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Is a threat to distribute public documents extortion?

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Samsmall

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Hawaii

A holistic doctor in my town beat-up a friend of mine on my friend's property in an apparent steroid rage. The doctor is an aging body-builder and rumor has it that he takes steroids to keep himself pumped up. His actions certainly correlate to steroid rage.

Regardless of the cause, my friend called the police who took a report including a medical report documenting the severity of the beating. The doctor himself was so upset after the beating he gave my friend that he went to a third neighbor and confessed his actions.

My friend was granted a restraining order against the man who beat him. In an effort to resolve the matter through mediation the restraining order was removed, I believe "without prejudice" (it can be reinstated) so the two could meet face to face. The Doctor has refused to meet face to face and has said to the common friend who was attempting to mediate that he will never agree to provide financial compensation to my friend for the loss of income he suffered (at least 2 months he was unable to perform his work as a fine instrument maker).
There are many of us in the community that are deeply disturbed by the doctors actions, let alone the prospect that he's taking steroids. We were urged by the mediator to stay quiet in the community as part of the hoped for negotiation.
Now that it's clear there will be no negotiated settlement it's our intention to publicize the facts to the community at large and to the professional organizations we know the doctor is active in, for example, copies of the court documents and police reports, mailed to members and posted in public places.
Since the documents we intend to distribute anonymously are public documents I understand that we are not slandering, libeling and defaming his character unduly nor illegally. However, in our desire to be fair to the man, we'd like to warn him, motivate him as it were, to make right his wrong and compensate my friend for his loss, without destroying his reputation. This is where I start to get worried that we are practicing extortion, or that the doctor will accuse my friend of extortion.
So what are the range of acceptable actions we can take? Can we print quotes from the neighbor who took his confession that day? Can we distribute photos of my friend's black eye? We thought to take out fake want-ads in the local paper's personals seeking to date "any wholistic healer in town who enjoys steriod use" as a way of creating a buzz around the issue - guerilla tactics.
Any thoughts on the matter are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
 


doc, it hurt when you did that

I'd have to agree with belizebreeze, even though I don't think that releasing non-exempt records to the public would be actionable. Libel, slander cases typically involve statements etc made by a person who KNOWS them to be false. Even if the plaintiff can demonstrate this, he would have to prove damages.

A few months back, in the midst of being cruelly harassed by an exgirlfriend (hundreds of calls a month etc) I started faxing schools in her area where I knew her kids were enrolled because law enforcement was unable to locate her to serve a warrant related to her actions. I wrote on the notices (which, by the way, led to her arrest) that she had a warrant for her arrest, and invited her to sue me. She got arrested, and I didn't get sued.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
Samsmall said:
What is the name of your state? Hawaii

A holistic doctor in my town beat-up a friend of mine on my friend's property in an apparent steroid rage. The doctor is an aging body-builder and rumor has it that he takes steroids to keep himself pumped up. His actions certainly correlate to steroid rage.

Regardless of the cause, my friend called the police who took a report including a medical report documenting the severity of the beating. The doctor himself was so upset after the beating he gave my friend that he went to a third neighbor and confessed his actions.

My friend was granted a restraining order against the man who beat him. In an effort to resolve the matter through mediation the restraining order was removed, I believe "without prejudice" (it can be reinstated) so the two could meet face to face. The Doctor has refused to meet face to face and has said to the common friend who was attempting to mediate that he will never agree to provide financial compensation to my friend for the loss of income he suffered (at least 2 months he was unable to perform his work as a fine instrument maker).
There are many of us in the community that are deeply disturbed by the doctors actions, let alone the prospect that he's taking steroids. We were urged by the mediator to stay quiet in the community as part of the hoped for negotiation.
Now that it's clear there will be no negotiated settlement it's our intention to publicize the facts to the community at large and to the professional organizations we know the doctor is active in, for example, copies of the court documents and police reports, mailed to members and posted in public places.
Since the documents we intend to distribute anonymously are public documents I understand that we are not slandering, libeling and defaming his character unduly nor illegally. However, in our desire to be fair to the man, we'd like to warn him, motivate him as it were, to make right his wrong and compensate my friend for his loss, without destroying his reputation. This is where I start to get worried that we are practicing extortion, or that the doctor will accuse my friend of extortion.
So what are the range of acceptable actions we can take? Can we print quotes from the neighbor who took his confession that day? Can we distribute photos of my friend's black eye? We thought to take out fake want-ads in the local paper's personals seeking to date "any wholistic healer in town who enjoys steriod use" as a way of creating a buzz around the issue - guerilla tactics.
Any thoughts on the matter are greatly appreciated.
Thanks

**A: oh brother, it's gorilla tactics.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
Samsmall said:
Um, well actually, a gorilla is an animal; a guerilla is a warrior, but thanks for your two cents.

**A: that's what I meant. Animal tactics. Do you have pretzel logic?
 

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