Bizarre Legal Threat Of The Day: Confused Zoo Owner Threatens Popehat Over... Well... Just Read It
from the i-don't-think-it's-legal-help-that-he-needs dept
Almost exactly three years ago, we wrote about a ridiculous situation down in Louisiana, where the "Global Wildlife Center" was able to get a judge to issue an injunction against an obviously satirical site that had written an obviously satirical article about "killer giraffes" and a "recent attack" at the Center. The article was poking fun at recent violent attacks at other zoos, normally involving animals like tigers and bears. It was amazing that a court issued the injunction, and thankfully, less than two weeks later, the injunction was removed and GWC was told to pay the legal costs for the site. And that was the last that we had heard of the Global Wildlife Center... until now.On Friday, the Center's President apparently threatened to sue lawyer Ken White, better known as Popehat, defender of internet free speech. You see, Popehat had covered the original story too, and for some reason, the President, Ken Matherne, isn't too happy about that (even though it's three years later). Perhaps it was this tidbit in Popehat's original post (which was actually quoted from a local news site):
In addition to filing this lawsuit, via email Global Wildlife Foundation president Ken Matherne threatened to file criminal charges, FCC charges, fraud charges, an IRS complaint, a governor’s office complaint, and a federal lawsuit against Brilleaux. Matherne’s email did not explain any basis for the additional threats.If that gives you a sense of Matherne's grasp on basic legal concepts, and his willingness to assume that he can use all sorts of totally unrelated laws against people he doesn't like, well, you're just getting a tiny little sense of what Popehat went through on Friday. You kind of have to read the whole thread on Popehat to get the full effect, because each time you think "this can't possibly get more ridiculous," it does exactly that. Assuming Matherne really did send the emails in question, he would appear to have almost as much trouble with the English language as he does with the legal concepts he uses to threaten White. Here's a snippet from the first email:
My last case to decide the Apple vs Microsoft case. I am not joking – you can send this email to the judge and soon as I file suit. I will ask you as I asked that kid to take it down, if you think your malice to to our Foundation is free speech – let’s get real lawyers and hosted judges to find out! It scared teachers, parents and the general public. They were canceling trips, it was malicious, and the evidence given to court was a fraud. I did not say anything at the time. But, I think he would get dis-board by the falsified documents he presented to the judge. His father was a friend or I would have had he dis-board.There's also a discussion about Matherne's belief that White is apparently a dope smoking drug fiend who is having sexual relations with the partners at his law firm (or maybe on Popehat, it's not clear). White, quite calmly, asks Matherne if there was anything specific in the original post that he felt was a false statement of fact, and offered to review such claims and "make adjustments to the post if appropriate." Matherne's response was to just demand that the original Popehat article was taken down "or believe I will do everything for my daughter that you would do for your children !"
Everyone will see the truth of you and your boyfriends. You can print this – You do not have a clue what you did to damage my foundation I created for my daughter. And when you wake up in the morning – hoping you have kids- I want you to think about what you have done. Your site has done more damage than the issue and my guys think your damages will be worse the any free speech issue. And we are ready!
We are going to dp this all legal – get ready – I will have one of your partners, associates , friends , spouses, in dispositions for the at least the next 6 – 12 months. Minimum – 1 lawsuit lasted 12.7 years, the next only 6 . I have the means – so write me back or get ready. This again is no threat. Simply a promise. It is no longer about what the kid did – it is about what your company did! And I promise you we will win = you have damaged my daughters trust for at least 50 years. You are about to meet the best attorneys on the planet.
And then it got wacky.
Just send me you attorney of record – you will not hurt my daughter – I do not care what it cost ! Ken It was a BS move – and I appreciate that you do that for the best of people – but you always know our kids are first – and I don't care how many $ it takes – my daughter will not live with this – so I will ask you one more time to pull this down – as a gentleman – or I will come to you! My airplane is only 10k an hour – have more cash & Gold in the bank than you can imagine – but if you hurt my daughter through this – my executives has all authority to go until all is done – I only have 1 daughter and it breaks her heart to see this! I would not do this to you or your family!I really love this line: "My airplane is only 10k an hour – have more cash & Gold in the bank than you can imagine."
White points out, in response, that he is still waiting for any specific inaccuracies, and notes that he's willing to speak to any attorney representing Matherne -- to which Matherne initially sent a simple "Game on!" email, followed by this (not the full email, which has more where this came from):
Get your check book out – and unless you can buy every judge to the State Supreme Court – you will pay damages = not about freedom of speech –If I'm reading this right, and I believe that I am, Matherne is not only threatening to take White to court under some ridiculous legal theories, but he is flat out admitting that he does "not care" about "inaccuracies." He also seems to be admitting throughout that he's doing this to tie White up in court. I would imagine that if this ever actually got to a court and wasn't thrown out immediately, these admissions would not help his case very much.
Oh, And I will follow up with everything I said I would do. Ken White, You better have an attorney or get one .
Cannot wait to meet you – You are and I can “quote again” a piece of shit! You do a disservice to mankind. I hope the judge we come before understands what a parasite you are and does not want his kids or grandchildren to be exposed to someone like you!
And I do not care about are inaccuracies about was said or texted. You are wrong and you are libel. Again, I do not lose lawsuits, and I do not think to can pay off the judges!
Randomly, out of curiosity, I went to check out the website for the Global Wildlife Foundation, and discovered that if you have Javascript turned off, you can see that they've got a ton of "payday loans" spam links hidden on their page. Either they've been hacked or they're selling link spam. Maybe they should take care of that before issuing bogus legal threats trying to censor a lawyer known for vocally defending the First Amendment.
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Filed Under: defamation, ken matherne, ken white, legal threats, popehat, threats, vexatious litigation
Companies: global wildlife center, global wildlife foundation
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Have you never had a boss?
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That shade thing can be addicting:
- 50 shades of Bible (sponsored by your nearest Christian "church")
- 50 shades of green (sponsored by Chris Dodd paycheck)
- 50 shades of airplanes (sponsored by TSA, cavity searches included)
- 50 shades of sharing (sponsored by TPB, polar bears, a lot of pirate parties and booze)
Note: the polar bear part came from one of TPB's replies to takedown requests. Those are hilarious and available in their page if memory serves.
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Understatement of the year.
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"Br1ng teh Pane"
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English motherfvcker!@#$! do you speak it?
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From the producers of The Carreon Affair...
Directed by Teri Bull...
Pretenda Law presents: Ken Matherne, Ass Clown of the year!
Keep it up, Ken. There's a lot of 2013 left, and you better make sure you solidify your title strong and early!
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Please tell me I'm not the only one who eventually got to that part and literally laughed out loud.
And might I add, sweet buddah can that guy not write. If I didn't know better I'd say he went to the same school as darryl.
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Also, if this guy has sooOOooo much money why wouldn't he have a lawyer on retainer that could write out these threats in a way that look legit instead of the angry ramblings of another clueless internet bully trying to sound big in an email to get people to back down and do as they will without any actual legal merit?
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THe payday loan links...
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Re: THe payday loan links...
Couldn't the hackers have gotten hold of their email server or email account/credentials and started sending these stupid emails "for teh lulz"?
Bad grammar + random threats matches with the "script kiddie" profile.
/a theory
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Re: Re: THe payday loan links...
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Teri Buhl returns?
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TFUTR
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Yeah, I can see how he'd get porn & frivolous legal threats confused.
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You are libel
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Re: You are libel
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Seriously,
But seriously if this is a hack of his website surely it would be better to wait until he confirms it is him emailing. If so then this story is doing him a disservice by reporting on something that was not true and making him lose face around the world. If true then he deserves everything he gets.
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Re: Seriously,
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complete misunderstanding
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"It looks like you want to file a lawsuit. I can help you!"
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Yawn. Yet another unique "legal" anomaly.
Take a loopy tour of Techdirt.com! You always end up at same place!
http://techdirt.com/
You've found the site of The Quipper himelf: Mike "Streisand Effect" Masnick!
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Re: Yawn. Yet another unique "legal" anomaly.
8.5/10 for the sig
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Re: Yawn. Yet another unique "legal" anomaly.
I don't this word means what you think it means.
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Boy, they've got an algorithm to calculate everything, don't they?
