ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT (SO FAR)
The following is a response to an email relating to a blog by Sharon Waxman published August 13 on waxword.com containing comments by whistle-blower Eric Hughes, among others. In her email Ms. Waxman, a respected journalist and non-fiction author, said she intends to “set the record straight.” I intend to help her.
TO: SHARON WAXMAN
www.waxword.
FR: WILLIAM RICHERT
Santa Monica, Ca.
RE: ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT
August 16, 2009
Dear Sharon,
Thanks for offering to set the record straight. Let us begin together to “untwist” what you called “twisted,” while I provide the specific facts you asked for.
First, the cast of characters:
Eric Hughes and Teri Mial are both former workers at the Writer’s Guild of America.
Screenwriter Eric Hughes (“Against All Odds”) donated his time to the guild as an official in the Credits Department and later ran for Present of the WGA based on his vow to clean up the hemorrhaging corruption he found in the credit arbitration department.
Teri Mial is a nine-year paid employee of the WGA, an affairs d’ charge in the foreign WGA foreign levy department until she was fired by Ellen Goldstone for threatening to kill her assistant. She now lives off her pension and “high six figure” whistle-blower settlement from the Guild’s lawyer, Tony Segall.
Both are “Expert Witnesses” in my 5 year lawsuit on behalf of American writers, RICHERT VS. WGAw et. al. although only Teri Mial has been deposed under oath.
Both Hughes and Mial have been informed by me in person and on the phone that I would do my utmost to record all conversations with informed witnesses in my case, and intended to record any/all talks with them as needed for evidence to present to a jury, in the event of a civil or criminal trial.
You may be aware of recent memory studies showing the propensity of factual dyslexia and other tricks memory can play – not to mention “I never said that” he said/she said claims on the part of for-profit whistleblowers.
This union lawsuit for fraud is not in the category of a smarmy celebrity divorce. It is an investigation of no less than five generations of fraud on the part of a trusted union – the WGA.
In legal defense of your allegations that I ever illegally taped any person (aside from the obvious issue of prior consent and/or blackmail on the part of Teri Mial): It would be negligent of me (or anyone else empowered in a class action lawsuit by no less than the 109th Congress of the United States) entrusted with litigation by a large group of writers not to make sure I keep accurate records, including tape recordings, of facts told me by the likes of Teri Mial, who has been paid $600,000 for what she DID NOT TELL AND CONCEALED FROM my lawyers on the day she was deposed.
She did admit, however, that she gave her secret documents -- removed “surreptitiously” night after night after work at WGA headquarters – to fellow whistle blower Eric Hughes. Mr. Hughes described to me more than once on the telephone detail after detail of what crowded his whole living room and den up on Camrose: criminal evidence.
Eric says he gave copies of incriminating documents and signed checks to the FBI, DOL, DOJ, Barbara Feinstein, Bob Woodard and Dave McNary, Richard Verrier, Dennis McDougal and among others.
I don’t think he gave any WGA docs to you, except partially. What portion of partial truth is truthful?
A while back, when he was calling between 5AM an 9PM daily (don’t accept calls later) Eric Hughes told me he was going to give documents to Sharon Waxman, but decided only to provide info on the SAG corruption, saving the hot stuff, the WGA stuff, for later.
Thus in 2008 you wrote about SAG levies but not the more explosive WGA thefts.
In California 2 party recordings are illegal except with both parties consent, and except when blackmail or extortion is involved.
Both conditions have been amply satisfied in any/all recordings the Lead Plaintiff of witnesses for the defense/prosecution Teri Mial and Eric Hughes
I obtained consent as a court-certified Class Representative for the 12,500 members of the WGA owed foreign levies – along with the tens of thousands of non-union American writers whose royalties never got to them.
Teri Mial was court-recorded in her deposition for my case in 2007.
I first told Mial I intended to tape record our future conversations in the hallway at Neville Johnson’s office in Beverly Hills, on the morning the deposition took place under his aegis and with WGA attorney Emma Leheny in attendance.
It was immediately after the deposition that Ms. Mial first informed me that Patrick Verrone and David Young were “In this up to their eyeballs.”
I said, “You’re talking about the President of the WGA and the Executive Director. May I quote you?””
“No, I can’t be quoted on this, not until I get all my ducks in a row,’ said Ms. Mial. – revealing this, mind you, right after a 90 minute deposition where she basically stonewalled the lawyers.
“What If I write about it anyhow?”
“Then I never said it,’ said Ms. Mial.
“Then darling, I hope you understand, but I’m gonna get a tape recorder and from now on I’ll tape you when I can.”
“I know how to handle myself,” was her response.
IRONIC, SHE WRITES
Ironic you say it’s “ironic” in your www post that I might tape record incriminating testimony of a “central witness” in my court certified class action lawsuit involving millions/billions of dollars intended for American writers – like yourself!
Ironic I should tape a “central witness” regarding her boss’s criminal activity. Except for my duty, why would I tape record Gary Coleman’s former manager? Am I some kind of groupie? What kind of groupie would I be? A Gary-Coleman-Manger aficionado? Union whistle blower confession recordist? Maybe I do sound sampling of the forlorn songs of Hollywood tipsters?
We filed a lawsuit almost 5 years ago because: My class and I want to know what happened to 97 million collected by the WGA in secret for 19 years, which is only 7 per cent of what they should have collected for American writers, screenwriters and authors; in real terms, this amount is nearer one billion for writers and heirs owed money.
Ironic, too, that you should rely on the email from one whistle blower – Eric Hughes – defending another whistle blower – Teri Mial – and yet you not interview the Lead Plaintiff, or ponder why you suddenly write about how Mial files her charges based on an email provided her by Hughes, apparently – one year ago!
Do you wait a whole year to break your stories?
Do you sense a kind of web here? A snare, perhaps? One you might be caught in?
TERI MIAL HAS HER OWN KIND OF ‘WRAP UP’
Ironic, too, that in 2008 Hughes sent you email all about SAG, and told you nothing about 140,000 pages (sic) of evidence given to him by Teri Mial about the innermost lawless workings in the WGA check-shredding department.
He did not give you the good stuff, just enough stuff in the “kill the chicken scare the monkey” style to scare the bejesus of the WGA so they’d run off in fright and drop their cash into his pockets to slow him down.
TOXIC PAPER
He does not supply waxword any genuine sampling of the thousands of pages in boxes of documents in his possession relating to criminal activity at the WGA, engaged in by Teri Mial, who was paid $600,000 from the WGA and its lawyers in a “settlement” – for what? Because she was fired for threatening to kill a co-worker?
Teri Mial got $600k because she indexed for Tony Segall (mouthpiece for the WGA and AFL-CIO) the incriminating documents she snuck out of her files, which she gave to Eric Hughes; I have including some of this in graphic non-fiction book, and given it to Two Superior Court Judges.
Ahh, as for me… I suppose there is no way a fighter can spend 5 years in the bowels of union litigation and come out smelling like a rose.
But most ironic of all is how unfairly I am displayed in your www blog epistle; i.e. a Plaintiff turned upside down by a whistle blower, abetted by “Reliable Source” internet journalist.
Ms. Waxman, I am not saying I am totally “good” in life, but I am saying most emphatically that I have not been a “loose cannon” but as true a shot as possible in the context of this roiling litigation, the import of which has been virtually ignored by all those writers who know nothing about this, and who not sitting in the courtroom.
