Mordecai Tendler Writes to Judge Neal A. Cabrinha

The Saga of Mordecai Tendler and The anti-SLAPP law continues

November 15, 2006

The Honorable Neal A. Cabrinha
Judge of the Superior Court
Superior Court of the State of California
191 North First Street.
San Jose, California 95113

Re: Tendler v. John Doe
No. 1 06 cv 064307

Dear Judge Cabrinha:

I am the Plaintiff in this matter and am acting pro se. I understand that you ruled against me and now a claim for tens of thousands of dollars is being made and I have not had the opportunity to defend myself.

For approximately the past two years, I have been the subject of a concerted and constant internet campaign to destroy my reputation, livelihood, and family. Disgusting allegations of sexual impropriety, all of them false, have been circulated about me and amplified in such horrific proportions, as only can happen on the internet. I have been the subject of internet harassment though thinly veiled threats of physical harm. (For your information, I filed a complaint with the FBI and met with FBI agents about the threats; I don't know the status of my FBI complaint.) These allegations and threats have, in fact, destroyed my reputation as a rabbi and teacher, and have caused me hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in actual and future damages.

Defending myself and attempting to restore my reputation has occupied virtually all of my time for the past 18 months. However, an effective defense is impossible when I do not know who is attacking me. You see, your honor, the sources of the allegations against me are anonymous. That’s right; these ugly statements, rumors and innuendoes have circulated far and wide with such destructive impact while the sources of the attacks hide behind a cloak of internet secrecy. The individuals making these claims have refused to step forward and have their defamatory claims examined in the light of day or allow me simple due process. The threats have been made under the cloak of internet anonymity.

Attached, for your information, are but a few of the literally thousands of internet pages containing the vitriolic, hateful, threatening and clearly defamatory attacks against me (and, sometimes, my family). The blogs I subpoenaed also acted as instigators, soliciting others to harass and defame me and my family. I believe that they conspired with each other and with others to create an environment where it would be fashionable and proper to say the most outrageous things as long as the statements would be harmful to me and my family. I also believe that at least one of the subpoenaed blogs was used freely by its owner as a “reputable source” from with to quote as if quoting a news source in an attempt to shield its owner from defamation liability; in reality, the quoted materials were libelous lies used intentionally to destroy me. Anyone logging on to any of the blogs I subpoenaed (or the blogs in the attached pages), especially the archives from 2005 and the first half of 2006, will see how horrible this is.

Whether materials on these blogs is defamatory is a matter for the courts to decide in actions which I am pursuing and will file appropriate and frankly easily accessible courts; I was compelled to come cross country to California merely seeking names from Google, not to bring my defamation action there. Once I uncovered who these bad actors are, I can pursue and prepare my case for defamation and any other claims. But as the reader can see, these bloggers are dedicated to hurting me and my family; they should be subject to full legal liability for their words and actions. I am entitled to find out who these people are so I can exercise my legal rights.

In an effort to break through the veil of secrecy so I could determine who is making the claims, threats and in order to defend and proceed against them. I filed a defamation action in Ohio. In that action, valid subpoenas were issued to Google to determine the identities of some of the most egregious defamers in this sorry affair. (as you see in the attached pages, the bloggers who were the subject of my subpoenas play prominently in the horrible attacks against me.) Those bloggers then called in “free speech” lawyers who then went to town attacking me anew to stop the subpoenas.

I believe that this really should have been a simple matter. I find out who is attacking me so I can defend myself and take whatever legal actions I can against them. But these bloggers don’t want to be uncovered; like poisonous snakes, they stay hidden so they can inject their damage again and again. They want to continue to do their damage and spread their filthy vicious lies with no accountability.

First, as you can see from the tiny sampling of the attached pages, I have really been defamed; I was made the subject of a campaign of internet harassment, and have been impliedly threatened with serious physical harm. Sure, I will need to take legal action to pursue my claims, as I have already done, but whether or not these disgusting statements are true or false is not the issue presented to the California judicial system. I am not a person of substantial financial means and cannot be traveling cross country litigating. I believe that as a direct result of the cascade of defamation on the internet, I was fired from my job. I have lost my professional reputation and I simply cannot afford to travel and have a lawyer in California.

Second, I am not a government or other public official. I hold no public position. I am a private individual who has been defamed. The SLAPP law has zero application to my attempt to find out who has damaged me.

I know that these “public interest” lawyers who are acting for the anonymous bloggers, in an attempt to paint a ridiculous picture that the SLAPP law should apply to me, filed affidavits of two “rabbis” trying to connect the dots that those who have defamed me must stay anonymous out of some ridiculous and frankly false pretension that the people who have both threatened my life and defamed me fear retaliation. You should know that these two “rabbis” have played prominent and I believe very active roles in spreading false allegations against me (but, I am told, that maybe for now their carefully crafted public statements of which I am presently aware, have fallen just short of actionable defamation). The bottom line is that I was defamed. I have been anonymously harassed over the internet and I have a real defamation and harassment claim to be litigated. I am not a public figure, and the SLAPP law should have no impact on my action.

The false allegations against me have become the subject of several lawsuits in New York. I am told that the identities of some of the anonymous bloggers will very likely be exposed in one or more of these cases. Therefore, when Google took every possible opportunity to delay giving me the names so these “public interest” lawyers acting for the bloggers could file their action against me, and faced with very large New York legal bills and the possibility of another $10,000 - $20,000 to fight the California SLAPP action, I agreed to drop the Ohio action and withdraw the subpoenas.

With limited and rapidly dwindling financial resources, I also could not pay a California attorney to defend the SLAPP action. (I only hired a California lawyer earlier to get the subpoena confirmed by a California court so Google would obey.) I decided to defend myself. I figured that it would be a relatively simple matter to defend myself in this subpoena action. Little did I know that would not have the chance to respond while representing myself. Before having the opportunity to send anything to the court and without knowing of any time issues, your honor ruled against me. I regretfully did not have the chance to make my case.

Now I am told that a claim for almost $50,000 has been made against me to pay the lawyers in the SLAPP action. How they can build up $50,000 in a motion which I was not even served with papers after my lawyers withdrew and I did not even have a real opportunity to contest because of my not being a lawyer is beyond me. The present claim exposes the anonymous bloggers for what they are really trying to accomplish. The SLAPP law was designed to help citizens exercise their Constitutional rights without fear of retaliation. The bloggers are abusing the SLAPP law by using it to stop me from exercising my Constitutional rights.

This is a case of abuse of law and process by the anonymous bloggers who have used the internet to threaten me with physical harm and subjected me to outrageous defamation.

This is a case where someone is being shut out from his rights to not be threatened with physical harm and defamed. It is also about finding out who has harmed me. The information was and still is necessary.

This is also a case where someone who cannot afford a lawyer is being unfortunately penalized by lack of familiarity with the procedure of the courts in California. I have not had the opportunity to defend my rights on the merits.

I truly feel the anonymous bloggers have engaged in a blatant and undisguised attempt to use the law and the courts for improper purposes.

I respectfully ask your honor to please not let this unfair result stand. I therefore request that your honor consider this letter a formal request to un-do the order which granted the bloggers request for attorney fees. I also request that you consider my request that subpoenas be issued to Google in the interest of justice.

Not being a lawyer, i am not aware of the procedures involved in making requests to the court nor how to properly respond. Nonetheless, I request that the court excuse any failure on my part as I did not know that a response was due from me after my lawyer withdrew as attorney.

As you see, I have a meritorious claim and the request from the bloggers’ attorney is simply without any merit whatsoever.

With my best wishes, I remain

Very truly yours,
Mordecai Tendler