VICTORY! The Jonmon lawsuit is over! Dismissed voluntarily with prejudice by the plaintiff

[ron_newman]

My awesome lawyer Dan Booth has just informed me that Jonathan Monsarrat's lawyer has filed a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal With Prejudice. This means that the case is OVER, against all defendants, named and unnamed, Doe and Buck alike. "With Prejudice" means that it can never be filed again, against any of us, for any statement in any of the exhibits that were attached to the complaint.

Johnny Monsarrat and his lawyer tried several times to reach a settlement agreement with Dan and me, but for various reasons we ended up rejecting each proposal. In the end, he has simply given up, without any mutual agreement, public or private.

Here's the official text of the notice:

NOTICE OF VOLUNTARY DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE

Pursuant to the provisions of Mass. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(i), the Plaintiff, Jonathan Graves Monsarrat, in the above-captioned matter, hereby files and gives notice of dismissal, with prejudice and without costs to either party, as to Deb Filcman, Ron Newman, the Doe Defendant identified as Doe Defendant "srakkt" in paragraph 51 of the Amended Complaint, whose real name is Richard James Scheffler of Somerville, Massachusetts, and John and Jane Does 1-99, as defendants in the Amended Complaint.

ETA: If Johnny had not voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit today, Dan Booth was ready to file this motion to dismiss and this supporting memorandum on Monday. (The supporting memo is the more interesting document.) It would be a shame for Dan to go to all that trouble and not be able to share his work, so I'm linking it here with his permission, for your legal edification.

Comments

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

For the record, I never suspected you of being a JonMon spy. I also think the defenses of Rickland were justified. I even wrote some myself. Even when the former JonMon employee spoke up, I saw no reason to assume Rickland was anything other than another victim. In a lot of ways, I think Rickland might have been the most abused in all this, having been forced to deal with bits and pieces of this BS while tending to his wife's medical needs. It was profoundly stupid or profoundly cruel, possibly both, for JonMon to list Rickland's contact information on the press release.