Me: I stood in the courtroom with my 15 pages (or so) of objections to the DGA settlement you referred to in your post on foreign levies.
Where was Eric Hughes on the morning I stood in front of Judge West and – count ‘em – 9 lawyers, including Tony Segall? Where was Teri Mial? -- Or any other DGA/WGA/SAG members (except for JF Lawton) whose fortunes are so dependent upon the actions of their leaders?
DGA and SAG are institutions of immanent fiduciary trust; do they really need 9 lawyers and 2 Judges to force them to tell the truth?
Your inaccurate prose ignores my legal permission (from her and him) and manifest duty to factually record and tape Ms. Mial and Eric Hughes himself, a self-proclaimed archivist in all these matters, a man who told me he was working with and for the FBI.
[ BTW: It is illegal to disclose a secret FBI investigation, as Hughes has done in his comment to you.]
WHO YOU GONNA TRUST?
Along with certain correspondence with Teri Mial, attached to this email are documents from Judge Carl West of the LA Superior Court.
When writing about the DGA settlement, you said the “good news” was that members might finally get an accounting. You haven’t written about similar “good news” that might result from a settlement in my WGA case. It is a settlement with more bite, y’might say, than the smooch of the DGA settlement.
But your article could actually help improve it. Even if you misrepresented me and my class and my whole case, even if you verifiably insulted me, you gave the “mess” exposure, and that’s what it needs.
WILL YOU TELL IT ALL? LIKE YOU SAID YOU WOULD IN 2008?
I will supply you with back-up on this when you are back from vacation, and look forward to seeing what evidence you based your article on, beyond forwarded email, which is always suspect, a subject which the Washington Post has written about extensively, along with your own NY Times (we know the role Judith Miller played in bringing us to war.)
“BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE” IRONY ACCORDING TO WAXWORD
Erich Hughes writes that my letters have hurt Teri Mial’s family. Well, I got a family too, y’know.
It is ironic you should suggest I personally would harm any other human being with verbal or any other kind of violence, as inherent in harassment charges, when my last email from Teri Mial was an obvious death threat from her to me, not the other way around (as you shall read.)
It is ironic you suggest I might be recording whistle blower evidence when I was present at Mial’s recorded deposition in a lawsuit with my name on it, where I am a long-standing Class Action Plaintiff and when she as a fired employee (front page VARIETY) has not only admitted being paid “high six figures” for concealing evidence she gave to Eric Hughes, but when she has basically boasted about an “incident” in which she murdered her husband.
It is ironic that after I sent you material (months ago) relating to my most earnest efforts as class rep in this case, you choose to print “evidence” from Eric Hughes, whose website is older than the email you quoted, and missing nearly all the documents in his possession, many of which I have seen.
The sly snares and innuendoes in your post (originating with Eric Hughes?) cannot be allowed to enshadow or obscure the glaring facts in the “eternity” of this case, as Jude West referred to his time with lawyers from the WGA.
As you yourself declare in writing about the DGA settlement, “we will continue to share what we learn.”
Nikki Finke’s being taped by e-trade is an e-crime with her the only apparent victim.
My situation is far different.
Quoting 109th Congress: “the purpose(s) of this Act [class action] S.5—2 Sec. (2) restore the intent of the framers of the Constitution by providing for Federal Court consideration of interstate cases of national importance under diversity jurisdiction>”
RELIABLE SOURCES
QUOTING ERIC HUGHES (transcribed from tape):
“How dare you!
How dare you!
Fuck you!
Fuck you!
Telling me what to put on my website!
How dare you! My website kids are brilliant! Fuck you” [etc. for 3.7 minutes]
IT IS IRONIC MOST OF ALL that on Larry King Live you talked about the cataclysmic impact derogatory information shared on the internet can have on sensitive people, even leading to suicide in some cases.
Lady, I ain’t slept all that well since your internet post, maybe 72 hours ago, digitally divulging and then electronically globally universally flogging billions of bytes and pieces of your “reliable” information to family and friends and foes alike – maybe even into outer space and for all time. For all I know, yours will be the only blog burping in all of space should the nuclear dark age take place here on earth. A broadcasting Waxman Hubble, seeing and telling readers that hers are “Reliable Sources.”
And as regards “sensitive people” (Larry King Live) who might be hurt by bloggers like you – surely you are aware that writers (I am actually a writer earliest of all) are very sensitive, as and can be driven to distraction by being wrongly accused. There was an article, not long ago, which pondered whether writers should even have children (I do.)
And as regards a serious filmmaker like myself, with various projects proposed at financial institutions: being called a “loose cannon” is injurious to access of capital. Bad for business. Banks don’t give money to loose cannons.
And regarding my 5-year stint as Class Champion of a class action group that now includes All American writers, union and non union, owed money collected by the WGA. -- That’s a pretty big number to be tainted by your reporting. And you are aware of the injustice here as you have already written, as you said, “extensively” about it.
No doubt Mr. Hughes told you about the bullet hole in his t-bird windshield, which he claims was ordered by Robert Hadl, who Mr. Hughes claims was the mastermind behind the 1995 arbitration of THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, where the WGA allowed Robert Redford to be paid 5 million for the rights to my screenplay by Aaron Sorkin’s own company, Castle Rock, disabling my copyright.
It was Mr. Hughes promise to put all the conspiratorial actions by Sally Burmester, Carl Gotlieb, Alan Horn, Robert Redford et. al. on the internet, with documents in his possession.
When he was President, Dan Petrie wrote lies about me and sent them to every single member of the WGA. Ahh…Dan…
THE WGA DATES BACK 5 DECADES AND IT REMAINS UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE VERY VERY FEW
Mr. Hughes never did what he promised about that kangaroo court arbitration re “The American President/The West Wing”, and he did not put up on his website the thousands of pages of union corruption proof positive about the foreign levy fraud taken from WGA files “surreptitiously” by Teri Mial and given to him “surreptitiously.”
JF Lawton says he thinks Mr. Hughes is trying to blackmail the guild in much the same way Ms. Mial got hundreds of thousands of union funds to shush up, and in the same way erstwhile journalist Ross Johnson got nearly a million, according to Hughes.
Perhaps the 2004 WGA Presidential candidate (running as his platform an end to bogus credit arbitrations) thinks that if my settlement is derailed, and an accounting does not take place under court supervision, and with his whole house full of Department of Justice papers and undelivered checks signed by Patrick Verrone, Eric Hughes may be hoping to settle for 7 figures from the guild for shush-ment.
Rather than portray me as a vigilant litigant driven to protect the interests of his (her) writer class against all odds, Waxword decides to shame me.
You quote Eric Hughes (apparently; you didn’t name your source), about the declarations of Teri Mial -- a whistle blower front page VARIETY reported was a woman accused of threatening to whack the woman at the next desk - as if she were an FBI authority; and you quote my “admission” from an email one year old – sent to you when you told your readers you’d tell them everything – but you don’t quote the distinguished LA Superior Court Judge West, who is deciding RICHERT VS. WGAw et. al.
On March 23rd of this year, at the LA Superior Court, in front of my attorneys and the attorney’s for the Writer’s Guild of American, Judge West said from the bench that ‘’Mr. Richert, you are a leader. -- Now lead.”
JUSTICE DELAYED
Attached are two documents Eric Hughes did not send you.
