Christina Garner's Blog, page 4

Reality Show Wrap Up

Lady Justice via Ann Althouse

 

Let me start off by thanking all of you who have been so supportive of my efforts to not be bullied into removing my post, MTV and Rape Culture.

As I said before, I was shocked when I received first a warning, and then a stern 72 hour Cease and Desist Notice from Usman Shaikh, attorney for Kenny Santucci and Evan Starkman. The former I mostly blew off, the latter sent me into action mode.

My first stop–as always–was Google. I learned about the finer points of defamation suits as well as California’s strong anti-SLAPP statute. (A SLAPP is a baseless lawsuit that a plaintiff files, not with the intention of winning, but to exhaust and/or bankrupt the defendant so that they cede to the plaintiff’s demands.) The more I researched, the more this looked like a SLAPP.

As well, I found several helpful websites. Remember the Lipstick Alley debacle? I went right to the source of that genius letter, to Mr. Paul Levy himself. Actually, I didn’t think I’d be hearing from Mr. Levy when I wrote Public Citizen, but I hoped they might take an interest in my case.

The very next morning, I received an email from Mr. Levy asking when we could chat. We spoke later that day, and although he informed me that he wouldn’t be able to represent me, he was willing to give me some informal guidance. He was very generous with his time and information. One thing he made sure to stress, was that I needed to take the threat of the lawsuit seriously. Prior, I’d thought it mostly an empty threat, and I admit that his advice was sobering.

I did a bit of soul searching. At this point I had less than 48 hours to respond or face litigation. As much as I abhorred the thought of being censored, especially about such an important topic, I must admit that I considered acquiescing.

Lawsuits are stressful and expensive, and there are never any guarantees about the outcome, even if you’re sure that you’re in the right. Plus, I’m on a deadline to finish Tether, Book 3 in The Gateway Trilogy. How much was I willing to sacrifice over one blog?

I made a decision: I would spend the next 48 hours reaching out to as many people as I could, in hopes of finding pro bono or reduced cost representation. My gut instinct told me that a simple response letter would be enough to end that matter, but I wasn’t willing to bank on it; I wanted to know I had someone in my corner. If the time lapsed and I was no closer to getting help, I’d have to make a decision about how much this principle meant to me.

I reached out to the Online Media Legal Network in hopes of getting a referral. As well, Mr. Levy had offered to reach out to attorneys in California who might be able to help me in an official capacity. Andy Sellars, a lawyer with OMLN, responded quickly and set up a time for us to talk. Once again, I was blown away by the immediacy of the response and the quality of help I received.

Between the time I’d emailed, and the next day when Mr. Sellars and I spoke, he had not only looked at the blog posts in question, and the letters I’d received, but he’d looked up the case (Tonya Cooley vs. Bunim/Murray Productions et al.) that my original blog post was about.

He also provided me with a crucial piece of evidence–the complaints against Santucci and Starkman were dismissed not, as their lawyer claimed, because they were found to be without merit, but because they argued Personal Jurisdiction. What’s that, you ask? (Don’t worry, I did too) Mr. Sellars informed me that such a defense means they argued that because neither was a resident of California, they shouldn’t have to defend themselves in California. No determination was made either way as to the merits of the complaint. A few months later, Ms. Cooley settled her lawsuit, which effectively put the matter to rest.

This information emboldened me to stand firm.

While the OMLN doesn’t represent clients themselves, they do offer a referral service, and Mr. Sellars advised me, (as did Mr. Levy) to let Mr. Shaikh know that I was in the process of acquiring counsel, which I did. At the same time, I told him I was open to reviewing any documentation he had to support the claims he made in his emails. He declined to do so.

The Personal Jurisdiction defense was of interest to Mr. Levy, as well. In fact, on August 23, he wrote a letter on my behalf, asking Mr. Shaikh if he:

“…can provide any documentation from the case that you believe Garner should be taking into consideration in assessing the soundness of your assertion that ‘the facts revealed that her claims were without merit as to Mr. Santucci and Mr. Starkman.’”

Mr. Shaikh responded, saying that he would gather the appropriate documentation. 72 hours passed with no further word. At that point, Mr. Levy wrote him again, which prompted Mr. Shaikh to call and let him know that the threat of litigation was withdrawn pending provision of the appropriate documentation.

