[IP] Defrocked rabbi must pay bloggers' legal fees
Begin forwarded message:
From: Paul Levy <plevy@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 12, 2006 4:29:58 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Defrocked rabbi must pay bloggers' legal fees
We have obtained a SLAPP ruling against New York rabbi Mordechai
Tendler, who brought proceedings first in Ohio and then in California
to try to identify several anonymous bloggers who commented on
charges that he abused his position of relgious authority to get
sexual contact with women who had come to him for counseling. After
we got into the case to get the subpoane quashed, he dropped the
case, got the clerk to take the SLAPP motin off calendar, and even
filed a motion to "substitute counsel" with himself as a pro se
lawyer (without providing any address or telephone number by which he
could be contacted), in an apparent effort to evade our SLAPP motion.
The judge has now granted our request for attorney fees, and we and
EFF, which worked with us in California to defeat Tendler's slimy
legal tactics, are going to find him and make him pay the judgment.
We have got to find a way to communicate to the people who bring
these baseless libel cases as a ploy to identify their critics -- and
to the lawyers who advise them -- that it is a foolhardy tactic.
Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation
Angela Bradbery 10/12/2006 4:15 PM >>>
PUBLIC CITIZEN PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: Contact: Paul Alan Levy
(202) 588-1000
Oct. 12, 2006
Angela Bradbery (202) 588-7741
Defrocked Rabbi Must Pay Anonymous Bloggers' Attorney Fees
Judge Says Rabbi's Petition to Disclose Bloggers Was Brought Without
Basis
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A California Superior Court judge ruled today
that a rabbi's petition to disclose the identities of anonymous
bloggers who wrote on the Internet about his alleged sexual
misconduct was brought without basis and that the rabbi must pay the
bloggers' attorney fees incurred in protecting their anonymity.
Orthodox rabbi Mordechai Tendler, who served a congregation in New
Hempstead, N.Y., was accused of sexual abuse and harassment by some
of the women whom he had been advising. The controversy garnered much
mainstream media attention when Tendler was expelled from the
Rabbinical Council of America in March 2005, was sued by one of his
accusers in December 2005 and was dismissed from his rabbinical post
by his congregation in 2006.
Many blogs also covered the investigation of Tendler's alleged
misconduct. In an effort to fight back against the accusations,
Tendler has sought to reveal the identities of four bloggers who
anonymously wrote about his case on the following Blogspot sites:
www.rabbinicintegrity.blogspot.com, www.jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com,
www.jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com and
www.newhempsteadnews.blogspot.com.
Tendler filed a petition in February 2006 in Ohio to identify three
of the bloggers, stating that he had been the subject of false and
defamatory statements but identifying no particular statements and no
evidence that the postings were false, a requirement to prove
defamation. After the Ohio court granted his petition, Tendler filed
a new case in San Jose, Calif., to obtain enforceable subpoenas
directed to Google, which operates Blogspot, compelling it to
disclose information identifying four bloggers.
However, Public Citizen agreed to represent the three bloggers who
had been originally sued and filed a special motion to strike the
California case under California's anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits
Against Public Participation) statute. In an apparent attempt to
evade the statute, Tendler withdrew the subpoenas, dismissed the case
and dismissed his attorneys. Today's ruling by Judge Neal A. Cabrinha
of the California Superior Court for Santa Clara County rejected
those maneuvers and held that Tendler is responsible for the
bloggers' attorney fees.
"The right to criticize anonymously on the Internet is a fundamental
free speech right and an important tool for whistleblowers and
consumers who speak out about the misconduct or corruption of big
companies or public figures," said Paul Alan Levy, the Public Citizen
attorney who filed the motion. "Those who want to intimidate their
critics with the threat of identification, but who have no real basis
for suing, should learn from this case that they cannot file suit and
then expect to withdraw if the critics are ready to fight back.
Companies and powerful individuals who try this trick should be
prepared for the financial consequences."
Corynne McSherry of the San Francisco-based nonprofit Electronic
Frontier Foundation serves as local counsel for Public Citizen. To
view the motions, visit http://www.citizen.org/documents/
Tendler_memotoquash.pdf and http://www.citizen.org/documents/
Tendler_SLAPPmemo.pdf. The SLAPP ruling can be viewed at http://
www.citizen.org/documents/tendlerorderonmotion.pdf.
Public Citizen has a strong record of defending the First Amendment
rights of Internet users. To learn more, visit http://www.citizen.org/
litigation/briefs/IntFreeSpch/.
###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy
organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please
visit www.citizen.org.
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