(Neither of them are yet available on my website. (www.williamrichert.com -- sorry, the blog is a little out of date. I’ve been busy.)
Today’s first attachment is a pretty obvious email death threat to me from Teri Mial, who has already pulled off at least one murder (by her own calculation.)
The second attachment is a transcript of an open court hearing before Judge West with representatives from all parties attending.
As you see, “There is more” (to quote you.)
By your obvious desire for a zippy piece on Hollywood shenanigans before rollicking off on vacation (no doubt deserved) you have placed my life and reputation in real danger, and by calling this Lead (Named) Plaintiff a “loose canon” you have dealt a serious blow to the interests of my class of American writers.
You will, I hope, aspire to correct all of this soonest.
You will, I hope, demand that Eric Hughes send you the rest of the documents in his possession relating to the email(s) he sent to you, so defamatory to me, along with copies of the undelivered checks signed by current and past union accountants, including the 13 boxes of files taken from the WGA by Teri Mial.
And if you please, also ask Eric Hughes to send along his documents he promised to produce regarding “THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT/THE WEST WING” RICHERT V. SORKIN pre-arbitration, which deprived me and my partner Kyle Morrois of our constitutional rights. relating not only to the current WGA Board of Directors but also to Sally Burmester, Cathy Reed, Julia Bingham ( head of Castle Rock Business Affairs and then Mrs. Aaron Sorkin), Rob Reiner, Carl Gottlieb and John Wells et. al. among others.
(“Never Forget;” “The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.”)
I have fought a long hard fight against a bad -- actually a rotten, thieving, mendacious -- union that should have nothing to do with writers of conscience, now or ever; period, end of story.
However, since neither the WGA accountants nor the board of directors seems to want to the follow in the footsteps of Fastow and Skilling as yet, and since you are on vacation, and my class has a pending court hearing, I shall, as you ask, confine myself for the present urgent moment to this brief wrap-up to allow you to “set the record straight” about current inaccuracies being disseminated among the masses at this millisecond via your published article.
Eric Hughes and Teri Mial are opportunistic whistleblowers working together to undermine a settlement it has taken me a long time to see as ultimately beneficial to the class of American writers I represent.
Before this current onslaught by Mr. Hughes and Ms. Mial, as shown in your article and comments on it, it appeared a settlement was near, only needing to be approved by Messers Verrone and Young and the WGA Board of Directors, including John Wells.
It’s different now, with these personal attacks on me and my positon as Lead Plaintiff, along with my discovering I may be under investigation for a felony by the LAPD without my knowledge.
True or not, the Hughes/Mial allegations are a smear and any settlement with the guild by me or my class must in future include protections and defense for the personal safety of me and my family, and my reputation for truthfulness.
Throughout this entire lawsuit, I have adhered to the course of my duties, as defined by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the contract I signed to be Class Champion for writers owed royalties and recognition.
(FYI, a long time ago, in 2003, there were about 500 million devices connected to the internet; today there are billions of connected devices, even in Venezuela and Bolivia and Brazil, even in Jerusalem and Tehran, even in Nigeria – why not Zimbabwe? – in Detroit and Philly, on Columbus Avenue, at Mr. Chow’s and The Grill, including cars and cell phones, not to mention youtube style interviews as on your website – wherever writers are, in fact, reading your description of me as a loose canon, you must tell both sides of the story – especially, and most profoundly for Subclass 3, is that this be done at once since the coming settlement (or trial) will impact them too, (I just used a noun as a verb excuse me.)
Surely it is a puzzlement in the simple test of drama that two whistle blowers would charge a named plaintiff like myself with whistle blowing, especially with all the documents they have to support me against them.
During this long ordeal I have often thought of myself as one of those lonely scientist in a bathysphere, connected by a delicate tube to earth above, watching Eric and Ross and Teri like wiggling hagfish sucking on the fetid carrion of the great monstrous whale of a lie that has become the Writers Guild of America.
Patrick Verrone and David Young are the bosses at the WGA and are in direct charge of the conduct of this litigation, RICHERT VS. WGAw et. al. They tell Sony Segall what to do.
Instead of coming clean with their members – and non members -- they have thus far chosen to fight or stonewall any settlement that would expose them to possible charges of fraud and conversion (conspiracy was not charged, but ought to be explored.)
These are the same men behind the hundred-day WGA strike that put thousands out of work, some forever, never to return, to benefit a few hundred “union” hirelings, making gigantic fees.
Me, I’m part of a vanishing breed, a writer of original screenplays and novels; my kind are almost extinct in Hollywood, due to the number of companies and financers now out of business from that which David Young called “the havoc I’ve wrecked.”
You are a writer who’s tracked down loot from antiquity; it should be easy for you to imagine what’s happened to the 97 million (representing only 7 per cent of the take) the WGA has amassed since 1990.
Quoting Teri Mial (transcribed from tape) “Subpoena me! Subpoena me! I’ll sing like the greatest canary you ever saw!”
Quoting Judge Carl J. West, William Richert and Neville Johnson in LA SUPERIOR COURT, room 311, Monday, March 23 2009 10:00AM:
From Court Transcript:
MR. RICHERT (to Judge West): YOUR HONOR, I THINK YOU'VE BEEN HERE FOR ALMOST FOUR YEARS. I'M NOT SURE.
THE COURT (to William Richert): I'VE BEEN HERE FOREVER IT SEEMS LIKE, AND WHEN I GET A CASE LIKE THIS, IT SEEMS EVEN LONGER.
MR. RICHERT: IT'S AMAZING THE TINY AMOUNT OF RESULT THAT'S TAKEN PLACE IN TERMS OF THE SETTLEMENT. YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SETTLEMENT YET. IT'S SIX OR SEVEN PAGES OF A COVERUP AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, AND THAT IS NOT -- YOUR HONOR, I'M NOT TRYING TO BE EMOTIONAL ABOUT THIS. I JUST CAME OVER THE PAST WEEK, AND PART OF IT HAS TO DO, I GUESS, WITH MADOFF AND ALL THE OTHER ISSUES THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN OUR COUNTRY, AND I JUST SEE, OH, BOY, THAT'S WHAT'S GOING ON HERE, AND IT ISN'T LABOR LAW, YOUR HONOR. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH LABOR. IT'S A PLAIN OUT AND OUT OLD EMBEZZLEMENT, AND I THINK I COULD PROVE IT WITH WHAT I GOT RIGHT HERE, AND IT'S NEVER BEEN GIVEN TO YOU.
(RICHERT HOLDS UP STACK OF EVIDENCE)
THE COURT: MR. RICHERT, THIS IS YOUR VIEW. KEEP AN
OPEN MIND. AT LEAST SIT DOWN WITH THE PEOPLE WHO PUT A LOT OF EFFORT IN TRYING TO REACH AN AGREEMENT THAT PURPORTS TO BE FROM SOME PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE IN THE BEST INTEREST OF
THE PEOPLE YOU ARE HERE TO REPRESENT, AND TAKE A LOOK AT IT
AND WE'LL SEE WHERE WE GO FROM THERE.
