Patrick May
Mercury News
Chalk up one for the elephant handlers.
"The jury went out at 2:47 p.m.,'' Ringling's attorney, Ruby Kazi, said Saturday. "And when they came back at 4:05 p.m., their decision was completely unanimous. It was very clear to the jurors that the plaintiffs were just trying to drum up a lawsuit.''
In the suit, filed in 2011, the plaintiffs had argued that Ringling employees had pointed lasers at their video cameras and tried to interfere with their filming by using ropes and water blasts.
"This is just the latest in a long series of cases that Pat and I have been forced to bring because of Ringling's attempts to stop us from documenting the abuse of their animals,'' Bolbol said Saturday after she and Cuviello lost their case in U.S. District Court in San Jose.
Referring to videos on the website for their group, Humanity Through Education, in which elephants handlers are shown beating the pachyderms to keep them in line, Bolbol said that "we've been gathering this evidence for 10 years now, but Ringling manages to convince the public that they're doing things differently now -- that those practices were in the past. So we have to have current evidence that it's still going on, which is why we filed this suit. Without our freedom of speech upheld, we can't go on to the next step.''
The crux of the court case was whether the circus, through its employees, had taken actions to "intentionally interfere with Plaintiffs' free speech rights for the purpose of chilling plaintiffs in the exercise of their constitutionally protected rights,'' as the activists had claimed in their complaint.
"Every year,'' their attorney wrote, "the Circus has used many different tactics to harass and interfere with Plaintiffs and other activists while they are attempting to videotape the Circus' treatment of the animals, including spraying Plaintiffs with fire hoses, shining laser pointers into Plaintiffs' eyes and cameras lenses and tangling Plaintiffs up with a rope.''
Kazi called that nonsense. She said the plaintiffs had stood outside a 7-foot wall beside the loading dock in back of HP Pavilion in August 2010, hoisting their cameras on monopods above the wall to peek into a private area where circus performers and animals spend time between shows. Then the trouble began.
"A handful of the circus employees directed laser pointers at the cameras,'' Kazi said. "The employees felt like this was their private space, not a public area, and they told the activists 'You can't do this.'
"This is where they hang out and take their smoke breaks and relax, and they felt that pointing the lasers at the cameras was harmless fun,'' Kazi said. "One guy described it as being like duck hunting. They'd point the laser at one camera, which would drop down behind the wall, and another camera would pop up.''
Bolbol and Cuviello considered it harassment, a way for the circus to shut down what the activists considered was a perfectly legal campaign to gather evidence of wrongdoing. And even though the jury didn't agree with them, the activists vow to press on.
"We're not doing anything illegal out there,'' Bolbol said. "So until a court tells us that we can't videotape over that wall, we'll go back and do it again.''
'While I am not much for high fiving, whooping and back slapping(mainly because I as still trying to figure out how we got in such a deep hole in the first place) this court victory, although small, is a win nonetheless and the second in about a month. Interesting in both case's are the comment's posted. Surprisingly, many seem to be "pro circus/animals." Many more positive comments then you would have seen 5 years ago or more.'
Dwight T Mensinger · Top Commenter · San Jose, California
If
the jurors were unanimous in their decision that these 2 activists were
simply filing lawsuits as a form of legal harassment, than I hope the 2
activists will also be held responsible for the cost of legal counsel
for Ringling Bros. as well as court costs.
Shelley Powers · Top Commenter
Jeffrey Novick · Top Commenter · Scottsdale, Arizona- Shelley Powers · Top CommenterYou have to prove that the lawsuit was frivolous, and whether they won or lost, the plaintiffs did not file this lawsuit frivolously.
Of course, if Ringling isn't mistreating their animals, then they wouldn't have any concern about people like these activists filming their actions, would they?
But to put up privacy walls, turn the fire hose on them, shine laser lights into their cameras, well, my goodness, Ringling Brothers must have a _lot_ to hide.- Shelley Powers · Top Commenter
- Jeffrey Novick · Top Commenter · Scottsdale, ArizonaShelley Powers All I have to say is that you damaged my repetition and I want you to pay 10k for it. Now I get 20 of my friends to sue you for the same reason how is that going to impact your life. 20 days in court, 20 days missing work and then when those are tossed we do it again, ever month for a year. What's that going to cost you because you have to show up at court to contest our complaint. Oh, and have you watched Judge Judy, all those would have been in court and 3/4 are even more of a joke than this.
- Shelley Powers · Top CommenterDoes not work that way. But then, I don't watch Judge Judy, so I don't know the standard of law that forms the basis for your comments.
- Jeffrey Novick · Top Commenter · Scottsdale, ArizonaShelley Powers Does not stop the fact that you would have to go to court and argue that the accusation is baseless, now how much is your time worth. You should because all those were scheduled to go to a court near you until Judge Judy show picked them because they were so stupid.
Dannielle Romeo · Top Commenteryeah, it does work that way. it's called malicious prosecution. and Shelley, who's one of the usual trolls for HSUS and other AR groups, conveniently forgets that ASPCA just settled with Feld Entertainment (Ringling Bros Circus) agreeing to pay them a staggering 9.3 MILLION for their part is a baseless complaint using a PAID witness. HSUS is still a named party in Feld's suit for recovering their defense costs from that false suit, even though Wayne likes to say they had nothing to do with it (really? then why is his signature on checks used to pay off the "witness"?)
hey Shelly, you never did confirm or deny for us if you're part of HSUS' "emerging Media" department, the ones who get paid to cruise the net and respond favorably about HSUS and other AR tactics. so, are you on the payroll or not?
Melissa S · Top Commenter · White Plains Senior High School- Shelley Powers · Top CommenterDannielle, don't let facts stop your rant. I would suggest you Google 'malicious prosecution' before you misuse the term rather than after.
- This decision has nothing to do with the ASPCA/Feld settlement. Oh, and speaking of your paid witness statement (or should I use PAID witness, since you seem to be caps dependent), you do realize that all of Feld's witnesses were paid witnesses too, don't you? In fact, one was paid a staggering $500.00 a hour to be involved in the case. Darn good money.
So I wouldn't bandy about 'paid witness' too much if I were you. Thankfully the other groups didn't bail in the case you're referencing, and Feld will lose. The company should have known when to quit. Seriously, this one will backfire on the company.
Oh by the way: any person with a modicum of intelligence can check me out online. Unlike most of you wonder wiz kids, I write under my real name. "Write" is the operative term: I'm a writer. That's what I do for a living. And I don't work for anyone, which you know, but you can't seem to stop yourself from repeating (probably because you can't form an argument, so you resort to misinformation). - Shelley Powers · Top Commenter
Kristen Andrews · Top Commenter · Staffing associate at Ultimate Staffing ServicesTotally incorrect, Shelley Powers. They have a right to file a lawsuit, but Ringling Brothers has the right to claim a frivolous lawsuit and recover their money.
- Jeffrey Novick · Top Commenter · Scottsdale, ArizonaDeniz Bolbol and Joseph Patrick Cuviello should be made to pay the full costs to the court and to the Ringling Brothers Circus for this frivolous lawsuit.
Ed Callender · Top Commenter · UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO, BSIEOnly in Ca. will you find all of the nuts assembled in one package.
Jonathan Gilbert · Top Commenter · 57 years oldOh yeah! I can smell the puppy millerss and abuse apologists. YAY!- Shelley Powers · Top Commenter
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