Read the Unsent Draft Ron Coleman Prepared for BGG

Good morning, folks!

Today I'd like to share with you the other draft response that Ron Coleman put on the table last night for viewers to vote on. Of course, there were two real responses that Ron allowed YouTube viewers to pick from to be the official response to BGG from That Park Place. I don't think I've ever seen an attorney give YouTube viewers the chance to pick a response, but that's what you get from an attorney who has won at the Supreme Court level and also has 250K 𝕏 followers.

I want to reiterate, the following is the UNSENT DRAFT... it was option 2. Still, I thought it would be nice to allow readers of the Patreon to see it in its full extent. I'm copying the message body here, excluding the rest of the PDF that has things like addresses, phone numbers, etc:

_________

Re: Jay-Ann Lopez/Black Girl Gamers, Inc.

Dear Mr. Morris:

We represent That Park Place (“TPP”), its principals, and employees, and we write in response to yours of March 27, 2024. We have reviewed your demands and, on consideration, find them both meritless and ridiculous. Although it is not our practice to litigate substantively via correspondence, we are constrained to observe the following:

• The content to which your clients object consists entirely of protected opinions, accurate statements of fact or other non-actionable speech.

• Your demand that TPP cease and desist “from posting or displaying any videos and/or comments about Ms. Lopez and BGG” is preposterous and offensive.

• In the unlikely event that your clients have, in fact, been threatened with violence, any such threats would be abhorrent, but they cannot in any way be ascribed to the conduct of our clients. We recommend that your clients contact law enforcement to report threats.

• Our clients have made, and retain, a thorough record of the considerable changes made to your clients’ website in the last week, as well as their public statements related to this controversy. You may infer from this advice as your judgment and insight direct.

• Virginia’s recently amended anti-SLAPP statute, Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-223.2, provides courts with discretion to award attorneys’ fees and costs where defamation claims are filed based solely on statements protected under the First Amendment. The lawsuit threatened in your letter would unquestionably constitute such a case.

For these reasons, your demands are rejected in whole and we consider the matter closed, except that TPP demands an immediate retraction of the false and defamatory claim made by your clients on Twitter that That Park Place published articles “without prior fact-checking.” Please direct any further inquiries as may be necessary to the undersigned, by email.

Very truly yours, Ronald D. Coleman