UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
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Three Angels Broadcasting Network, Inc.,
an Illinois non-profit corporation, and
Danny Lee Shelton, individually,
Plaintiffs,
v.
Gailon Arthur Joy and Robert Pickle,
Defendants.
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Case No.: 4:07-cv-40098 FDS
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JOINT RULE 26(f) CONFERENCE REPORT
Description of Case
Concise Factual Summary of Plaintiff's Claims;
By their Complaint, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants Gailon Joy and
Robert Pickle, acting individually and in consort, have engaged in an affirmative
campaign of defamation, slander and libel directed against Three Angels
Broadcasting Network, Inc. ("3ABN") and its Founder and President, Mr. Danny
Shelton. Joy and Pickle have published false statements of fact and have made
grievous misrepresentations—directly and by omission and innuendo—regarding
3ABN's operation, administration, and financial management and regarding
Shelton's personal and professional conduct. Joy and Pickle purposefully and
deliberately made these false statements and misrepresentations in order to
destroy Plaintiffs' reputations and goodwill, undermine public confidence in the
ministry and its president, and financially cripple Plaintiffs so Plaintiffs would
acquiesce to Defendants' designs for the company and its administration. Joy and
Pickle made their defamatory statements knowing yet willfully disregarding the
falsity of the statements, or made the statements in brazen, wanton and reckless
disregard for the truth or falsity of their statements.
Joy and Pickle have disseminated their statements to third persons and to
the public at large orally, in print, and on the internet. Moreover, with regard to
their internet offensive, Defendants have usurped and infringed upon Plaintiff
Three Angel's federally registered trademark "3ABN," using it to identify and
advertise their own world wide web site, "Save3ABN.com," in violation of the
Lanham Act.
Joy and Pickle's efforts have been the direct cause of reputation, financial,
and other harm and damages to 3ABN and its President. Defendants' have
brought about a diminishment of Plaintiffs' reputations and goodwill, a lowering
of Plaintiffs in the eyes of the public and 3ABN viewers, donors and supporters, a
reduction in financial contributions to the ministry, and a confusion or likely
confusion of the public and internet community as to the source, sponsorship,
affiliation and origination of the "Save3ABN.com" website.
Despite the filing of the instant action, Pickle and Joy's campaign of
orchestrated disparagement continues. Plaintiffs anticipate the instant case will
require considerable discovery, as Pickle and Joy's defamation and trademark
infringement are ongoing, and that there will be numerous, contentious discovery
disputes. Defendants have already stated their intention to refuse Plaintiffs
original-source access to electronically stored information, they have already
challenged Plaintiffs' right to discoverable information based on an alleged
"reporter's privilege," and they have already raised an allegation that Plaintiffs
have engaged in the destruction of evidence, yet refused to provide Plaintiffs with
supporting information that Plaintiffs would need to investigate the charge.
Additionally, Plaintiffs' concerns about Defendants using the pleadings in
this matter, both as a forum to disparage Plaintiffs and as a source of material
Defendants will mischaracterize, editorialize, sensationalize and publish to
misinform the public, have come to fruition since the lifting of the impoundment
order. In fact, since the Court's denial of Plaintiffs' Motion for Impoundment,
Defendants have directed visitors to the infringing "Save3ABN" website to the
Court's PACER system, clearly evidencing their intent to use this Court's own
document repository and the pleadings and submissions contained therein, as a
platform to continue publishing defamatory and derogatory statements about the
Plaintiffs. Thus, Plaintiffs' also anticipate the case will require substantial
attention to the protection of various discovery materials and case submissions.
Concise Factual Summary of Defendant's claims/defenses;
Defendants vehemently deny the Plaintiffs' allegations of defamation and
in defense assert that Plaintiffs are participating in a conspiracy of
misinformation, have issued factually challenged statements, and have failed to
deliver any proof of their own defamatory and factually challenged claims against
their victims and the Defendants, despite repeated requests from the Defendants,
some victims, and others.
The Defendants further assert the record will demonstrate as a matter of
fact, statute, and precedent that the allegations regarding Trademark Infringement,
Copyright Violation, and Trademark dilution are willfully and wantonly frivolous
claims, without merit, and consequently an abuse of process intended to silence
the plaintiffs' critics and not to recover any purported damages. Indeed, the
defamation per se that the plaintiffs have so repeatedly emphasized to this Court is
characterized by its standing as a legal theory worthy of bringing to trial even in
the absence of actual damages.