 

Hallelujah! 

via ktpupp

 

I felt both vindicated and grateful. It was honestly the best outcome I could have hoped for, and more help than I expected from two very generous men. In fact, by the time the threat was withdrawn, both had found prominent attorneys interested in representing me pro bono, based on the SLAPP nature of the threat. At this time it seems such a defense will be unnecessary, but I am grateful to know it exists.

In closing, I’d like to again thank Paul Levy and Andy Sellars, as well as all of you who have shown me support, both publicly and privately on this issue. I’m thrilled to have “won” and happy to get back to doing what I do best.

If you’d like to read more about this story, here are the relevant posts, in order:

MTV and Rape Culture

Let the Toothbrushes Fall Where They May

Injustice is my Bitch

Open Letter to Kenny Santucci and Evan Starkman

As well, Mr. Levy wrote a wonderful piece about the case on his own blog, titled, Frivolous Libel Threats – the Reality Show

Open Letter to Kenny Santucci and Evan Starkman

Dear Kenny and Evan,

You might want to consider a new legal strategy.

Having your lawyer, Usman Shaikh, Esq., send me a Cease and Desist Notice (see below) might not have been your best course of action.

Here’s why:

There’s this thing called “the Streisand Effect,” and it basically means that the more you try to scrub the internet of information you don’t like, the more people talk about that thing you don’t like.

Case in point: The lawsuit Tonya Cooley brought against you, wherein she alleged that the two of you sexually assaulted her with a toothbrush while she lay unconscious.

As horrifying of a case as this was, was anyone even still talking about it? I wasn’t. I’m busy writing the conclusion to The Gateway Trilogy. I said what I had to say last October in this post. A post, which by the way, wasn’t even about you. It was about the culture of rape that permeates our society, wherein I referenced you tangentially to make a point–a point I stand by.

MTV didn’t seem concerned. I haven’t received any nasty-grams from them, and they’re the ones I was really taking to task over the whole disgusting affair. 

Being that this is America, where we enjoy freedom of speech, imagine my surprise when I received this warning shot from Mr. Shaikh, demanding that I either remove your names from my blog post or face legal consequences. In it, Mr. Shaikh alleges:

Ultimately, the facts revealed that her claims were without merit as to Mr. Santucci and Mr. Starkman. The court ordered Ms. Cooley to dismiss Mr. Santucci and Mr. Starkman from her lawsuit on April 18, 2012.

This was new information to me, and I found it intriguing. As part of my answer to the Cease and Desist, I wrote the following:

I am interested in the argument you make regarding the dismissal of Mr. Santucci and Mr. Starkman from the MTV/Viacom lawsuit. If you would like to provide additional information, (transcripts or the like) I would be happy to review it.

Imagine my further surprise when your attorney declined to do so, and once again demanded my compliance. Here I was, offering to review this new information and possibly revise my blog post, and your attorney essentially said no thanks, just do what I tell you.

A very helpful attorney, (whose name I will include in this post only if he gives me permission) pointed me to the LA Superior Court’s website, where I was able to access the docket sheet for Tonya Cooley vs. Bunim/Murray Productions et al. (You’re the “et al,” by the way.)

It turns out there are a few inconsistencies between what Mr. Shaikh alleges and what the court documents reflect.

The first would be the case number he cited. The actual case number is BC472360, not BC473260.

The second seems to be why the case against you (though not MTV/Viacom) was dismissed. It appears to my untrained eye, (and the highly trained eyes of the attorneys who have been kind enough to give me their informal opinion) that the decision had nothing to do with the merits of the case, but where you live. From the docket:

01/25/2012 Motion to Quash (TO QUASH SERVICE OF SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT FOR LACK OF PERSONAL JURISDICTION ) 04/18/2012 Order (RULING granting motion to quash summons for lack of personal jurisdiction )

Filed by Court

04/11/2012 Reply/Response (IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT KENNETH SANTUCCI’S MOTION TO QUASH SERVICE

OF SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT FOR LACK OF PERSONAL JURISDICTION )

Filed by Attorney for Deft/Respnt

04/04/2012 Opposition Document (TO DEFENDANT KENNETH SANTUCCI’S MOTION TO QUASH SERVICE OF

SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT FOR LACK OF PERSONAL JURISDICTION )

Filed by Attorney for Pltf/Petnr

Aside from suggesting you might want to rethink having your attorney harass me, (I use the term, ‘harass’ in the colloquial sense) I want to offer you a platform to state your case. I have scoured the internet looking for your public denial or even response to the allegations and have found nothing, which has always led me to believe you preferred not to comment. However, if you agree with your lawyer’s assertion that:

…their (Santucci and Starkman) strong denial of the allegations were never reported. As a result, they are left without a remedy to cure the stigma that the initial reported [sic] created.

