eco-libel-tourism-update/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=de&client=firefox-a#sthash.NnxuhKKC.dpuf

As I understand it the court will require the bond before the appeal can move forward. As I understand it my lawyer intends to enroll the award in every foreign jurisdiction these nuts job have property located plus here in the US.
Jr if not for other people’s money Perret would be in a white coat working for Pip Brennan.
- See more at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KrrLI9s5oIIJ:www.slabbed.org/2012/12/28/reality-check-time-for-trout-point-lodge-a-eco-libel-tourism-update/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=de&client=firefox-a#sthash.NnxuhKKC.dpuf

Doug Handshoe, December 28, 2012. 

As I understand it the court will require the bond before the appeal can move forward. As I understand it my lawyer intends to enroll the award in every foreign jurisdiction these nuts job have property located plus here in the US.
Jr if not for other people’s money Perret would be in a white coat working for Pip Brennan.
- See more at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KrrLI9s5oIIJ:www.slabbed.org/2012/12/28/reality-check-time-for-trout-point-lodge-a-eco-libel-tourism-update/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=de&client=firefox-a#sthash.NnxuhKKC.dpuf

Not only did the judge not award any attorney's fees whatsoever, he also awarded no costs--either for the proceeding before him or for the appeal perfected by the Plaintiffs. In fact, Mr. Handshoe had apparently counted his hens before they hatched, promising to pay lawyers for his defense against defamation claims against him in federal district court in Louisiana with monies from his assumed appeal bond victory:

Slabbed New Media is accepting auditions for the fabled legal team

Folks I am spreading the wealth on my travails with the Aaron Broussard’s henchmen as recently laid out on these pages.

Hasn't anyone told Mr. Doug that he should never assume? Mr. Truitt also had more things to say on Twitter, before the decision:

The Handshoe/Truitt motion did not stop the appeal from moving forward. In addition, the decision  made clear that the Chief District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi did not find the appeal by Charles Leary, Vaughn Perret, and their business Trout Point Lodge to be "frivolous litigation." So much for enrolling "the award in every foreign jurisdiction these nuts job have property." So much for what Mr. Doug "understood." Should Mr. Truitt really be publicly calling Leary & Perret, his client's legal opponents, "cowards"???


Here's key parts of the decision it seems Handshoe would rather that no one see:

ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO REQUIRE COST BOND FOR APPEAL

BEFORE THE COURT is the Defendant Douglas K. Handshoe’s [38] Motion to Require Cost Bond for Appeal Filed by Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs Trout Point Lodge Limited, Vaughn Perret, and Charles  Leary have filed a response, and Defendant Handshoe has filed a reply. The Court finds that the Motion is not well-taken and should be denied.

. . . . .
Handshoe has not provided any documentation or other evidence of his costs in support of his request for a bond in the amount of $60,000.00.

. . . Handshoe argues that attorney’s fees incurred on appeal are not prohibited from inclusion in a Rule 7 bond, but as noted above, the Fifth Circuit has not determined that attorney’s fees should be included in such an order. In any event, Handshoe has not convinced the Court that it should exercise its discretion to order a bond in this case. The Court’s Order on summary judgment involved a matter of first impression for this Court, and there is no suggestion that the appeal was frivolous. . . . Because Handshoe has neither provided support for the amount of security he requests, nor convinced the Court that attorney’s fees are included in Rule 7 “costs,” the Motion will be denied.

In fact, the federal judge never gave Mr. Doug attorney's fees in his original decision. Nor did he ever say that the Nova Scotia judgment against Handshoe was "repugnant." He never called Leary & Perret "libel terrorists" or even libel "tourists." He never criticized the Nova Scotia judge, either. You might think differently reading the homophobic blog "Slabbed."

Mr. Handshoe had crowed: 

Judge Guirola found both the money judgment and Hood’s injunction repugnant to the constitution of the United States  under the SPEECH Act but Perret and Leary are in full tilt damage control mode after Guirola’s decision.  I’d submit Perret, a self proclaimed Park Avenue lawyer is fooling only himself, beclowning himself in the process.

And:

. . . sophomoric antics work up in Nova Scotia, in fact I was counting on it when I termed NS Justice Hood a twit back in the day. The accompanying loss of professionalism on her part was duly noticed and noted by Judge Guirola in his decision.

The appeal to the 5th Circuit Appeal Court is proceeding, according to PACER.The decision was even published, curiously unlike the one denying the Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment.