Australia Drops Snooping Plans -- For Now

Suburban Express Wants Round 3: Re-Files Against Customers

from the leeeeeeeeet's-get-ready-to-rumble! dept

Mon, Jun 24th 2013 8:05pm — Timothy Geigner

In case you don't recall, Suburban Express is a bus company run by self-proclaimed human being Dennis Toeppen, who is best known for squatting on domains and levying fees against his bus company's customers for, well, everything. Included in that everything is saying mean things about Suburban Express online. That led them to threatening legal action on a Redditor for a sub-reddit about how mind-numbingly prickish the company is. The blow back from those threats, including a cameo by Ken "Popehat" White, revealed 100+ lawsuits Suburban Express had filed against former customers. Blow back having been received, Toeppen promised to drop all of those active suits, which his attorney then did, even as Toeppen continued a creepy campaign against the Redditor, Jeremy Leval.

And now Toeppen is taking decisive action to make sure everyone on the planet knows how petty he is, having hired a new attorney and attempted to reopen all of those previously dropped lawsuits against his own customers.

Well, he's now trying to re-open the lawsuit against the complaining passenger with a new attorney after his previous attorney had the case dismissed with prejudice. And he's trying to intimidate redditors by filing Freedom of Information Act requests with the University of Illinois in an attempt to expose their personal data. Also, he—or someone posing as him—has returned to reddit to trash-talk.

Dennis Toeppen, once a notorious domain-squatter, filed a FOIA request with the University of Ilinois requesting "Any and all communications to which Joel Steinfeldt of Office of Public Affairs is a party which mention, relate, or pertain to to Suburban Express, Matthew Finnicum, Murph Finnicum, or Jeremy Leval, for the period 1/1/2013 to present." A link to the electronic files generated in response to the FOIA request was then posted to reddit.

Oh, Dennis, how the childish never seem to learn. Everyone can rest assured that another round of blow back is on the way, an exodus of customers and potential customers, and all the bad press Toeppen could possibly want. You can't, can't, make a habit of suing large numbers of your own customers. That isn't Business 101, it's Human Being 101. Even more so when you promised, and in fact, did drop all of those cases once already. The internet monkey knows which lever to push to get him to back off again and I expect it to be pushed once more.

Even if this doesn't get the attention of Popehat, and I'll be severely disappointed if it doesn't, we may be seeing the beginning of the end of a business.

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Filed Under: dennis toeppen, jeremy leval, lawsuits
Companies: reddit, suburban express

20 Comments

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That One Guy (profile), 24 Jun 2013 @ 6:57pm

Umm...
'...after his previous attorney had the case dismissed with prejudice.'

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought dismissing a case with prejudice meant that it couldn't be brought up again. If that's so, and the attorney is still going through with it, I can only assume the guy hired either Prenda or Carreon as his lawyer.

Also, given he's bringing back lawsuits that he previously dropped due to the avalanche of negative PR, it seems this would be the perfect situation for a whole slew of declaratory judgment cases, with each one having the defendant asking for lawyers fees.
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- alanbleiweiss (profile), 24 Jun 2013 @ 8:44pm
  
  Re: Umm...
  that's my "not a lawyer" understanding as well. Curious to see if he can get around that minor stumbling block. And can't wait for this to reach Carreon levels. It's on that trajectory!
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- James Burkhardt (profile), 24 Jun 2013 @ 8:56pm
  
  Re: Umm...
  According to other articles I've read, he is arguing that the "with prejudice" filing was in error, and the cases should have been withdrawn without prejudice. effectively arguing that his (former) lawyer screwed up.
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  - alanbleiweiss (profile), 24 Jun 2013 @ 9:29pm
    
    Re: Re: Umm...
    If that's the case, we can expect his former attorney to be on record as "instructed to file *with* prejudice..."
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  - That One Guy (profile), 24 Jun 2013 @ 9:40pm
    
    Re: Re: Umm...
    Call me crazy, but I don't see that going over to well with any judge.
    
    'You see your honor, the cases which I dropped with prejudice before to mitigate the massive beating I was taking in the PR department, well, see I didn't really mean to drop them permanently(despite the court filing to the contrary), just only until the heat died down a bit, so if you could let me re-file those, that would be great.'
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- Bob, 7 Jul 2013 @ 11:01am
  
  Re: Umm...
  Also isn't the Freedom of Information Act[FOIA] only applicable to government entities?
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Jun 2013 @ 8:20pm

this time he should be shown no mercy! do some Bible thumpin', Popehat!!
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apauld (profile), 24 Jun 2013 @ 8:24pm

"That isn't Business 101, it's Human Being 101."
The world is worse off when a person like Toeppen fail at the latter, but go into business only because passed the former. Dennis (we know your reading this, you always do) do society a small favor and do not breed. Ever.
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- Shawn, 25 Jun 2013 @ 10:45am
  
  Re: "That isn't Business 101, it's Human Being 101."
  He already did - he's such a dumbass that no girl would marry with.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 24 Jun 2013 @ 9:01pm

HAWKS WIN
HAWKS WIN!!!!
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- alanbleiweiss (profile), 24 Jun 2013 @ 9:30pm
  
  Re: HAWKS WIN
  Hockey trolls. Go figure.
  
  hahahahaha :-) What's REALLY going to bake your noodle though? Would they have even made it to the finals if there had been a FULL season?
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  - Hothmonster, 24 Jun 2013 @ 10:56pm
    
    Re: Re: HAWKS WIN
    Yes, they would have had a 48 game winning streak too.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Jun 2013 @ 9:29pm

How to BUSt your BUSsiness 101.

:)
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jun 2013 @ 2:19am

I don't know if I'm correct about this, but isn't Dennis Toeppen setting himself up for a lawsuit himself? Using the FOIA process to receive privacy information about specific individuals and then disclosing that privacy information in a public manner. I would think that there are liability problems there and that he could be setting himself up not just for a civil lawsuit but also crminal charges for abusing the FOIA process.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jun 2013 @ 2:47am

I'm right. Toeppen cannot reveal information about a specific person's privacy, otherwise he's in violation of abusing his FOIA request and he'll be setting himself up for a liability lawsuit.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jun 2013 @ 4:04am

Try, try, again!
Man, this guy is a glutton for punishment Streisand style. I almost respect him .
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Ninja (profile), 25 Jun 2013 @ 4:37am

we may be seeing the beginning of the end of a business.

We should help it by spreading the news in the city and possibly attracting a lawsuit. Hire Popehat if it happens ;)
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Loki, 25 Jun 2013 @ 10:20am

Even if this doesn't get the attention of Popehat, and I'll be severely disappointed if it doesn't, we may be seeing the beginning of the end of a business.

I saw the story on Reddit several days ago, and he already has (first response in fact).
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jun 2013 @ 11:04am

"run by self-proclaimed human being Dennis Toeppen"

Oh Timothy, you so silly.
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Bharat Ponnaluri, 25 Jun 2013 @ 4:22pm

Another comment by Popehat.
http://www.reddit.com/r/UIUC/comments/1h25xd/more_legal_threats_from_suburban_express_lett er/caq4jtc

You can find more posts about Suburban Express here:http://www.reddit.com/r/uiuc
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