Reflex Media, Inc. v. Doe No. 1

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedJune 2, 2020
Docket2:18-cv-02423
StatusUnknown

This text of Reflex Media, Inc. v. Doe No. 1 (Reflex Media, Inc. v. Doe No. 1) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reflex Media, Inc. v. Doe No. 1, (D. Nev. 2020).

Opinion

1 Mark L. Smith (#14762) msmith@smithwashburn.com 2 SMITH WASHBURN, LLP 6871 Eastern Avenue., Suite 101 3 Las Vegas, NV 89119 Telephone: (725) 666-8701 4 Facsimile: (725) 666-8710

5 Attorneys for Reflex Media, Inc.

6 7 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

8 DISTRICT OF NEVADA

9 REFLEX MEDIA, INC., a Nevada Case No. 2:18-cv-02423-RFB-PAL Corporation, 10 PLAINTIFF REFLEX MEDIA, INC’S Plaintiff, MOTION AND MEMORANDUM IN 11 SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL v. DEFENDANT AARON WALLACE’S 12 COMPLETE RESPONSES TO FIRST SET AARON WALLACE, an individual, et al., OF JURISDICTIONAL DISCOVERY AND 13 TO APPEAR FOR A DEPOSITION Defendant. 14 15 Pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 36(a)(6) and 37(a) and Local Rule 26-6, 16 Plaintiff Reflex Media, Inc. (“Reflex”), by and through its counsel, hereby moves the Court for 17 entry of an Order striking all of Defendant Aaron Wallace’s (“Wallace”) objections and 18 compelling him to 1) respond fully to all interrogatories, 2) produce the documents requested in 19 all of Reflex’s requests for production and 3) admit to Requests for Admission Nos. 2, 5, 7, 16, 20 79, 80, 81, 82, 87, 95, 97, and 99. 21 In accordance with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a)(1) and LR 26-6(c), counsel for 22 Reflex has made a good faith attempt to resolve the discovery dispute giving rise to this Motion 23 through telephonic, email, and letter conferrals and asked for Wallace to retract his objections, 24 update his responses and produce documents. Despite these efforts, Wallace has refused to 25 cooperate in discovery and did not respond to requests for a telephonic meet and confer or respond 26 27 1 to Reflex’s meet and confer letter,1 2 and so Reflex is forced to ask this Court to enter an Order to 2 compel. MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES 3 I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 4 Defendant Aaron Wallace’s Responses to Plaintiff’s First Set of Jurisdictional Discovery 5 (“Discovery Responses”) fail to satisfy his discovery obligations. Wallace furnished almost no 6 information in answering Reflex’s Interrogatories, denied nearly every one of the Requests for 7 Admission, and produced not one single page of documents. Although Reflex will, in this Motion, 8 painstakingly list the many, specific deficiencies in Wallace’s Discovery Responses, those 9 deficiencies can be summarized as a refusal to engage in discovery by a litigant who apparently 10 doesn’t want or believes he has to participate in discovery. 11 Discovery is currently limited by this Court’s order to jurisdiction and includes identifying 12 the owners of www.PredatorsAlerts.com, www.PredatorAlerts.com; www.PredatorAlerts.co and 13 PredatorsAlert.com (collectively, “PredatorsAlerts”). Wallace has failed to comply with the 14 Court’s order by not providing any documents and only minimal information, even where 15 information and documents clearly do exist. And Wallace is actively attempting to quash third- 16 party subpoenas that might supply some of these documents and information that the Court already 17 said are relevant to jurisdictional discovery. And this is especially inappropriate considering that 18 at the March 11, 2020 hearing that authorized this discovery, Wallace’s counsel said that Wallace 19 “should be more than willing to disclose and help assist in any acts–in any discovery which would 20 show the true identity of those behind this alleged extortion scheme.”3 21 Instead, it appears that Wallace’s strategy is to obstruct, delay, and refuse to cooperate in 22