The Defendants took the notice contained in the Complaint that the
repetition of the asserted trademarks of Three Angels Broadcasting Network, Inc.,
in the referrer tags contained in the web pages of save3ABN.com was asserted as
an infringement and removed those references, which were never visible on the
online display anyway and even were ignored by the search engines that many
years ago relied on them. Thus, under applicable statutory and case law, there is
no infringement, as "save3ABN" is not going to confuse any member of the
public that the web site is a product or part of the business or even a competitor of
Three Angels Broadcasting Network, Inc.
The defamation cause relates to Defendants' ecclesiastical investigation of
allegations and charges relating to the personal and professional conduct of the
self-appointed managing director and purported founder, other employees, past
and present, and the members/directors of Three Angels Broadcasting Network,
Inc. Defendants have conducted hundreds of hours of interviews and collected a
substantial record of documents and statements from dozens of witnesses, victims,
and employees, past and present. Defendants have provided ecclesiastical reports
accurately reflecting the historical record of events during the twenty years of
3ABN history.
The plaintiffs' personal, professional and corporate conduct is chimeral
and duplicitous as they profess adherence to Seventh-day Adventist conservative
theology while Three Angels Broadcasting Network, Inc., allows their self-appointed
leader to conduct himself in such a way as to prove violative of the
clear and rigorously enforced standards required of ministry leadership within the
Seventh-day Adventist Faith just as they are expected of the churches'
membership. They collusively have repeatedly violated the code of conduct
expected of an institution that professes an absolute faith in, and teaches, the
doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Plaintiffs have in concert violated
the code of conduct required as a member of Adventist-laymen's Services and
Industries, a Seventh-day Adventist, denominationally-affiliated businessmen's
organization. Defendants intend to prove that the plaintiffs have colluded to
underwrite and allow this self-appointed leader to stoop to a level best described
as institutional and personal corruption unbecoming of a leader of a Seventh-day
Adventist supporting ministry. Such a violation of the rules of their faith that the
Seventh-day Adventist membership abides by is a regular topic of member
discussion and the only difference the defendants brought to the discussion was to
uncover the proof of the truth. In response, the plaintiffs are, in a familiar and oft-repeated
scenario, seeking to silence them by bringing suit.
Plaintiffs have fraudulently relied upon the Seventh-day Adventist worldwide
congregation for the funds to operate, claiming to proclaim the unique-to-Seventh-day
Adventists Three Angels' Messages, while coming to this court and
representing themselves as operating a non-denominational institution. Plaintiffs
have colluded repeatedly to misinform or delude the various Seventh-day
Adventist congregations in such a way as to fraudulently continue to collect
donations, trusts, wills, tithes, bequests, and gifts both outright and in trust, and
have willfully attempted to cover up conduct that was clearly violative of the
rights of their victims. The actual record demonstrates a willfully deceptive effort
to deceive victims and contributors to the clear benefit of Plaintiff Danny Lee
Shelton and demonstrates that the very limited membership of 3ABN willfully
and repeatedly ignored clear warnings of corruption and misuse of financial
assets entrusted to 3ABN and its affiliates. The actual record demonstrates a
willfully deceptive effort to deceive cast-aside victims of corruption and to
deprive them of due process, to willfully set about to defame or undermine the
character and personalities of its cast-aside victims, and to deprive them of their
livelihood after the fact, all contrary to the standards expected of a Seventh-day
Adventist supporting ministry and violative of the trust of more than 100,000
contributors to 3ABN. The actual record will demonstrate that the membership of
3ABN failed to show due diligence and to investigate the various warnings,
wantonly electing to rely upon the factually challenged representations and
statements of its self-appointed leader and purported founder, Danny Lee Shelton,
to their ultimate detriment.
Defendants reassert their constitutional right pursuant to the US
Constitution and the First Amendment thereto to continue to investigate and to
report on the conduct of the Plaintiffs. Further, by their written statements the
Plaintiffs and Plaintiffs' counsel clearly intended the filing of this action to result
in the silence of the press and as such would be a misuse of process pursuant to
the Defendants' right to freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom of
speech inherent in the US Constitution. Defendants further assert that the
Plaintiffs' proposed STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER GOVERNING
CONFIDENTIALITY is a contempt of the Honorable Court and a veiled effort to
impound discovery grossly violating the clear order of the court as the Plaintiffs
continue their efforts to sidestep local rule 7(a) in an effort to avoid full disclosure
to the contributing public.
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