Posted on 03/23/2007 3:25:50 PM PDT by radar101
March 23, 2007
DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO
A local Minuteman leader whose home was searched by San Diego police Wednesday has now been sued for defamation, along with an associate.
Joanne Yoon, a former San Diego State University student, filed the lawsuit yesterday in San Diego Superior Court against Oceanside resident Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen, and fellow anti-illegal immigration activist Ray Carney.
According to the complaint, Yoon, 24, was working as an independent contractor for the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego last year. She monitored the activities of the Minutemen at day labor sites as a coordinator for the San Diego Legal Observer Coalition.
The suit, which includes a Web posting and e-mails allegedly written by the defendants, says that Schwilk and Carney repeatedly referred to Yoon in e-mails and on the Web in vulgar terms.
Neither Schwilk nor Carney could be reached for comment yesterday.
In the lawsuit, one Web posting attributed to them shows a photo of Yoon surrounded by day laborers, with the text insinuating that she is a prostitute: “She really is popular or very inexpensive. (Hey Joe . . . Five Dolla-Five Dolla),” the text reads.
Yoon is Korean-American.
The posting concludes with an offer of $50 to anyone who can find her home address.
Daniel Gilleon, a San Diego attorney representing Yoon, said his client, who now lives in Los Angeles, was attacked in terms of her race and gender.
“She was scared,” Gilleon said. “Not that all Minutemen are this way, but Minuteman groups have provided racists a method of voicing their hate.”
He said Yoon did not wish to comment on the lawsuit, which seeks $1 million in compensatory damages. The idea, he said, “is to deter this kind of conduct.”
Police served a search warrant at Schwilk's home this week, seeking evidence as part of an investigation into a vandalism attack on migrant worker camps that occurred in January. A search warrant was also served at the home of Julie Adams, a Rancho Peñasquitos woman. Police searched the home of Schwilk's ex-girlfriend Christie Czajkowski last month, confiscating computer and video equipment.
Leslie Berestein: (619) 542-4579; leslie.berestein@uniontrib.com
That is despicable!
The truth is, she doesn't charge; she GIVES it away free.
Legal advice to illegals, that is.
>>She really is popular or very inexpensive. (Hey Joe . . . Five Dolla-Five Dolla<<
Can be interpreted to mean she is looking for some kind of work other than prostitution. Furthermore, that could be just a bad joke. I doubt anyone with normal intelligence would be led to believe that she actually was a prostitute by reading that text.
No doubt the judge, if he is so inclined, will be able to feel his way around this problem.
..Can be interpreted to mean she is looking for some kind of work other than prostitution. Furthermore, that could be just a bad joke.,,
C'mon, that's wishful thinking, aka "spin". All I said was it looks like the woman has a case.
Libel and slander are tricky things... It's British law, I know, but one of the most famous libel cases of all time involved a newspaper critic implying Liberace was gay. He won... and "cried all the way to the bank".
Of course, saying someone is gay -- if they are -- is not libellous, but if they aren't and it's done maliciously, that's another story. Same thing, I think (is they a lawyer in the house?) with prostitution. Being in the porn industry (and she seems to have only been a critic and fan of cartoon porn, not a producer or actor or writer) doesn't make you a prostitute.
>>C'mon, that's wishful thinking, aka "spin". All I said was it looks like the woman has a case.<<
As if defense (and prosecution) lawyers don't "spin" like crazy in court.
In the "Hustler Magazine v. Falwell" libel case:
>>The jury was not convinced that a typical person reading the satire would have thought that Jerry Falwell really did make the statements in question or have sex with his mother in an outhouse.<<
I certainly think the comment was in bad taste, but if the "$5" statement quoted is all that was written, it is preposterous to call it libel. This is Calfornia, though, so anything is possible.
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