The zombywolf report
Well Folks, here we are back in court after almost a year since the trial. Lets just say that inventing a solution to modem speed, enabling the entire streaming industry to exist, never goes unpunished. It appears that there are those that believe that their minor contributions to the success of our case are to be compensated well above those that made the success happen in the first place. Pretty sad state of affairs, and there are a couple of people here that should be ashamed of themselves, JMO. There should have been plenty to go around for everyone here, but it appears that is not the case. Off my soapbox now.
The Motley Crew has been whittled down to three at this point-zombywolfmom, long term and yours truly. Tireless warriors for the group, we have still had at least one member at every hearing since the beginning. We arrived at the same time, and proceeded through the gauntlet at security. I finally smartened up and didnt wear a belt, risking a commando event of a vertical smile to the court. But that would have been an inadvertent perfect comment to the goings on here today.
We spent the usual time in the hallway prior to the hearing with the lawyers. Our Delaware lawyers were the first to introduce themselves to us and find out who we were. Two nice fellows-Brian Crawford and his partner. Found out that Steven Rader was not coming, thought that unusual as this was about him, but OK. A little later, another gentleman approached us-introduced himself as Akiva Cohen-Deirdre's lawyer. Very friendly and open gent- made a positive impression on us. The Chanbond lawyers were there as well, but Whitman was not there and he is the one we have spoken with in the past. I wouldnt take from this that that the one who showed up-Steven Brauerman was a problem because we didnt talk, he is just more reserved. We did get to speak with him later.
In to the courtroom we go. Nowhere near the attendance of earlier hearings, just the lawyers, a couple of court staff, the judge and us. The hearing starts out with the judge asking where Steven Rader was, and went downhill from there. I have never been in any hearing where I have seen a judge as angry as she was about Rader not showing up. We sat there stunned- it was a "Holy Crap, we are screwed" moment. It was that bad. I have to say that we felt bad for our Delaware lawyers, as they had to suffer a major beatdown for something that they didnt create. It got so bad that Brian had to stand at the podium with his head down and quietly murmur a sad defense of the indefensible. She was slamming them with questions she wanted Rader to answer, but they were unprepared to respond with any clarity.
Then Steven Brauerman got his chance to discuss things from his perspective, and it wasnt pretty either. During that time the judge asked him what in his opinion should be the sanctions levied against Rader.
Brauerman described the interactions he had with Rader. Usually he said he has had cordial professional relationships with opposing counsel, but not here. I forget some of it, but he slammed Rader's behavior such as hanging up the phone on him a few times and some other less than professional antics he felt was a problem. When you combine that with not showing up today, made his statements even more credible to the judge. Then the judge asked him what sanctions, in his opinion, should she impose on Rader. He proposed what you saw in the letter follow up to the judge that was posted on Pacer yesterday. After all that, Cohen got a chance to address the judge.
This was the fun part. A little background from earlier in the hearing is necessary, During the judge's multiple tirades, which got so bad she had to sit back in her chair and rub her face, she talked about the inadvertent release. There was some back and forth between her and Brauerman about the disposition of the release and whether it was deleted. It came up that it was finally deleted, but Rader had released the information by email to peeps unknown after the deletion. So Cohen gets to the podium and started a discussion about a message board. Guess who he was referring to, lol! He turns around with a big smile, and points out the Motley Crew to the judge. We wave, look as innocent as possible, and listened. He told the judge that he thought the release information was posted on the board and if she could do something about it. During this, I held my hands up in a "Who Me" gesture, hoping the judge would recognize me for a statement that it was not true. Almost had the first instance of a board member making an appearance in the case!! She basically said there wasnt much she could do about the board. Then Cohen and the judge basically stated that if anyone knows info from the release not to post it.
Then things wrapped up. The judge wanted letters from both sides by today, Brauerman said he would submit on Tuesday, Crawford said Wednesday. Then an interesting thing happened.
Cohen came over to us and we spoke about the board. We stated to him that we never saw anything from that release on the board, nor are we aware of anyone that had the information. We laughed a little bit that all the lawyers get a charge out of reading the board. Then Brauerman came over and joined the conversation. The judge had made a comment during the hearing that she thought the shareholders were in the wrong venue, our argument about UOIP and Chanbond belonged in the Delaware Court of Chancery. He said the same-that is where we belong. Also, another thing came up from both of them-there is a shareholder derivative case by Deirdre going on in NC vs Billy and Chanbond. We need to look into that. There were two cautionary notes added by those two lawyers-need to pay attention to the amount of legals we bring, as the cost will reduce any payout. Also, watch out on getting the control of Chanbond away from UOIP-then Deirdre gets everything. That is particularly important with what we may have as a lawyer-any mistake he makes on that front could be huge. The judge also questioned why there was a lawyer from CA in the case, She said this case is concerning a Delaware corporation and needs to be heard in a Delaware court. Wonder who made that statement before? It was remarked that we need a Delaware lawyer in the Court of Chancery to do what we need to happen for control of UOIP. Seems to me that Brian Crawford is just the guy we need now. If Rader gets sanctioned and kicked off the case, might be the best solution.
