Photo and blog post by John HoffIt's just a little story, the kind of issue my "hyper local blog" covers for the benefit of my neighborhood: a new philly sandwhich and gyro place has opened in the former Jug Liquor Store at 226 West Broadway, right across from BJ's Strip Club. The new place is called "Pappy's."
As reported recently on this blog, BJ's is going away and will be replaced by a liquor store to be known as Gopher 94. Residents have mixed feelings about another liquor store in North Minneapolis.
There was a bit of a neighborhood joke about the former Jug Liquor, which was consistently referred to as "Jugs Liquor." The liquor store was right across from a strip club, and its name was "Jugs."
Get it? "Jugs" is a vulgar term for breasts. Well, thank goodness that's gone away and "pap" is not another name for a breast.
Hey. Wait a second. Did I say NOT? Check out this definition on Dictionary Dot Com, click here.
My word, how did this happen TWICE in the same location?! Coincidence? I think NOT! More like a CONSPIRACY.
But let's talk about free speech. I'm addressing this part of the blog post directly to Larry Flynt.
Larry--I hope you don't mind if I call you "Larry"--I am currently involved in a free speech court battle, click here for a recent news article.
It's not as prominent as your conflict with the Reverend Jerry Falwell, as depicted in The People Versus Larry Flynt, but it's picking up steam all the time...
In fact, just today I read a draft of my lawyer's brief and we cited your case, Hustler v. Falwell.
Thank you, Larry. Thank you for fighting that case for free speech. I'm getting some milage out of it, let me tell you!
You see, in June of 2009 I wrote a blog post about a former community leader who was involved in mortgage fraud. Here's a link to the infamous blog post in question, click here.
I wrote that a former executive director of a neighborhood organization had been involved in a high-profile fraudulent mortgage at 1564 Hillside Ave. N., as documented by "repeated and specific evidence" in Hennepin County District Court.
That case sent a man to prison for 16 and 1/2 years, but Jerry Moore was never charged. Attempts were made to sue Moore for involvement in the mortgage fraud AFTER he sued ME for defamation for saying he was "involved." But we couldn't get evidence of that civil lawsuit into court in the defamation trial. Also, Jerry Moore was, by his own admission on the stand, the subject of a subpoena issued as part of the criminal investigation into State v. Maxwell, the mortgage fraud in question. And, always, there was the burning issue of the $5,000 check made out to Jerry Moore as part of the dubious deal, a check for "windows."
The house--a wreck about ready to fall over on its own--clearly didn't have any new windows.
INVOLVED? Oh, my word, Jerry Moore was INVOLVED.
After being fired from the neighborhood association for outrageous conduct this same guy--Jerry Moore--somehow obtained a job researching mortgages (stomp stomp) as part of a taxpayer funded program at the University of Minnesota. Like your nemesis Jerry Falwell, Jerry Moore was declared by the court to be a PUBLIC FIGURE, albeit a limited purpose public figure. Still, a public figure for purposes of whether I defamed him over mortgage fraud issues.
After days in court being tried over whether a SINGLE SENTENCE that I wrote was true or false, the jury ruled the sentence was TRUE. Yes, Jerry Moore had been involved in a fraudulent mortgage at 1564 Hillside Ave. N., as evidenced by "repeated and specific" evidence in Hennepin County District Court. I had written THE TRUTH.
And then (mostly due to a flawed jury form and Jerry WEEPING on the stand) the jury said despite writing the truth, I had to pay damages to Jerry for upsetting him and getting him fired from his mortgage research job. Hey, it wasn't like I wrote parody and said he had sex with his mother in an outhouse. Like you wrote about Jerry Falwell.
No, I wrote something WORSE.
I wrote THE TRUTH. Jerry Moore was involved in a mortgage fraud. Though not charged with the "big fish," there was ample evidence of his involvement to be found in the court system.
So now my little defamation case has somehow turned into The Blogosphere Trial of the Century. And I'm looking for help from "free speech heavy hitters" like you and Courtney Love.
Sir, I know you hardly need publicity. You get plenty of it. And your free speech-o-centric blog rocks, by the way.
But I'm asking for your help. If you can give me some help, I will publicly acknowledge your help. It's not hard to contact me. You can reach me through my blog.
Thank you, Larry, for your attention to this matter and for your free speech battles.