I would be more than happy to provide the vehicle for you to do so. Just let me know, and we can set up a chat/Skype call/written interview.

You’ll understand, I’m sure, that if we meet in person I’ll need to have you frisked for toothbrushes.

Warm Regards,

Christina Garner 

P.S. You might want to speak with Mr. Shaikh about his Twitter usage.

For your reference:

August 19, 2013

RE: KENNETH SANTUCCI and EVAN STARKMAN

Dear Ms. Garner:

This letter is a follow up to my written correspondence to you dated August 1, 2013, in which I referenced an article on your website containing incomplete and/or incorrect factual information relating to my clients Kenneth Santucci and Evan Starkman in connection with the lawsuit Tonya Cooley v. Bunim/Murray Productions, et al., County of Los Angeles, Superior Court, Central District, Case No. BC473260. 

In my previous correspondence, I outlined the facts and circumstances relating to the lawsuit, pointing out that my clients were never served with a complaint and were subsequently dismissed as parties without any liability or wrongdoing having been established.  Because my clients were left without a remedy to cure the irreparable harm caused by your article, I respectfully asked you to remove my clients’ names from the article within a reasonable period of time.

It has been almost three weeks since the previous correspondence, without any response or action from you.  Your dismissive attitude gives me pause to consider that you are unwilling to cooperate with me and want to continue to partake in the willful harm your article are causing to my clients’ respective reputations.

That said, please note that this letter is a final and stern warning.  I hereby request that you remove my clients’ names from the aforementioned article or remove it in its entirety within 72 hours from the date and time of this correspondence.  Failure to do so will cause us to promptly take appropriate legal action against you and any other appropriate parties.  Rest assured, my clients are prepared to vigorously defend their rights under causes of actions arising from the articles on your website and prove any and all damages caused by your actions.  

Should you have any questions regarding this letter, please have your counsel contact me.

Sincerely,

Usman Shaikh

 

 

Injustice is my Bitch

Let me tell you a little something about me.

When I was a kid, (8ish) I gave my birthday money to Greenpeace. I remember doing it–we were at a restaurant, and on my way to the restroom I noticed a little donation box for the whale-saving organization. I dropped in my crisp fiver and went about my business. My mother says that when I returned to the table and told her what I’d done, I said, “It just seemed like they needed it more than I do.”

Flash forward to age 10, when I was shown a video in school about how they killed pigs for luaus. (I was blessed to have spent my childhood in Hawaii.) As much as I loved steak and Big Macs, (At age 6, I bet my father I could eat 2 of them, and I did, blech) I went home and told my mother I was never eating meat again.

Aside from a two month period at age 14, I have been a vegetarian, and now vegan, ever since. 

I’m keenly aware that the above paragraphs sound self-aggrandizing and pompous, but please, bear with me–I’m about to bring it on home.

If I were to analyze my behavior–and I do, all the freaking time–I’d trace my abhorrence of injustice to my older brother, Scotty.

Scotty is profoundly mentally retarded. While it can’t be said for certain why, doctors believed it to be because my mother contracted Rubella while she was pregnant and subsequently gave birth 7 1/2 weeks prematurely. If there is such a thing as complete innocence, utter helplessness, it’s my brother, Scotty.

My brother, Scotty, and me.

And growing up with him developed in me a fiercely protective nature over anything or anyone I perceive as innocent. Seeing anyone suffer, but especially someone seemingly powerless to end their own suffering, (an abused or slaughtered animal, children, an oppressed society) brings on a sadness and a fury that overwhelms me like no other.

Along with that fury comes a call to action.

I have always felt compelled to “right the wrongs” of the world. Through years of therapy I’ve come to realize that it actually isn’t my job to save anyone or anything except myself.

Injustice is subjective and my saviour complex was just a means to an end–a way to build a strong enough defense to buffer and survive the sadness and depression of my childhood. 

That’s not to say I don’t still believe in “fighting the good fight” so to speak. I’m just aware that my good fight might not be yours. And it isn’t the whole of my existence. 

However.

