TMT Development requests venue change in wrongful death lawsuit
Defendants are being sued for $200 million; trial set to begin next week
Citing publicity, fairness, and employee safety, TMT Development has moved for a change of venue, from Multnomah to Washington County, in the wrongful death suit filed by the family of Freddy Nelson, Jr. As an alternative, TMT requested a “reasonable” delay in order to “subpoena information from the sources who posted” an “inflammatory” video that TMT claims was riddled with “misstatements of fact.” The motion for postponement was denied.
That video was taken down from YouTube¹ after TMT’s co-defendant Cornerstone Security Group complained about copyright concerns.
But TMT claims that the damage has been done, and the jury pool likely tainted. More interestingly, TMT claims that, since the publication of the video, they have received “harassing and aggressive calls and messages placing employees in fear for their own safety and the safety of their coworkers.” TMT provided a sampling of the messages as evidence — presumably the worst they received:
“What is [sic] like working for people who are murderers?”
“You hire fucking murderers? What’s that fucking like?”
“Why’d you guys hire someone to kill a man?”
Another declaration filed this week, written by the personal assistant to TMT’s CEO and President Vanessa Sturgeon, included screenshots of comments made on TMT’s Facebook posts:
“So, TMT hires untrained illegally armed thug Gestapo like Gimbel to murder retail customers!? Nice to know!”
“Are you going to trespass then [sic] too? Planning any execution by your security ‘team’?”
An additional comment, which was removed by Facebook, hoped “the same thing that Freddy Nelson Jr was given” to befall “all you fucks” and “pieces of shit that had a man executed.”
Most of those “harassing and aggressive” messages are actually valid questions likely to be raised at trial, which is probably why TMT and Vanessa Sturgeon feel so personally threatened by them.
TMT’s lawyer also complained about my work, as well — specifically this article — claiming that it “attacks the credibility of defense expert [Dr.] Michelle Guyton.”
The trial is set to begin next week, with pretrial motions — presumably including to change venue — being heard tomorrow.
¹ The more problematic TikTok offshoots have apparently been taken down, as well. I did not watch them all, but they seemed to have been made by armchair investigators adding a layer of commentary and opinion over the original video. That is, they were not created by people who pulled public records, read the case file, etc.
