Espinosa, a former courts reporter for the North County Times, filed the claim himself after four lawyers declined to do it ... Ahhhhh... That explains it a LOT better. It's good to have Freepers who can fill us in on those little, nagging details that the writer of the original story somehow failed to include.
Thanks mucho from all of us.
That surely explains it. He knows he can get "nuisance money" to make the suit go away.