MR. RICHERT: THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
THE COURT: NOW IN THE INTERIM, WE NEED TO ADDRESS THIS
ISSUE OF THE DEATH OF OUR CLASS REPRESENTATIVE, AND I DON'T
KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING WITH THAT. YOU WANT TO HOLD -- I CANCHECK WITH JUDGE HIGHBERGER. I DON'T KNOW WHAT HIS SCHEDULE WILL PERMIT. OR DO YOU WANT TO MAYBE GO OVER
THERE NOW AND THEN COME BACK AND TELL US WHEN YOU COULD GET SOMETHING SCHEDULED.
MR. JOHNSON: THAT'S FINE, BECAUSE WE NEED TO CALL GROSSMAN AS WELL. AND THEN WE CAN --
THE COURT: I'D LIKE TO SEE THIS HAPPEN WITHIN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS, 30 DAYS AT THE OUTSIDE. I MEAN I'M WILLING TO STALL TO GIVE PEOPLE A CHANCE TO AT LEAST SIT DOWN IN A ROOM AND TALK ABOUT WHAT'S ON THE TABLE, BUT AT SOME POINT WE GOT TO PULL THE PLUG. I MEAN I'M FAIRLY COOPERATIVE WHEN PEOPLE SAY WE'RE WORKING ON SOMETHING, AND WE'VE HAD A LOT OF BUMPS IN THE ROAD, AND NOW WE GOT MORE THAN A BUMP. WE HAVE ONE OF -- WHAT DO THEY CALL THOSE THINGS WHEN THE ROAD COLLAPSES AND GOES DOWN INTO A BIG SINK HOLE.
MR. JOHNSON: EARTHQUAKE.
THE COURT: NOW WE'RE HAVING SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE SERIOUS HERE THAN A BUMP IN THE ROAD, AND WE GOT TO DEALWITH THESE ISSUES. AND, MR. RICHERT, YOU CAN'T COME IN HERE – YOU ARE THE CLASS REPRESENTATIVE, BUT I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU
COME IN AND SIT IN THE BACK AND JUST TALK ABOUT THINGS THAT
BOTHER YOU. IF YOU THINK THAT YOU NEED DIFFERENT REPRESENTATION ON BEHALF OF THE CLASS, YOU MAY NOT PROCEED
IN PRO PER, IN OTHER WORDS, WITHOUT A LAWYER AS A CLASS
REPRESENTATIVE. I HAVE TO HAVE CLASS COUNSEL. AND SO AFTER THIS NEXT ROUND OF A MEETING WITH JUDGE HIGHBERGER AND MR. GROSSMAN, IF WE CAN'T MAKE PROGRESS, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO REGROUP AND REORGANIZE HERE.
IF YOU WANT TO BE THE LEADER IN CHARGE, YOU GOT TO ACT LIKE A LEADER, AND YOU GOT TO HAVE SOMEBODY TO REPRESENT YOU, AND WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO GET INVOLVED HERE IN HOW WE'RE GOING FORWARD. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?
MR. RICHERT: I DIDN'T INTEND TO BE THE LEADER, YOUR HONOR. IT JUST TURNS OUT I'M IN FRONT OF THIS PARADE THAT I'VE DISCOVERED.
THE COURT: WELL, WHATEVER IT IS, THAT'S WHERE YOU ARE, AND YOU GOT TO STAND UP AND DO WHAT'S NECESSARY, OR ELSE I'M NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO LET YOU BE THE LEADER.
MR. RICHERT: I'LL DO THE BEST I CAN, YOUR HONOR.
THE COURT: ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
Ms. Waxman, you are a respected reporter who has written in-depth and fairly dealt with issues as contentious as those between Palestine and Israel.
This fight is not in that league, but it lies within your range of observation. This is a different kind of battle, about copyright and union trust. Now that you’ve started, I trust you will continue to do what’s necessary to “set the record straight.”
Sincerely,
William Richert
RICHERT VS. WGA et. al.
Filed LA Superior Court 2005- ?
CASE NUMBER: BC339972
Ps. Today is Sunday, August 11, 2009.
Since writing the above I just checked your website and found Eric Hughes’ letter to you and Paul Kiesel declaring that I knew about any LAPD investigation is false. Your article states that, and without attribution.
With the revelation you’ve been talking to Hughes, I recognize this assertion by Hughes as another of his attempts to destroy -- by any means, apparently -- all hopes of a fair settlement in RICHERT VS. WGAw et. al.
My own acceptance of a settlement was prompted by cogent arguments from two highly respected Superior Court Judges, along with my lawyer Paul Keisel.
Yes, several months ago I returned a rather imposing call from a voice on my answering machine saying he was a Los Angeles Detective and wanted to “talk” to me.
Instantly I returned the call, and spoke to a Detective. When I asked what he wanted to “talk” about, he said he’d “talk” about it when we met. I then inquired, as I have been trained to do, if I might tape record our conversation. There was a pause, and he said “Hmm. Haven’t thought about that. Maybe I should tape record it too.”
The Detective who told Eric Hughes that I said I would “happily” meet with him may further recall that in our speakerphone conversation he did not tell me about any investigation by himself or anyone else.
Then the Detective asked me to call him the following week to set up an appointment. I said I’d call, and I did call the following Monday, spoke to a person who answered the phone “77”. Always curious about cops, since I write so much about them, I asked what “77” stood for and he said that referred to the number of Detectives in his group.
I left my name and number for the detective and since that day I have never heard back. Contrary to Hughes, the Detective did not mention any names at all in his call. He certainly did not speak the name Teri Mial or offer any explanation for our “talk.”
From your email I discover it is only Eric Hughes who says I am under any kind of ongoing LAPD investigation. Unless he is working for the LAPD, his only reason for tabloid accusations like this appears to be his near-diabolical effort to undermine my role as Lead Plaintiff and interfere with court process.
But then the obvious question is: why is Eric Hughes talking to the LAPD in the first instance, if the complaint is from Teri Mial? Is Eric Hughes the agent of Teri Mial?
If Mial filed a lawsuit against Neville Johnson and me as Mr. Hughes declares, shouldn’t I have the legal right to answer it? -- Along with any false charges this pair made or discussed with the police department?
How could Neville Johnson betray any confidence from Teri Mial when she says she never even spoke to him, let alone had him legally represent her.
If it is true, in fact, as Mr. Hughes declares, Ms. Mial has filed a police report or a lawsuit injurious to me, one that he makes public via your article, it is my privacy, not his or the whistle-blower Mial’s, which has been invaded here.
Moreover, I wonder how the LAPD will react if they find out they are being used as a kind of tool in a “trash the Plaintiff called to the police station” effort to defame.
A digital tape recorder is a nifty invention. Not a weapon of any kind, unless falsified or tampered with, it is simply an artificial memory that actually and factually and unemotionally makes a record of sounds and voices as they occur.
I have used one of the old fashioned kind since my days at Westinghouse Broadcasting and CBS and my interviews with Margaret Truman, Alice Roosevelt Longworth (in the home of Katharine Graham), Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Tricia Nixon, Julie Eisenhower, Lucy Nugent and Linda Robb for “60 Minutes” way back in the late 60’s.
I used one for the Roller Derby stars in “DERBY” and with the dancers in “A Dancer’s Life.”
More recently, I used one with Teri Mial and Eric Hughes, and now you see why.
My dad also used a tape recorder in his days investigating the late Jimmy Hoffa.
Imagine I had to refute what Mr. Hughes is saying, or the accusations made by Teri Mial, on the basis of “No, I never said that” or “Yes, Mial really did say that.”
