{"id":2435,"date":"2024-08-02T18:40:54","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T22:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/?p=2435"},"modified":"2024-08-02T18:46:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-02T22:46:54","slug":"case_update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/2024\/08\/02\/case_update\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonard Johnson v. Town of Prosper, Paul D. Boothe, Doug Kowalski – Quick Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

July 14th<\/sup> marked the first anniversary of filing the Civil Rights lawsuit against the Town of Prosper. Now granted, the lawsuit wasn\u2019t complete until all parties could file their responses to the lawsuit. That was completed on November 21, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that said, I\u2019ve been asked about the status of the lawsuit a few times. I decided to share some updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has there been any movement by the court on the case \u2013 the answer is no. However, there has been some interesting activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in May, the SMU folks reached back out to me over a decision from the 5th<\/sup> Circuit of Appeals. Well, I found out some folks like to dig into this case stuff and read it from front to back, so I included that decision below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They wanted to file a supplemental case of an authority on my case. In a nutshell, they wanted to attach this ruling to my case. I told them, go for it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I read the first sentence from the 5th<\/sup> circuit \u2013 I nearly fell out of my chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who worry that qualified immunity can be invoked under absurd circumstances: Buckle up.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, it\u2019s just my personal opinion, but after I read through this document, the 5th<\/sup> Circuit judge was pretty much fed up with the abuse of qualified immunity. Do I believe in QI, sure. Do I believe that it\u2019s abused \u2013 yes, I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, for those who do not want to read through the boring shit and just want to know the brass tacks of how this relates to my case \u2013 is all about the independent-intermediary doctrine. If you do a quick Google search, you\u2019ll see it\u2019s defined as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The independent-intermediary doctrine provides that \u201cif facts supporting an arrest are placed before an independent intermediary such as a magistrate or grand jury, the intermediary’s decision breaks the chain of causation for false arrest, insulating the initiating party.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, in summary, if the police take a case with all their research and stuff to a magistrate or grand jury and then THAT entity draws the same conclusions as the police \u2013 then claims like false arrest are mute. And of course, QI stands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my case, that\u2019s what the defendants are claiming for QI \u2013 is that the judge and grand jury came to the same conclusion and that I was a vast criminal mastermind \u2013 which broke the chain of causation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That brings me to the 5th<\/sup> circuit appeals document below. It states that two Houston police officers let a drunk driver go and then arrested a good Samaritan \u2013 claiming he was impersonating a peace officer. The 5th<\/sup> circuit denied the QI claim (in the appeal below)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Granted, our initial similarities are quite intriguing, this guy being arrested for impersonating a peace officer and mine for impersonating a public servant. However, that is not the main tie-in with my case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The argument presented by the plaintiff in the 5th<\/sup> Circuit appeals case is the same in my case: when officers cull facts and create or manipulate evidence to support their narrative \u2013 the independent-intermediary doctrine should not be applied. I mean if you think about it, that means those other entities (judge, grand jury) are making their decisions on bad data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If any more traction shows up, I\u2019ll be sure to post it.<\/p>\n\n\n22-20621-CV0<\/a>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you read through this – felt really bad for this guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 14th marked the first anniversary of filing the Civil Rights lawsuit against the Town of Prosper. Now granted, the lawsuit wasn\u2019t complete until all parties could file their responses to the lawsuit. That was completed on November 21, 2023. With that said, I\u2019ve been asked about the status of the lawsuit a few times. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"\n

It took almost six months, but now, finally, the brief is completed! Below is the defendants counter to our last reply in this brief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n[pdf-embedder url='https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Dkt-19-Boothe-Kowalski-MTD-Reply.pdf']\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, those 10 pages are full of vitriol and character attacks. My lawyer warned me before I read this, that it was pretty bad, and that. It would be hard for me to digest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years ago, I was a manager of one team and friend of mine was a manager of another team. He was terrible at his job to the point he was going to be replaced. Then he started just throwing his employees under the bus on everything that came back to his team. In meetings, when they were not present, he\u2019d make them out to be the worst employees ever. I learn one of my most valuable lesson to date with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To take focus of yourself and wrong doings \u2013 you have to make someone else look worse. That\u2019s what is going on here. I have to be a bad guy \u2013 the villain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few observations on my part. In their response We went from the impersonation of a public servant to the reality of how phishing crimes are related to probable cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my previous post, I explained in simple terms, Phishing is the fraudulent practice of manipulating people via emails, texts, websites or phone calls into disclosing sensitive information.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us define what sensitive information includes: usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, bank account information or other important data to sell or leverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I requested no such thing. The information that I\u2019ve requested Was the number of cases open and closed, org charts, etc. I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s not considered sensitive information, since a lot of that information now exists on the town of prosperous website. It all falls into the public realm on a public information request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up is my favorite quote from the above:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaintiff apparently has no grasp of the blatant stupidity which frequently accompanies criminal conduct; \u201cobvious misspellings\u201d do little, if anything, to alert law enforcement that the potential suspect is a self-professed lampooner of local politics.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, I thought they were talking about my original requests and that maybe I misspelled something. However, that\u2019s not what they are talking about. They are pretty much saying how fucking stupid I was because I misspelled Jeff <\/strong>by using Geoff<\/strong> when I was executing my master plan of impersonating a town councilman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Really, I have to say, that\u2019s a hard fucking sell. I mean, I can\u2019t even fathom the outright stupidity of someone actually purposing that in an actual legal brief. It\u2019s one of the most laughable things I\u2019ve seen so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last thing I will comment on is this piece of text:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the Plaintiff\u2019s skewed world view, impersonating an elected official is somehow acceptable if done in the context of making a Public Information Act request.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This line is a gem in itself. As everyone knows (with the exception of the Town of Prosper, Paul Boothe, and Chief Kowalski) that ANY ONE can use ANY NAME to make a public information act request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could use any name I wanted. However, the reason this was such a gem \u2013 is because \u2013 I WAS NEVER CONVICTED OF AN IMPERSONATING AN ELECTED OFFICAL.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the defendants keep attaching documents from the Prosecution, they tend to leave out the whole order by the Judge to quash this case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quash<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of filing a motion to quash is to challenge the legal sufficiency or validity of the document or proceeding in question. When a motion to quash is filed, the court will review the arguments and evidence presented by the party filing the motion, as well as any opposing arguments.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The great part about my day in court when my case was quashed \u2013 the DA didn\u2019t oppose it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the Town\u2019s Motion to Dismiss (below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n[pdf-embedder url='https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Dkt-20-Town-MTD-Reply.pdf']\n\n\n\n

I have very little to comment on the Town\u2019s Motion to Dismiss. It's only seven pages and again a lot more case law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we wait on the courts. There are any number of outcomes that could present themselves. This can include anything from dismissals, hearing arguments, not to dismissals, 5th Circuit Appeals, and back. At this point we just wait on the courts. I will keep everybody updated on what happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonard (Buster) Johnson & Roxanna Johnson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2435"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2440,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435\/revisions\/2440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bonesnap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}