The Observation Deck

My response: I am not interested. Do not initiate further contact.



On Jan 17, 2017, at 10:11 PM, Rick Uldricks <rick.uldricks@patch.com> wrote:

Hi DL!

I want to extend an invitation to you to blog for Patch, I think you'd be a perfect fit!

In addition to writing articles, signing up allows you to add events to the Patch calendar - a great way to promote things like library events, city council meetings, etc.

As a blogger, your stories will benefit from reaching a large, targeted, local audience and Lakewood is one of the most engaged communities in the Ohio Patch network!

Sign up is easy via this link: https://register.patch.com/sign-up

A brief tutorial can be seen at the following link: http://patch.com/ohio/cleveland/post-yo ... news-patch

Please share with anyone you might think would be interested.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.



--
Rick Uldricks
Patch UGC Editor
Email: rick.uldricks@patch.com
Find your Patch: www.Patch.com
You can post directly to Patch! Click here to get started!

How interesting.

At 6:00pm you post a comment about the Uldricks lawsuit on the Deck, a mere few hours later he contacts you.

Coincidence?

I think not. I think someone has impulse control problems.

Bridget Conant wrote:How interesting.

At 6:00pm you post a comment about the Uldricks lawsuit on the Deck, a mere few hours later he contacts you.

Coincidence?

I think not. I think someone has impulse control problems.

Why would AOL send this predator into our midst again? Does AOL have background on their ACE reporter?
I mean I know his close friend Colin brought him in first time at Patch.

How did he get a job at Patch? I bet with the help of City Hall employees that sent this predator into our lives with a Lakewood shirt?
As the Richimond Heights police said, "Without the help of Secret Service, they would have gotten away with it." Wait, "they?"
Monumental failure at City Hall, or Safety Director is a thug and hires criminals.

Jay Carson head of Build Lakewood knew exactly what he was dealing with when he was bragging to police about getting me, Markling, Essi, and others.

Luckily, I still have many friends in City Hall that felt it was sickening what they did.

Stay tuned, in my defense, we uncovered truckloads, that Chief Malley said, did not exist.

.

Colin McEwen, the Lakewood OH Patch guy was hired by city of Lakewood. They hired Steve Fitzgerald from the Lakewood Buzz. They hired Rick Uldricks from the Lakewood Citizen. O'Bryan never got the nod.

Thinking back on those hires makes me wonder. Why would you want to hire all of "the cyber" guys except O'Bryan?

I believe that the suit was partly because city hall was and is still afraid of the true information being brought out on the Deck. If you notice, it appears that Summer's and Extended Company have a team of trolls that patrol the Deck constantly. I have named them the "Summer's Deck Watchers".

A little off subject, but, speaking of Linda Bebee, I believe that the Ohio Department of Education and the State of Ohio Auditor's Office need to do a complete audit on the Lakewood City Schools. I feel that since our school board is mostly made up of Summer's Extended Company members, and with the alleged fraud and money laundering happening here, and the new school buildings costing more than what was budgeted, the tax payers need to be very careful before we start giving this city any more of our money. Most of these people have been on the school board since God nailed the world together, and yet, they didn't know how to write up a contract that protects the tax payers from such large over costs? Or did they knowingly do it for "other" means? More to come on this subject shortly.

Thank you Jim for allowing all of us to post what we want here. Sometimes, we may make each other mad, but, we are always forgiving!

Lori Allen _ wrote:Thank you Jim for allowing all of us to post what we want here. Sometimes, we may make each other mad, but, we are always forgiving!

Thank you, a great thought.

Keep the rest of that stuff out of this thread. This and others are about to go on amazing journeys. The the Kindt style of posting, documents, facts, timelines, audio tapes, and videos. For all of our enjoyment I will include some of the fabulous art and photos also featured over the years.

I was very happy to quietly finish the book, help on the screenplay, but some people just don't know how to stop and move on.

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Jay Carson head of Build Lakewood knew exactly what he was dealing with when he was bragging to police about getting me, Markling, Essi, and others.

That says a lot about Jay Carson. Like the mayor, he presents his "nice guy" persona in public. And, like the mayor, he was plotting revenge for imagined butt hurt.

None of these "civic leaders" want to sully their phony "nice guy" reputations, so they find a guy that they can throw under the bus if their plan falls through.

Real nice, guys.

The attempt to silence the Observer has some similarities to the Gawker - Hogan lawsuit and brings up some interesting questions.

Wrestler Hulk Hogan sued Gawker Media for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress for publishing copies of a sex tape he made with the neighbor's wife. The protracted litigation and multimillion dollar suit bankrupted Gawker and forced its sale.