I look forward to presenting my evidence in a court of law, and redeeming my good name and deeds – for both me and my class.
TO: SHARON WAXMAN
www.waxword.
FR: WILLIAM RICHERT
Santa Monica, Ca.
RE: ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT
August 16, 2009
Dear Sharon,
Thanks for offering to set the record straight. Let us begin together to “untwist” what you called “twisted,” while I provide the specific facts you asked for.
First, the cast of characters:
Eric Hughes and Teri Mial are both former workers at the Writer’s Guild of America.
Screenwriter Eric Hughes (“Against All Odds”) donated his time to the guild as an official in the Credits Department and later ran for Present of the WGA based on his vow to clean up the hemorrhaging corruption he found in the credit arbitration department.
Teri Mial is a nine-year paid employee of the WGA, an affairs d’ charge in the foreign WGA foreign levy department until she was fired by Ellen Goldstone for threatening to kill her assistant. She now lives off her pension and “high six figure” whistle-blower settlement from the Guild’s lawyer, Tony Segall.
Both are “Expert Witnesses” in my 5 year lawsuit on behalf of American writers, RICHERT VS. WGAw et. al. although only Teri Mial has been deposed under oath.
Both Hughes and Mial have been informed by me in person and on the phone that I would do my utmost to record all conversations with informed witnesses in my case, and intended to record any/all talks with them as needed for evidence to present to a jury, in the event of a civil or criminal trial.
You may be aware of recent memory studies showing the propensity of factual dyslexia and other tricks memory can play – not to mention “I never said that” he said/she said claims on the part of for-profit whistleblowers.
This union lawsuit for fraud is not in the category of a smarmy celebrity divorce. It is an investigation of no less than five generations of fraud on the part of a trusted union – the WGA.
In legal defense of your allegations that I ever illegally taped any person (aside from the obvious issue of prior consent and/or blackmail on the part of Teri Mial): It would be negligent of me (or anyone else empowered in a class action lawsuit by no less than the 109th Congress of the United States) entrusted with litigation by a large group of writers not to make sure I keep accurate records, including tape recordings, of facts told me by the likes of Teri Mial, who has been paid $600,000 for what she DID NOT TELL AND CONCEALED FROM my lawyers on the day she was deposed.
She did admit, however, that she gave her secret documents -- removed “surreptitiously” night after night after work at WGA headquarters – to fellow whistle blower Eric Hughes. Mr. Hughes described to me more than once on the telephone detail after detail of what crowded his whole living room and den up on Camrose: criminal evidence.
Eric says he gave copies of incriminating documents and signed checks to the FBI, DOL, DOJ, Barbara Feinstein, Bob Woodard and Dave McNary, Richard Verrier, Dennis McDougal and among others.
I don’t think he gave any WGA docs to you, except partially. What portion of partial truth is truthful?
A while back, when he was calling between 5AM an 9PM daily (don’t accept calls later) Eric Hughes told me he was going to give documents to Sharon Waxman, but decided only to provide info on the SAG corruption, saving the hot stuff, the WGA stuff, for later.
Thus in 2008 you wrote about SAG levies but not the more explosive WGA thefts.
In California 2 party recordings are illegal except with both parties consent, and except when blackmail or extortion is involved.
Both conditions have been amply satisfied in any/all recordings the Lead Plaintiff of witnesses for the defense/prosecution Teri Mial and Eric Hughes
I obtained consent as a court-certified Class Representative for the 12,500 members of the WGA owed foreign levies – along with the tens of thousands of non-union American writers whose royalties never got to them.
Teri Mial was court-recorded in her deposition for my case in 2007.
I first told Mial I intended to tape record our future conversations in the hallway at Neville Johnson’s office in Beverly Hills, on the morning the deposition took place under his aegis and with WGA attorney Emma Leheny in attendance.
It was immediately after the deposition that Ms. Mial first informed me that Patrick Verrone and David Young were “In this up to their eyeballs.”
I said, “You’re talking about the President of the WGA and the Executive Director. May I quote you?””
“No, I can’t be quoted on this, not until I get all my ducks in a row,’ said Ms. Mial. – revealing this, mind you, right after a 90 minute deposition where she basically stonewalled the lawyers.
“What If I write about it anyhow?”
“Then I never said it,’ said Ms. Mial.
“Then darling, I hope you understand, but I’m gonna get a tape recorder and from now on I’ll tape you when I can.”
“I know how to handle myself,” was her response.
IRONIC, SHE WRITES
Ironic you say it’s “ironic” in your www post that I might tape record incriminating testimony of a “central witness” in my court certified class action lawsuit involving millions/billions of dollars intended for American writers – like yourself!
Ironic I should tape a “central witness” regarding her boss’s criminal activity. Except for my duty, why would I tape record Gary Coleman’s former manager? Am I some kind of groupie? What kind of groupie would I be? A Gary-Coleman-Manger aficionado? Union whistle blower confession recordist? Maybe I do sound sampling of the forlorn songs of Hollywood tipsters?
We filed a lawsuit almost 5 years ago because: My class and I want to know what happened to 97 million collected by the WGA in secret for 19 years, which is only 7 per cent of what they should have collected for American writers, screenwriters and authors; in real terms, this amount is nearer one billion for writers and heirs owed money.
Ironic, too, that you should rely on the email from one whistle blower – Eric Hughes – defending another whistle blower – Teri Mial – and yet you not interview the Lead Plaintiff, or ponder why you suddenly write about how Mial files her charges based on an email provided her by Hughes, apparently – one year ago!
Do you wait a whole year to break your stories?
Do you sense a kind of web here? A snare, perhaps? One you might be caught in?
TERI MIAL HAS HER OWN KIND OF ‘WRAP UP’
Ironic, too, that in 2008 Hughes sent you email all about SAG, and told you nothing about 140,000 pages (sic) of evidence given to him by Teri Mial about the innermost lawless workings in the WGA check-shredding department.
He did not give you the good stuff, just enough stuff in the “kill the chicken scare the monkey” style to scare the bejesus of the WGA so they’d run off in fright and drop their cash into his pockets to slow him down.
TOXIC PAPER
He does not supply waxword any genuine sampling of the thousands of pages in boxes of documents in his possession relating to criminal activity at the WGA, engaged in by Teri Mial, who was paid $600,000 from the WGA and its lawyers in a “settlement” – for what? Because she was fired for threatening to kill a co-worker?
Teri Mial got $600k because she indexed for Tony Segall (mouthpiece for the WGA and AFL-CIO) the incriminating documents she snuck out of her files, which she gave to Eric Hughes; I have including some of this in graphic non-fiction book, and given it to Two Superior Court Judges.
Ahh, as for me… I suppose there is no way a fighter can spend 5 years in the bowels of union litigation and come out smelling like a rose.
But most ironic of all is how unfairly I am displayed in your www blog epistle; i.e. a Plaintiff turned upside down by a whistle blower, abetted by “Reliable Source” internet journalist.
Ms. Waxman, I am not saying I am totally “good” in life, but I am saying most emphatically that I have not been a “loose cannon” but as true a shot as possible in the context of this roiling litigation, the import of which has been virtually ignored by all those writers who know nothing about this, and who not sitting in the courtroom.
Me: I stood in the courtroom with my 15 pages (or so) of objections to the DGA settlement you referred to in your post on foreign levies.