23 1 See Declaration of Mark Smith in Support of Plaintiff Reflex Media, Inc’s Motion And Memorandum in Support of Motion to Compel Defendant Aaron Wallace’s Complete Responses 24 to First Set of Jurisdictional Discovery and to Appear for a Deposition (the “Smith Decl.”) at ¶¶ 18-21; see Exhibit 17 that is comprised of emails between counsel showing that Reflex attempted 25 to arrange a meet-and-confer telephone call. 2 The Smith Decl. also authenticates Exhibits 1 to 17 attached hereto. 26 3 See Relevant portions of March 11, 2020 Hearing Transcript and Order at 8:21-24, ECF No. 174, (hereinafter, “Transcript and Order”), Exhibit 1. The Court stated “[t]he transcript of the hearing 27 will be the opinion and order of the Court.” Id. at 11:3-4. 1 any way. So far, Wallace has refused to agree to: (1) a routine protective order regarding 2 documents that he or third-parties have/or will produce, and (2) appear for his noticed deposition 3 and (3) a discovery extension to allow several subpoenaed third parties additional time to produce 4 documents during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns and (4) for him to be deposed with the 5 information provided through written discovery and third-party subpoenas. 6 This litigation involves an extortion scheme wherein thousands of people, including 7 members of Reflex’s websites, had their identifying information along with an allegation that they 8 engaged in some unlawful activity like “paid money for sex” (or similar) posted to one or more of 9 the PredatorsAlerts websites and had to pay to remove it. An email from one of the PredatorsAlerts 10 websites indicated to a Removal Outlet (a business whose clients pay it for the removal of negative 11 information from the internet), that PredatorsAlerts’s predecessor is ExposingJohns.com, which 12 engaged in the same business as its successor. Defendant Wallace has also now admitted that he 13 was the owner of this predecessor website, which he operated at least in part through the 14 innocuously named companies, Rep Ten, LLC and Internet Income, LLC, but now insists that he 15 left the business. With this in front of the Court on Wallace’s motion to dismiss, Judge Boulware 16 ordered jurisdictional discovery and specifically stated: 17 I will allow that discovery to be focused on and directed towards identification of the owners and operators of these PredatorAlert websites and any correspondence or 18 connection through payment, correspondence, or other means that Mr. Wallace might have to these or related websites. And I would permit the taking of one deposition 19 of Mr. Wallace as it relates to any information that's obtained.4 5 20 On May 22, 2020, Wallace served his responses to the discovery requests propounded on 21 him; a combination of the relevant parts of Plaintiff’s First Set of Jurisdictional Discovery 22 Requests to Defendant Aaron Wallace—including definitions—and Defendant Aaron Wallace’s 23 Response to Plaintiff’s First Set of Jurisdictional Discovery is included as Exhibit 2 (“Discovery 24 Requests and Responses”).6 Despite the Court’s detailed instructions above, Wallace has 25 4 Transcript and Order at 9:3-9, ECF No. 174, Exhibit 1 (emphasis added). 26 5 See also ECF No. 166, March 26, 2020 Jurisdictional Discovery Plan/Scheduling Order. 6 Because Wallace objected to every single discovery request propounded on him, it would be an 27 1 specifically objected based on relevancy to requests regarding his and his companies’ financial 2 statements (including transaction statements), the identification of the persons involved in 3 ExposingJohns.com, and questions regarding Wallace’s and other persons involvement in the 4 PredatorsAlerts websites, as well as a host of other questions that are undoubtedly relevant to this 5 case and to jurisdictional discovery. It appears that Wallace attempted to provide only the 6 information that Reflex already knew and denied everything else. Further, Wallace asserts 7 numerous boilerplate objections including “General Objections,” which he incorporates into every 8 single one of his responses, and objects to several definitions set forth in the Discovery Requests 9 for known associates of Mr.

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Reflex Media, Inc. v. Doe No. 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reflex-media-inc-v-doe-no-1-nvd-2020.