I am who I am. Which is why today, I am flying higher than can be attributed to caffeine. Today, I feel as though the little guy (in this case, me) might get a win. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific than that, but if you’ve read either this or this blog post, you know a little of what I’m talking about. More details to follow shortly, but for now, I give you this:

 

 

 

Let the Toothbrushes Fall Where They May

On August 1, 2013, I received the following email in response to my post titled, MTV and Rape Culture:

 

Dear Ms. Garner:

I represent Kenneth Santucci and Evan Starkman. It has been brought to my attention that an article on your website dated October 26, 2012 contains inaccurate and/or incomplete information relating to my clients in connection with the lawsuit Tonya Cooley v. Bunim/Murray Productions, et al., County of Los Angeles, Superior Court, Central District, Case No. BC473260. The purpose of this letter is to clarify the facts relating to this matter and ask you to remove my clients’ names from the aforementioned article.

In the action, Ms. Cooley essentially alleged that Mr. Santucci and Mr. Starkman were two of several participants on a reality television show that sexually harassed her, and that MTV and Bunim/Murray Productions failed to properly investigate her complaint of such behavior. Ultimately, the facts revealed that her claims were without merit as to Mr. Santucci and Mr. Starkman. The court ordered Ms. Cooley to dismiss Mr. Santucci and Mr. Starkman from her lawsuit on April 18, 2012. Accordingly, Mr. Santucci and Mr. Starkman were dismissed as parties to the lawsuit without any liability or wrongdoing having been established and without having to pay a dime to Ms. Cooley.

The media reports at the time, including your articles, focused only on the claims made in Ms. Cooley’s complaint. Because Mr. Santucci and Mr. Starkman were never served with the complaint and never appeared in the action, their strong denial of the allegations were never reported. As a result, they are left without a remedy to cure the stigma that the initial reported created.

I hope this letter clarifies the facts as they relate to my clients. Due to the irreparable harm that the article on your website is causing to my clients, I respectfully ask that you remove their names from the article. If this request is not met within a reasonable time frame, I will be forced to take appropriate legal action to vigorously defend my clients’ rights.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can be of any further assistance regarding this issue.

Sincerely,

Usman Shaikh

Attorney at Law

427 N. Canon Drive

Suite 206

Beverly Hills, CA 90210

p 310.385.7939

f 310.598.1756

usman@uslawgroupinc.com

 

I admit, upon first read I got both a little scared and a little thrilled. Scared that I could face repercussions for free speech, and thrilled that my blog was deemed worthy of such a warning. I decided to do a little investigating before I decided what to do, and that’s when things got interesting.

First, I visited the website Mr. Shaikh listed: uslawgroupinc.com. Go ahead, click there now. Anything seem strange to you? Like that fact that the website barely exists?

Undeterred–I mean, Mr. Shaikh could be having server trouble, right?–I googled his name. Imagine my surprise that the lawyer representing two reality personalities, is himself, a reality personality, having been a part of One Ocean View, a failed series that was cancelled after the second episode.

Gawker had this to add, in response to an email from Mr. Shaikh that announced:

“I’m heading West to find fame and fortune in ‘the movie business’. Specifically, I’ve been accepted into the Agent Trainee Program at International Creative Management, Inc. (ICM) in Beverly Hills.”

Within the Gawker article, there is a link to a Page Six column that refers to him as a “party promoter.” 

OK, before I succumbed completely to the notion that I was in bizarro world, or at best being Punk’d, I dug further to get absolute confirmation that this party-promoting, reality wannabe, agent-in-training Usman Shaikh, was the same attorney Usman Shaikh that said if I don’t do what he wants, he “…will be forced to take appropriate legal action to vigorously defend my clients’ rights. ”

I found this confirmation in of all places, Twitter, where Mr. Shaikh spends his time “@-ing” celebrities, making fun of a domestic violence victim, and whining when his emails aren’t returned. 

@PittsburghSlim @HoodieAllen I sent Hoodie’s manager an email a few months ago. Hoodie and I both went to #UPenn. No response. WTF, Hoddie?!

— Usman Shaikh (@UsmanShaikhEsq) September 6, 2012

@georgiasalpa one of my clients wants to book you, I get no response from Dave via email. How can we get this deal done??

— Usman Shaikh (@UsmanShaikhEsq) June 3, 2013

Usman Shaikh  @rihanna do the lows include a black eye from @chrisbrown? 
4:59 AM – 24 Feb 2012

@KennySantucci @JonnytheUnit : Kiss and make up boyz! I don’t like my clients fighting in public lol. U guys’ll get along well when u meet.

— Usman Shaikh (@UsmanShaikhEsq) October 9, 2011

 

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And there you have it. Confirmation that both men are one and the same. By the way, is anyone surprised he represents someone who calls himself, “The Unit?”