Where was Eric Hughes on the morning I stood in front of Judge West and – count ‘em – 9 lawyers, including Tony Segall? Where was Teri Mial? -- Or any other DGA/WGA/SAG members (except for JF Lawton) whose fortunes are so dependent upon the actions of their leaders?
DGA and SAG are institutions of immanent fiduciary trust; do they really need 9 lawyers and 2 Judges to force them to tell the truth?
Your inaccurate prose ignores my legal permission (from her and him) and manifest duty to factually record and tape Ms. Mial and Eric Hughes himself, a self-proclaimed archivist in all these matters, a man who told me he was working with and for the FBI.
[ BTW: It is illegal to disclose a secret FBI investigation, as Hughes has done in his comment to you.]
WHO YOU GONNA TRUST?
Along with certain correspondence with Teri Mial, attached to this email are documents from Judge Carl West of the LA Superior Court.
When writing about the DGA settlement, you said the “good news” was that members might finally get an accounting. You haven’t written about similar “good news” that might result from a settlement in my WGA case. It is a settlement with more bite, y’might say, than the smooch of the DGA settlement.
But your article could actually help improve it. Even if you misrepresented me and my class and my whole case, even if you verifiably insulted me, you gave the “mess” exposure, and that’s what it needs.
WILL YOU TELL IT ALL? LIKE YOU SAID YOU WOULD IN 2008?
I will supply you with back-up on this when you are back from vacation, and look forward to seeing what evidence you based your article on, beyond forwarded email, which is always suspect, a subject which the Washington Post has written about extensively, along with your own NY Times (we know the role Judith Miller played in bringing us to war.)
“BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE” IRONY ACCORDING TO WAXWORD
Erich Hughes writes that my letters have hurt Teri Mial’s family. Well, I got a family too, y’know.
It is ironic you should suggest I personally would harm any other human being with verbal or any other kind of violence, as inherent in harassment charges, when my last email from Teri Mial was an obvious death threat from her to me, not the other way around (as you shall read.)
It is ironic you suggest I might be recording whistle blower evidence when I was present at Mial’s recorded deposition in a lawsuit with my name on it, where I am a long-standing Class Action Plaintiff and when she as a fired employee (front page VARIETY) has not only admitted being paid “high six figures” for concealing evidence she gave to Eric Hughes, but when she has basically boasted about an “incident” in which she murdered her husband.
It is ironic that after I sent you material (months ago) relating to my most earnest efforts as class rep in this case, you choose to print “evidence” from Eric Hughes, whose website is older than the email you quoted, and missing nearly all the documents in his possession, many of which I have seen.
The sly snares and innuendoes in your post (originating with Eric Hughes?) cannot be allowed to enshadow or obscure the glaring facts in the “eternity” of this case, as Jude West referred to his time with lawyers from the WGA.
As you yourself declare in writing about the DGA settlement, “we will continue to share what we learn.”
Nikki Finke’s being taped by e-trade is an e-crime with her the only apparent victim.
My situation is far different.
Quoting 109th Congress: “the purpose(s) of this Act [class action] S.5—2 Sec. (2) restore the intent of the framers of the Constitution by providing for Federal Court consideration of interstate cases of national importance under diversity jurisdiction>”
RELIABLE SOURCES
QUOTING ERIC HUGHES (transcribed from tape):
“How dare you!
How dare you!
Fuck you!
Fuck you!
Telling me what to put on my website!
How dare you! My website kids are brilliant! Fuck you” [etc. for 3.7 minutes]
IT IS IRONIC MOST OF ALL that on Larry King Live you talked about the cataclysmic impact derogatory information shared on the internet can have on sensitive people, even leading to suicide in some cases.
Lady, I ain’t slept all that well since your internet post, maybe 72 hours ago, digitally divulging and then electronically globally universally flogging billions of bytes and pieces of your “reliable” information to family and friends and foes alike – maybe even into outer space and for all time. For all I know, yours will be the only blog burping in all of space should the nuclear dark age take place here on earth. A broadcasting Waxman Hubble, seeing and telling readers that hers are “Reliable Sources.”
And as regards “sensitive people” (Larry King Live) who might be hurt by bloggers like you – surely you are aware that writers (I am actually a writer earliest of all) are very sensitive, as and can be driven to distraction by being wrongly accused. There was an article, not long ago, which pondered whether writers should even have children (I do.)
And as regards a serious filmmaker like myself, with various projects proposed at financial institutions: being called a “loose cannon” is injurious to access of capital. Bad for business. Banks don’t give money to loose cannons.
And regarding my 5-year stint as Class Champion of a class action group that now includes All American writers, union and non union, owed money collected by the WGA. -- That’s a pretty big number to be tainted by your reporting. And you are aware of the injustice here as you have already written, as you said, “extensively” about it.
No doubt Mr. Hughes told you about the bullet hole in his t-bird windshield, which he claims was ordered by Robert Hadl, who Mr. Hughes claims was the mastermind behind the 1995 arbitration of THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, where the WGA allowed Robert Redford to be paid 5 million for the rights to my screenplay by Aaron Sorkin’s own company, Castle Rock, disabling my copyright.
It was Mr. Hughes promise to put all the conspiratorial actions by Sally Burmester, Carl Gotlieb, Alan Horn, Robert Redford et. al. on the internet, with documents in his possession.
When he was President, Dan Petrie wrote lies about me and sent them to every single member of the WGA. Ahh…Dan…
THE WGA DATES BACK 5 DECADES AND IT REMAINS UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE VERY VERY FEW
Mr. Hughes never did what he promised about that kangaroo court arbitration re “The American President/The West Wing”, and he did not put up on his website the thousands of pages of union corruption proof positive about the foreign levy fraud taken from WGA files “surreptitiously” by Teri Mial and given to him “surreptitiously.”
JF Lawton says he thinks Mr. Hughes is trying to blackmail the guild in much the same way Ms. Mial got hundreds of thousands of union funds to shush up, and in the same way erstwhile journalist Ross Johnson got nearly a million, according to Hughes.
Perhaps the 2004 WGA Presidential candidate (running as his platform an end to bogus credit arbitrations) thinks that if my settlement is derailed, and an accounting does not take place under court supervision, and with his whole house full of Department of Justice papers and undelivered checks signed by Patrick Verrone, Eric Hughes may be hoping to settle for 7 figures from the guild for shush-ment.
Rather than portray me as a vigilant litigant driven to protect the interests of his (her) writer class against all odds, Waxword decides to shame me.
You quote Eric Hughes (apparently; you didn’t name your source), about the declarations of Teri Mial -- a whistle blower front page VARIETY reported was a woman accused of threatening to whack the woman at the next desk - as if she were an FBI authority; and you quote my “admission” from an email one year old – sent to you when you told your readers you’d tell them everything – but you don’t quote the distinguished LA Superior Court Judge West, who is deciding RICHERT VS. WGAw et. al.
On March 23rd of this year, at the LA Superior Court, in front of my attorneys and the attorney’s for the Writer’s Guild of American, Judge West said from the bench that ‘’Mr. Richert, you are a leader. -- Now lead.”
JUSTICE DELAYED
Attached are two documents Eric Hughes did not send you.
(Neither of them are yet available on my website. (www.williamrichert.com -- sorry, the blog is a little out of date. I’ve been busy.)
