Well, I have a stalker again. It’s been nearly 3 years since I had any direct contact, and over 2 years since settling out of court regarding the civil stalking protection order I had been granted by a federal judge for over 90 days. Instead of marring this poor fellow’s record I was sympathetic and was willing to settle. I regret this and now I have to start the whole process over, but at least there is a record of it all. I just got back from the City Prosecutor’s office and I’ll be seeing a federal judge again in less than 2 weeks. I have learned a few months ago that this guy was a patient at Harding Mental Hospital and was diagnosed with Schizophrenic Tendencies. There are some police detectives that are part time actors in MOFA that took a look into this guy’s past when he started sending harassing emails to some of the women who run that group. Why was I surprised to learn he is a former mental patient? I shouldn’t have been, but I was.
With my recent foray into the political arena, believing in an artist’s right to control their copyright, I made a parody video viciously attack both gubernatorial candidates. This prompted a fairly quick personal attack from my stalker. He made a parody of my parody video. In this he accuses me of being a horrendous lude acts, along with personal insults about being overweight, talentless, and the usual comments he makes in regards to me.
Of course, making an account with the name “Sonnyboo Sucks” and making baseless claims are possibly protected by Fair Use and Parody Laws, they are not however covered by the TERMS OF SERVICE AGREEMENT someone signs when they register for an account and upload a video. Most rational, intelligent people would understand this, but we are dealing with someone who is obviously mentally imbalanced. His account was suspended and the video deleted. He will only use this to reinforce his delusions as opposed to learn from this or possibly find something better to do with his time.
What’s weirdest to me though, is that this guy puts in his blogs, in these videos, and posts and emails to me things like calling me “talentless”, or “Fat” or “Worst Filmmaker Ever”… like I’m in the 3rd grade and will actually be emotionally hurt by this. I don’t really get it. Am I supposed to get upset or suddenly make a realization… as if I was not aware I was fat? Or arrogant?
I learned over 10 years ago that not everyone will like your movies. Get used to it. For every great film ever made, there are plenty of people who think it sucks. I sleep just fine at night knowing this schizo doesn’t like my movies. I didn’t make them for him or people of his tastes. I wasn’t aware that I had to. This is common sense to a normal person, but I believe he sees things as being about him, as he most likely suffers from episodes of paranoia. The single biggest piece of evidence is that belief that I am out to get him even though I’ve made no attempt to contact or refer to him in almost 3 years, since 2007.
Trying to make a positive statement here, I accept that people will watch my early and recent works and think it sucks. That’s just something that will be as inevitable as death and taxes. Criticism and opinions are something everyone putting their work in front of other people will have to learn to live with. I’m fine with it. Even when someone can’t articulate why, but think your movie is bad, it is a valid opinion. It’s not really criticisms per se, but they have this opinion and you cannot change it, nor should you.
What this means is that the insults aren’t really insults to me. I don’t get it. I’m not really bothered by fat jokes or being judged talentless or just YOU SUCK statements. I’m just not sure why anyone would find them effective, at least not as effective once you get out of elementary school. If I had any sensitivity left in me towards those kinds of comments, 4 years of horrible reviews for HORRORS OF WAR eradicated them. I still like that movie, but it has a ton of flaws. I knew what they were before every reviewer on the planet blasted the movie. It doesn’t change what I like and don’t like about it. People are entitled to their opinions.
I guess if I were to attempt an equally juvenile response, I would dare him to pretend he’s normal and go 60-90 days without reading this blog to prove he is sane and rational. If you visit the site at all or read one word, you will in fact prove you are a paranoid schizophrenic and need to be admitted to a hospital. And you’re short and funny looking too.
I keep track of visitors to my website. Before assuming it is ego, there are direct business reasons to do so when you have commerce on the web. I will do a marketing push and I can see what pages people are visiting, for how long, what they download and what they don’t. Also seeing which countries or states visit my sites the most reflect who my targeted audience is for a web video or download and I can clearly see the affects. I also get to track the IP addresses. It tells me what sites they were on before and after mine. Sometimes this paints a pretty clear picture as to who is reading this blog…
One single person in Los Angeles and LaMirada California has visited this blog over 200 times in the last 14 days alone; that’s nearly 15 visits a day. Average time on each page is 1 minute and 43 seconds. That equates to 36 minutes A DAY reading this blog. When Vimeo’s in house counsel verified the IP address to my lawyer as being consistent with one that has logged in as one or more of the aliases the stalker has used, we made our case. (Being from a wealthy family has its benefits with lawyers and retainers)
Obviously, we are dealing with someone with a mental illness. I don’t think they can recognize that this amount of focus and attention on me, who has ignored him for 3 years, is “unhealthy”. When you can’t see the reality that I’m not interested in any form of contact, but still insist on making videos about me or writing about me will equate to me having to resort to pushing for the fullest extent of the law and in civil court.
I’m not offering any compromises. My attorney says we have to go for both the civil and criminal courts to make sure that this person does not attempt to contact me directly or indirectly, like with videos or responses on other sites.
My lawyer thinks it might have been a mistake on his part to not push for this before, but we didn’t know about his history of mental illness. That would have changed everything. I have no sympathy for someone who seems incapable of recognizing the boundaries of the law, or even reality. He says since he’s out of state that actually benefits our case because it becomes a federal case instead of a local one, and the punishments are more severe. It also makes his actions more in the criminal arena than the civil suit, but we’re going for both. After years of ignoring him, he’s still just as obsessed. It has to stop. Since he can’t stop himself, the law will have to suffice.
I can’t believe I have to send someone to jail or a mental institution because they obsessed for years even without contact, but I will do everything to make sure this joker either gets the medical help he needs or is wasting away obsessing in a jail cell. No more warning letters. This is the last I will write about the matter online. You would think that coming as close as last time to getting a Civil Stalking Protection Order against last time would have been a deterrent, but as my friends tell me… HE’S CRAZY. YOU’RE NOT DEALING WITH A NORMAL PERSON. So I won’t treat him as such, especially learning about the history of mental illness.
All I wanted was an apology and to be left alone. Now I’m in full legal mode and the train left the tracks this today.
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