As reported recently on this blog, BJ's is going away and will be replaced by a liquor store to be known as Gopher 94. Residents have mixed feelings about another liquor store in North Minneapolis.
There was a bit of a neighborhood joke about the former Jug Liquor, which was consistently referred to as "Jugs Liquor." The liquor store was right across from a strip club, and its name was "Jugs."
Get it? "Jugs" is a vulgar term for breasts. Well, thank goodness that's gone away and "pap" is not another name for a breast.
Hey. Wait a second. Did I say NOT? Check out this definition on Dictionary Dot Com, click here.
My word, how did this happen TWICE in the same location?! Coincidence? I think NOT! More like a CONSPIRACY.
But let's talk about free speech. I'm addressing this part of the blog post directly to Larry Flynt.
Larry--I hope you don't mind if I call you "Larry"--I am currently involved in a free speech court battle, click here for a recent news article.
It's not as prominent as your conflict with the Reverend Jerry Falwell, as depicted in The People Versus Larry Flynt, but it's picking up steam all the time...
In fact, just today I read a draft of my lawyer's brief and we cited your case, Hustler v. Falwell.
Thank you, Larry. Thank you for fighting that case for free speech. I'm getting some milage out of it, let me tell you!
You see, in June of 2009 I wrote a blog post about a former community leader who was involved in mortgage fraud. Here's a link to the infamous blog post in question, click here.
I wrote that a former executive director of a neighborhood organization had been involved in a high-profile fraudulent mortgage at 1564 Hillside Ave. N., as documented by "repeated and specific evidence" in Hennepin County District Court.
That case sent a man to prison for 16 and 1/2 years, but Jerry Moore was never charged. Attempts were made to sue Moore for involvement in the mortgage fraud AFTER he sued ME for defamation for saying he was "involved." But we couldn't get evidence of that civil lawsuit into court in the defamation trial. Also, Jerry Moore was, by his own admission on the stand, the subject of a subpoena issued as part of the criminal investigation into State v. Maxwell, the mortgage fraud in question. And, always, there was the burning issue of the $5,000 check made out to Jerry Moore as part of the dubious deal, a check for "windows."
The house--a wreck about ready to fall over on its own--clearly didn't have any new windows.
INVOLVED? Oh, my word, Jerry Moore was INVOLVED.
After being fired from the neighborhood association for outrageous conduct this same guy--Jerry Moore--somehow obtained a job researching mortgages (stomp stomp) as part of a taxpayer funded program at the University of Minnesota. Like your nemesis Jerry Falwell, Jerry Moore was declared by the court to be a PUBLIC FIGURE, albeit a limited purpose public figure. Still, a public figure for purposes of whether I defamed him over mortgage fraud issues.
After days in court being tried over whether a SINGLE SENTENCE that I wrote was true or false, the jury ruled the sentence was TRUE. Yes, Jerry Moore had been involved in a fraudulent mortgage at 1564 Hillside Ave. N., as evidenced by "repeated and specific" evidence in Hennepin County District Court. I had written THE TRUTH.
And then (mostly due to a flawed jury form and Jerry WEEPING on the stand) the jury said despite writing the truth, I had to pay damages to Jerry for upsetting him and getting him fired from his mortgage research job. Hey, it wasn't like I wrote parody and said he had sex with his mother in an outhouse. Like you wrote about Jerry Falwell.
No, I wrote something WORSE.
I wrote THE TRUTH. Jerry Moore was involved in a mortgage fraud. Though not charged with the "big fish," there was ample evidence of his involvement to be found in the court system.
So now my little defamation case has somehow turned into The Blogosphere Trial of the Century. And I'm looking for help from "free speech heavy hitters" like you and Courtney Love.
Sir, I know you hardly need publicity. You get plenty of it. And your free speech-o-centric blog rocks, by the way.
But I'm asking for your help. If you can give me some help, I will publicly acknowledge your help. It's not hard to contact me. You can reach me through my blog.
Thank you, Larry, for your attention to this matter and for your free speech battles.
4 comments:
It's not free if it costs sixty grand.
You're right. While this case is unresolved, we still DO NOT live in a country with free speech.
Not all speech is protected. Your abuse of the 1st amendment is not protected speech.
If its true, then its not abuse!
They love ya Johnny Northside
http://technorati.com/blogging/article/bloggers-feel-a-cold-wind/
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