Today’s first attachment is a pretty obvious email death threat to me from Teri Mial, who has already pulled off at least one murder (by her own calculation.)
The second attachment is a transcript of an open court hearing before Judge West with representatives from all parties attending.
As you see, “There is more” (to quote you.)
By your obvious desire for a zippy piece on Hollywood shenanigans before rollicking off on vacation (no doubt deserved) you have placed my life and reputation in real danger, and by calling this Lead (Named) Plaintiff a “loose canon” you have dealt a serious blow to the interests of my class of American writers.
You will, I hope, aspire to correct all of this soonest.
You will, I hope, demand that Eric Hughes send you the rest of the documents in his possession relating to the email(s) he sent to you, so defamatory to me, along with copies of the undelivered checks signed by current and past union accountants, including the 13 boxes of files taken from the WGA by Teri Mial.
And if you please, also ask Eric Hughes to send along his documents he promised to produce regarding “THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT/THE WEST WING” RICHERT V. SORKIN pre-arbitration, which deprived me and my partner Kyle Morrois of our constitutional rights. relating not only to the current WGA Board of Directors but also to Sally Burmester, Cathy Reed, Julia Bingham ( head of Castle Rock Business Affairs and then Mrs. Aaron Sorkin), Rob Reiner, Carl Gottlieb and John Wells et. al. among others.
(“Never Forget;” “The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.”)
I have fought a long hard fight against a bad -- actually a rotten, thieving, mendacious -- union that should have nothing to do with writers of conscience, now or ever; period, end of story.
However, since neither the WGA accountants nor the board of directors seems to want to the follow in the footsteps of Fastow and Skilling as yet, and since you are on vacation, and my class has a pending court hearing, I shall, as you ask, confine myself for the present urgent moment to this brief wrap-up to allow you to “set the record straight” about current inaccuracies being disseminated among the masses at this millisecond via your published article.
Eric Hughes and Teri Mial are opportunistic whistleblowers working together to undermine a settlement it has taken me a long time to see as ultimately beneficial to the class of American writers I represent.
Before this current onslaught by Mr. Hughes and Ms. Mial, as shown in your article and comments on it, it appeared a settlement was near, only needing to be approved by Messers Verrone and Young and the WGA Board of Directors, including John Wells.
It’s different now, with these personal attacks on me and my positon as Lead Plaintiff, along with my discovering I may be under investigation for a felony by the LAPD without my knowledge.
True or not, the Hughes/Mial allegations are a smear and any settlement with the guild by me or my class must in future include protections and defense for the personal safety of me and my family, and my reputation for truthfulness.
Throughout this entire lawsuit, I have adhered to the course of my duties, as defined by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the contract I signed to be Class Champion for writers owed royalties and recognition.
(FYI, a long time ago, in 2003, there were about 500 million devices connected to the internet; today there are billions of connected devices, even in Venezuela and Bolivia and Brazil, even in Jerusalem and Tehran, even in Nigeria – why not Zimbabwe? – in Detroit and Philly, on Columbus Avenue, at Mr. Chow’s and The Grill, including cars and cell phones, not to mention youtube style interviews as on your website – wherever writers are, in fact, reading your description of me as a loose canon, you must tell both sides of the story – especially, and most profoundly for Subclass 3, is that this be done at once since the coming settlement (or trial) will impact them too, (I just used a noun as a verb excuse me.)
Surely it is a puzzlement in the simple test of drama that two whistle blowers would charge a named plaintiff like myself with whistle blowing, especially with all the documents they have to support me against them.
During this long ordeal I have often thought of myself as one of those lonely scientist in a bathysphere, connected by a delicate tube to earth above, watching Eric and Ross and Teri like wiggling hagfish sucking on the fetid carrion of the great monstrous whale of a lie that has become the Writers Guild of America.
Patrick Verrone and David Young are the bosses at the WGA and are in direct charge of the conduct of this litigation, RICHERT VS. WGAw et. al. They tell Sony Segall what to do.
Instead of coming clean with their members – and non members -- they have thus far chosen to fight or stonewall any settlement that would expose them to possible charges of fraud and conversion (conspiracy was not charged, but ought to be explored.)
These are the same men behind the hundred-day WGA strike that put thousands out of work, some forever, never to return, to benefit a few hundred “union” hirelings, making gigantic fees.
Me, I’m part of a vanishing breed, a writer of original screenplays and novels; my kind are almost extinct in Hollywood, due to the number of companies and financers now out of business from that which David Young called “the havoc I’ve wrecked.”
You are a writer who’s tracked down loot from antiquity; it should be easy for you to imagine what’s happened to the 97 million (representing only 7 per cent of the take) the WGA has amassed since 1990.
Quoting Teri Mial (transcribed from tape) “Subpoena me! Subpoena me! I’ll sing like the greatest canary you ever saw!”
Quoting Judge Carl J. West, William Richert and Neville Johnson in LA SUPERIOR COURT, room 311, Monday, March 23 2009 10:00AM:
From Court Transcript:
MR. RICHERT (to Judge West): YOUR HONOR, I THINK YOU'VE BEEN HERE FOR ALMOST FOUR YEARS. I'M NOT SURE.
THE COURT (to William Richert): I'VE BEEN HERE FOREVER IT SEEMS LIKE, AND WHEN I GET A CASE LIKE THIS, IT SEEMS EVEN LONGER.
MR. RICHERT: IT'S AMAZING THE TINY AMOUNT OF RESULT THAT'S TAKEN PLACE IN TERMS OF THE SETTLEMENT. YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SETTLEMENT YET. IT'S SIX OR SEVEN PAGES OF A COVERUP AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, AND THAT IS NOT -- YOUR HONOR, I'M NOT TRYING TO BE EMOTIONAL ABOUT THIS. I JUST CAME OVER THE PAST WEEK, AND PART OF IT HAS TO DO, I GUESS, WITH MADOFF AND ALL THE OTHER ISSUES THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN OUR COUNTRY, AND I JUST SEE, OH, BOY, THAT'S WHAT'S GOING ON HERE, AND IT ISN'T LABOR LAW, YOUR HONOR. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH LABOR. IT'S A PLAIN OUT AND OUT OLD EMBEZZLEMENT, AND I THINK I COULD PROVE IT WITH WHAT I GOT RIGHT HERE, AND IT'S NEVER BEEN GIVEN TO YOU.
(RICHERT HOLDS UP STACK OF EVIDENCE)
THE COURT: MR. RICHERT, THIS IS YOUR VIEW. KEEP AN
OPEN MIND. AT LEAST SIT DOWN WITH THE PEOPLE WHO PUT A LOT OF EFFORT IN TRYING TO REACH AN AGREEMENT THAT PURPORTS TO BE FROM SOME PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE IN THE BEST INTEREST OF
THE PEOPLE YOU ARE HERE TO REPRESENT, AND TAKE A LOOK AT IT
AND WE'LL SEE WHERE WE GO FROM THERE.
MR. RICHERT: THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
THE COURT: NOW IN THE INTERIM, WE NEED TO ADDRESS THIS
ISSUE OF THE DEATH OF OUR CLASS REPRESENTATIVE, AND I DON'T
KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING WITH THAT. YOU WANT TO HOLD -- I CANCHECK WITH JUDGE HIGHBERGER. I DON'T KNOW WHAT HIS SCHEDULE WILL PERMIT. OR DO YOU WANT TO MAYBE GO OVER
THERE NOW AND THEN COME BACK AND TELL US WHEN YOU COULD GET SOMETHING SCHEDULED.