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About that daughter
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Power/Wealth Disconnect
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And was I the only one who thought it sounded like he was threatening to buy off the judges.. *cough* Not that I think any judge anywhere would ever accept a bribe. Just saying.
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DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS.
Thank you for your cooperation.
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I think he's trying to claim that this is taking food out of his daughters mouth. That's just a guess you understand since if that's what he really is saying it would make a lot more sense to invest the 'cash & Gold' then to waste it on frivolous law suits. But nothing else he said makes much sense either.
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Alternate tactics
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Gosh, how did he manage to hire Google's lawyers away from them?
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A simple message to the author of the satirical article saying something along these lines could have put the issue to bed nice and quickly.
"Hi there, I read your article about our zoo and the 'killer giraffes'. Very funny and clearly satire. However, some people out there who have read that actually believe it to be real! Hysterical, I know! Sadly, though, this is now having an impact on my business, with several visitor group cancellations, citing your article.
Could I ask that you somehow make that article even more 'out-there', so farcical, that there would be no possible way people could actually think it was an actual statement of fact?
I know I'm asking a lot, but hopefully you will understand that my business is being impacted here, and I hope we can align between your First Amendment right to post satire, and the health of my company.
Please give me a call if you want to discuss further. Yours sincerely, (blah blah)"
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*update 2* I have just learned that the monkeys are now in fact running the zoo.
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What is his position with Global Wildlife?
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Re: What is his position with Global Wildlife?
"Ken and his brother, Lee Matherne Jr., expanded the family�s oilfield service company. Ken started Global Resources Inc., with offices in Lafayette and the Middle East. Matherne retired in 1989 in his early 30s to become �chief baby sitter� of Global Wildlife. As president of Global�s advisory board, Matherne receives no salary."
I'd also add that, unlike most of the people who make absurd legal threats, Matherne actually seems to have been active in court cases before; see, for instance, SUCCESSION OF MATHERNE 472 So.2d 240 (1985) or MATHERNE v. GUILLIOT 551 So.2d 633 (1989).
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Consequences
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Apple vs Microsoft
Granted, trying to pasre this is probably futile, but what exactly is he talking about here? Is he talking about the Apple v. Microsoft suit over GUI features that ran from 1988 to 1994 and got settled a few years after that? Is he conflating Microsoft with Samsung and/or Google and talking about the ongoing smart phone fracas? Is there any sense here at all?
In any case, I'm sure that Ken White would love to show that email to the judge as part of his legal defense. I'm always amused by people who make threats about "getting a lawyer", when any real lawyer would immediately tell those people to stop talking.
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Matherne speaks gibberish.
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Oh noes!
Seriously though, it's a shame that Matherne has done so much damage to his daughter's foundation with his frivolous lawsuit(s). If he cared about her he should put a stop to his actions at once.
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Google: "Applications can offer almost always late fee when life payday loans"
But the explanation is simple. The spam has a "nemonn" class name, which has been identified as a hack. At WordPress support (see URL) they have mentioned it and basically it seems to be an additional PHP file that's included in their website which will insert the spam in this specific paragraph.
The purpose of this all is a bit unclear to me, although I suspect the hacker wants to get a higher ranking in search engines for these specific websites. I don't think the hacker would like to draw much attention to it...
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Re: Google: "Applications can offer almost always late fee when life payday loans"
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Poor Form
After 16 paragraphs of well-deserved ribbing of his theories and correspondence, however, you decided to shift gears into an ad hominem attack of the structure of his website. Perhaps it was just to besmirch his character as a link-spammer, but I think it degraded your rhetoric on his ideas by going there. You can't do much about what people below the line right, but as a supporter, I'd ask that you keep it classy on top.
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Re: Poor Form
I don't think "ad hominem" means what you think it means.
Separately I'm not sure I understand your complaint here. There was nothing gratuitous about pointing that out. It's highlighting additional issues with the way this organization goes about its business.
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Stroke
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My dead rich uncle, a king of his tribe in Nigeria
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have more cash & Gold in the bank than you can imagine
Luke: Rich, powerful. Listen, if you were to rescue her. The reward would be...
Han: What?
Luke: Well more wealth than you can imagine.
Han: I don't know. I can imagine quite a lot.
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Ad homnem
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