Then an interesting little bit of info comes out. Billionaire Peter Thiel financed the lawsuit, spending millions of his own dollars to continue pursuing the suit. Why spend his own money on Hogan's suit? Because years earlier, Gawker had exposed the fact that Thiel was gay, much to Thiel's dismay. Thiel hated Gawker and vowed to do whatever he could to ruin them, which included helping finance anyone who he could find to sue Gawker. He actually encouraged and paid for a few other cases, as well.

Hmm, so here in Lakewood, might we have a similar situation? We know for a fact that this lawsuit was conceived and planned months earlier with the intent to punish and silence Jim and the Observer. Several of the key players in this farce have the means to finance a lawsuit. It begs the question, who paid for the lawsuit?

Considering the lengthy original and amended complaints, subsequent motions submitted, the multiple hearing appearances by both of the plaintiff attorneys, court fees, research, letters between the various attorneys (those are a treat to read), subpoenas, interrogatories, and so on, I'd bet you're looking at tens of thousands in legal fees on the plaintiff's side. That's a lot of money.

One possibility is that it was taken on a contingency basis, meaning the lawyers would only recover costs and get paid if and when they won and obtained a judgement. Most lawyers won't take contingency cases unless they have a VERY strong case AND a real likelihood of being able to collect on a judgment. Given that, I doubt ANY lawyer would have agreed to take this particular case on contingency. In fact, defamation cases are notoriously difficult - the percentage of successful suits is very low. Indeed, it would have been spectacularly poor judgment to accept that case on contingency, particularly because it's a specialty area of personal injury law and Wegman, Hessler, and Vanderburg do not list it as one of their practice areas.

So what have we here, then? A law firm that improvidently took on a sketchy case and is now out quite a bit of money and resources or, the other possibility, is there a financial backer who was paying for the suit? And if so, whom? Who might have spent their money with intent to ruin the Observer?

We may never know. I mean, who would ever admit it? They'd be the laughingstock of the town. But still, it's fun to speculate.

I see there's a balance due for court costs that were billed to the plaintiff.

Wonder who will pay and when?

I agree with Ms. Conant that it is highly unlikely that the lawsuit was taken on a contingency fee basis. I also concur with her conclusion that a considerable amount of funds were expended in the effort. My best guesstimate is that plaintiff's legal fees ran between $5000 and $7500 per month. Could be lower; could be higher. In my opinion, the subpoenas that were issued were an abuse of process and should be sanctioned by the court.

Why? The lawyers that issued those subpoenas did so with a full understanding that the materials posted on-line were fully protected by the First Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. This has all the hallmarks of a "strategic lawsuit against public participation" better known as a SLAPP suit.

Agreed.

I believe that a Motion for attorney fees and even sanctions would be approved. The judge was not amused.

The only thing really amusing was that SOMEBODY on that side is stuck with a rather hefty bill.

All I can say to whoever financed the suit is - you are a loser, in so many ways!

It is a shame that Judge O'Donnell doesn't appear to have the same morals and ethics as the judge that presided over this case. I believe in the end, we will find that O'Donnell has a bigger roll in Lakewood issues than we first thought.

The two cases are entirely different, Lori.

The Uldricks case was a frivolous lawsuit, quickly dismissed.

In contrast, the suit against the city, CCF, and LHA is a serious suit that happens to be very complicated. Besides having multiple defendants, it has literally thousands of pages of documents obtained from discovery and many depositions. These things take time to analyze and assemble for final arguments. I expected that case to take a long time. If the case was meritless, it would have been disposed of long ago.

Bridget,

Different, maybe, because it appears the judge was fair, or there was not enough evidence to support the suit, which probably is more likely. Similar because of the fact that Summers and Extended Company appear to be using their friend Armond to "rig" the courts in their favor.

Those that believe Judge O'Donnell has been fair in regard to the hospital case had better wake up before it is too late, if it isn't already. Judge O'Donnell has been involved in some scandalous activities. I have posted them here on the Deck awhile back. They concern housing fraud and fake mortgage companies involving mostly minorities.

This man is NOT for saving the hospital. When all is said and done, I allege he will be a bigger part of the city take over than most want to believe.

As we speak, it appears Summers has sent another one of his Extended Members, who is an attorney, after another outspoken SLH member with another frivolous law suit. Lord, when are you gonna stop? How about taking care of all our broken down plows, garbage trucks, police vehicles, crime, etc., instead. Oh, that's right, we don't have any money!

I allege that our tax money is probably already sitting in an overseas bank account. Lord Lakewood, are you planning on leaving town soon in a hurry? Just curious.

As we speak, it appears Summers has sent another one of his Extended Members, who is an attorney, after another outspoken SLH member with another frivolous law suit.

Since law filings are public records, can you post who sued whom?