MR. JOHNSON: THAT'S FINE, BECAUSE WE NEED TO CALL GROSSMAN AS WELL. AND THEN WE CAN --
THE COURT: I'D LIKE TO SEE THIS HAPPEN WITHIN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS, 30 DAYS AT THE OUTSIDE. I MEAN I'M WILLING TO STALL TO GIVE PEOPLE A CHANCE TO AT LEAST SIT DOWN IN A ROOM AND TALK ABOUT WHAT'S ON THE TABLE, BUT AT SOME POINT WE GOT TO PULL THE PLUG. I MEAN I'M FAIRLY COOPERATIVE WHEN PEOPLE SAY WE'RE WORKING ON SOMETHING, AND WE'VE HAD A LOT OF BUMPS IN THE ROAD, AND NOW WE GOT MORE THAN A BUMP. WE HAVE ONE OF -- WHAT DO THEY CALL THOSE THINGS WHEN THE ROAD COLLAPSES AND GOES DOWN INTO A BIG SINK HOLE.
MR. JOHNSON: EARTHQUAKE.
THE COURT: NOW WE'RE HAVING SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE SERIOUS HERE THAN A BUMP IN THE ROAD, AND WE GOT TO DEALWITH THESE ISSUES. AND, MR. RICHERT, YOU CAN'T COME IN HERE – YOU ARE THE CLASS REPRESENTATIVE, BUT I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU
COME IN AND SIT IN THE BACK AND JUST TALK ABOUT THINGS THAT
BOTHER YOU. IF YOU THINK THAT YOU NEED DIFFERENT REPRESENTATION ON BEHALF OF THE CLASS, YOU MAY NOT PROCEED
IN PRO PER, IN OTHER WORDS, WITHOUT A LAWYER AS A CLASS
REPRESENTATIVE. I HAVE TO HAVE CLASS COUNSEL. AND SO AFTER THIS NEXT ROUND OF A MEETING WITH JUDGE HIGHBERGER AND MR. GROSSMAN, IF WE CAN'T MAKE PROGRESS, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO REGROUP AND REORGANIZE HERE.
IF YOU WANT TO BE THE LEADER IN CHARGE, YOU GOT TO ACT LIKE A LEADER, AND YOU GOT TO HAVE SOMEBODY TO REPRESENT YOU, AND WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO GET INVOLVED HERE IN HOW WE'RE GOING FORWARD. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?
MR. RICHERT: I DIDN'T INTEND TO BE THE LEADER, YOUR HONOR. IT JUST TURNS OUT I'M IN FRONT OF THIS PARADE THAT I'VE DISCOVERED.
THE COURT: WELL, WHATEVER IT IS, THAT'S WHERE YOU ARE, AND YOU GOT TO STAND UP AND DO WHAT'S NECESSARY, OR ELSE I'M NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO LET YOU BE THE LEADER.
MR. RICHERT: I'LL DO THE BEST I CAN, YOUR HONOR.
THE COURT: ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
Ms. Waxman, you are a respected reporter who has written in-depth and fairly dealt with issues as contentious as those between Palestine and Israel.
This fight is not in that league, but it lies within your range of observation. This is a different kind of battle, about copyright and union trust. Now that you’ve started, I trust you will continue to do what’s necessary to “set the record straight.”
Sincerely,
William Richert
RICHERT VS. WGA et. al.
Filed LA Superior Court 2005- ?
CASE NUMBER: BC339972
Ps. Today is Sunday, August 11, 2009.
Since writing the above I just checked your website and found Eric Hughes’ letter to you and Paul Kiesel declaring that I knew about any LAPD investigation is false. Your article states that, and without attribution.
With the revelation you’ve been talking to Hughes, I recognize this assertion by Hughes as another of his attempts to destroy -- by any means, apparently -- all hopes of a fair settlement in RICHERT VS. WGAw et. al.
My own acceptance of a settlement was prompted by cogent arguments from two highly respected Superior Court Judges, along with my lawyer Paul Keisel.
Yes, several months ago I returned a rather imposing call from a voice on my answering machine saying he was a Los Angeles Detective and wanted to “talk” to me.
Instantly I returned the call, and spoke to a Detective. When I asked what he wanted to “talk” about, he said he’d “talk” about it when we met. I then inquired, as I have been trained to do, if I might tape record our conversation. There was a pause, and he said “Hmm. Haven’t thought about that. Maybe I should tape record it too.”
The Detective who told Eric Hughes that I said I would “happily” meet with him may further recall that in our speakerphone conversation he did not tell me about any investigation by himself or anyone else.
Then the Detective asked me to call him the following week to set up an appointment. I said I’d call, and I did call the following Monday, spoke to a person who answered the phone “77”. Always curious about cops, since I write so much about them, I asked what “77” stood for and he said that referred to the number of Detectives in his group.
I left my name and number for the detective and since that day I have never heard back. Contrary to Hughes, the Detective did not mention any names at all in his call. He certainly did not speak the name Teri Mial or offer any explanation for our “talk.”
From your email I discover it is only Eric Hughes who says I am under any kind of ongoing LAPD investigation. Unless he is working for the LAPD, his only reason for tabloid accusations like this appears to be his near-diabolical effort to undermine my role as Lead Plaintiff and interfere with court process.
But then the obvious question is: why is Eric Hughes talking to the LAPD in the first instance, if the complaint is from Teri Mial? Is Eric Hughes the agent of Teri Mial?
If Mial filed a lawsuit against Neville Johnson and me as Mr. Hughes declares, shouldn’t I have the legal right to answer it? -- Along with any false charges this pair made or discussed with the police department?
How could Neville Johnson betray any confidence from Teri Mial when she says she never even spoke to him, let alone had him legally represent her.
If it is true, in fact, as Mr. Hughes declares, Ms. Mial has filed a police report or a lawsuit injurious to me, one that he makes public via your article, it is my privacy, not his or the whistle-blower Mial’s, which has been invaded here.
Moreover, I wonder how the LAPD will react if they find out they are being used as a kind of tool in a “trash the Plaintiff called to the police station” effort to defame.
A digital tape recorder is a nifty invention. Not a weapon of any kind, unless falsified or tampered with, it is simply an artificial memory that actually and factually and unemotionally makes a record of sounds and voices as they occur.
I have used one of the old fashioned kind since my days at Westinghouse Broadcasting and CBS and my interviews with Margaret Truman, Alice Roosevelt Longworth (in the home of Katharine Graham), Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Tricia Nixon, Julie Eisenhower, Lucy Nugent and Linda Robb for “60 Minutes” way back in the late 60’s.
I used one for the Roller Derby stars in “DERBY” and with the dancers in “A Dancer’s Life.”
More recently, I used one with Teri Mial and Eric Hughes, and now you see why.
My dad also used a tape recorder in his days investigating the late Jimmy Hoffa.
Imagine I had to refute what Mr. Hughes is saying, or the accusations made by Teri Mial, on the basis of “No, I never said that” or “Yes, Mial really did say that.”
I look forward to presenting my evidence in a court of law, and redeeming my good name and deeds – for both me and my class.
posted by William Richert | 10:38 PM
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