 

I have decided not to comply with Mr. Shaikh’s request, not because he is an (alleged) famewhoring bottom-feeder, but because I see nothing libelous in what I’ve written, nor do I appreciate being threatened.

Rape culture exists, and Viacom/MTV did say, “[Cooley] failed to avoid the injuries of which she complains.”  This is a matter of public record, as is the fact that Kenny Santucci and Evan Starkmann are the men Tonya Cooley accuses of sexually assaulting her. That their names were ultimately dropped from a civil suit doesn’t determine their guilt or innocence any more than my blog post does.

The point of my post was to bring to light MTV’s abhorrent response to the allegations, as well as the media’s penchant to post only the photo of the accuser, not the accused. Whether they are guilty or not is not for me to decide, however as a former viewer of “The Challenges,” I can tell you unequivocably that I found them to both make extremely cruel and misogynistic remarks, and have found their behavior to be abusive to female cast members, including Tonya Cooley. Than MTV doesn’t find this enough reason to keep them off of their network is shameful.

That’s what my original post was about, and that’s why I’m leaving it up. Should Evan and Kenny decide they want their attorney to go after my vast fortune (which consists of a paid-for Toyota Camry) then so be it.

Let the toothbrushes fall where they may–as long as it isn’t in my vagina.

 

May All be Free

All beings deserve to be free.

Yep, even douche-bags.* Although, I’m in full support of correcting or shunning them. But the truth is, if people prone to douche-bagism were more internally free, they would be less externally douchey.

When we are free, really free in our minds and hearts, we have nothing to prove, nothing we need to be, do, or have. We just are. And from that state of beingness we create what is authentically and intrinsically ours to create. We are an open channel–a blank page for life to write its love upon.

*Full Disclosure: I am sometimes a douche-bag

Doing Gratitude All Wrong

Hard to believe I could screw up being grateful, right?

I was.

For years I’ve dipped in and out of doing gratitude lists. Sometimes I’d do a list of 100, others I’d come up with 5 things a day. The problem is that on days when it was hard, I’d cop out and write things like, “the sun, my dog, I’m grateful this day is over.”

Now, these are perfectly valid things for me to be grateful for, but by the third time one of these general items made it to my list, they stopped inspiring a feeling of gratitude. It’s the feeling the list inspires, not the list itself that creates effective change in the brain.

I decided to shake things up a bit.

My daily gratitude practice now consists of 3 things that happened that day. And I’m not talking, “the sun rose today.” However, “I’m really grateful the sun was out today because I loved working outside.” The former is abstract, the latter, grounded in the day’s experience. 

This subtle change has worked wonders:

I now constantly scan my environment for the positive.
By using specific events, I relive the joy of those events as I record them.
I purposely engage in activities I know will bring me pleasure or peace of mind.

Could your gratitude practice use some tweaking? Let me know in the comments!

 

Tether Update

Just a quick update of my progress on Tether, Book 3 in The Gateway Trilogy. Originally I had February as my release date. It was an ambitious deadline, though at the time I felt confident I could meet it. As I’ve gotten deeper into the writing process I realize how layered the story has become and how many story lines I need to wrap up. It’s very important to me that I do both the trilogy and the reader justice by taking some additional time and getting it where it needs to be. Thank you for your patience, and also, thank you to those have been inquiring. Knowing that there are readers out there waiting to read my work is motivation like no other. At this time I expect Tether to be released in April. 

In addition to working on Tether I have enlisted the very talented Ashley Davis of Evensong Editing to help me tighten up Gateway. Many have commented that the writing is cleaner and tighter in Book 2, Chasm, and I felt I owed it to the reader and the story itself to make Gateway shine. I expect it to be available for download (this will be a free update for those who already own it) next week. I’ll be sure to let you know.

Again, thank you for your support. It really does mean the world to me. By the way, those who subscribe to my mailing list will be getting the first few chapters in ARC form in advance of publication, so be sure to sign up!

Powerful Words

Four of the most powerful words in the English language: I’ll figure it out.

Writer’s Block

“Writer’s block results from too much head. Cut off your head. Pegasus, poetry, was born of Medusa when her head was cut off. You have to be reckless when writing. Be as crazy as your conscience allows.”

~ A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

“Writer’s block results from too much head. Cut off your ...

“Writer’s block results from too much head. Cut off your head. Pegasus, poetry, was born of Medusa when her head was cut off. You have to be reckless when writing. Be as crazy as your conscience allows.”

from A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living