Bolen rehearses excuses for Doctor's Data defeat

[David Brown]

It will be said, first, that the Evil Possum is in a particularly good
mood, for several reasons. First, he just watched a CLOSE Super Bowl,
which ended in a victory for a team he has some respect for (and he
normally regards such things with limited interest, perhaps in part
because he is just old enough to have seen the Bills play the Cowboys
in the Super Bowl). Second, his Amazon Kindle store continues to enjoy
very strong sales that are increasingly distiuted amond his diverse
titles. Third, the Bolenator has gone two posts in a row without
claiming that someone will be added as a defendant in DDI v. Barrett
merely for criticizing the plaintiff. Fourth, the Evil Possum has
concentrated his recent activities on slapping down obscene Usenet
posts by an individual unilaterally dubbed “Mad Spammer”, which offer
a broader perspective on just how offensive and egregious bad blogger
behavior can get. In summary, the Possum is in the right mood to be
GENEROUS with Bolen. But, that doesn't mean Bolen's latest post won't
go unanswered in MYSTERY BOLEN THEATER!

“The California attorney for Canada's cheap copy of Stephen Barrett,
one Terry Polevoy, a Board Certified Pediatrician turned pimple
doctor, submitted some papers to the Alameda, CA Superior Court last
month indicating that a Conditional Settlement had been reached in the
Polevoy v Grell and twenty un-named John Does case.  You can read the
original article about this situation here.
“Guess what the settlement contains..”
You first, Mr. Bolen.

“In an article last December 29th I had written:
`And, as Polevoy found out the hard way, there is no honor among
thieves.  Polevoy got left holding the bag so to speak, in the Barrett
v Clark case - where he ended up with a Court ordered Defendant's
legal bill for $311,000 (now up to $450,000, with interest) in his
lap.
"Terry Polevoy is suing the attorney, Christopher Grell and twenty
"John Does," to get out from under that debt, claiming that Grell and
Stephen Barrett conspired to shift the debt over to him, from
themselves.  Now, that case has approached the "Discovery" phase, and
SUDDENLY (smile here, once again) attorney Grell, who is being accused
in that case of not answering "Discovery" demands is begging for
"Mediation" rather than be Deposed himself, or having Stephen Barrett
Deposed."'
Let's see, do the court records give any indication that Grell
intended to depose Barrett? No? And what's this about mediation being
“SUDDEN”? I wasn't able to find an exact date, but I'm certain that
mediation was requested no later than September, which to my
recollection was when I first managed to follow Bolen's convoluted
instructions to the point where I could learn about the case (and
indeed establish to my own satisfaction that it EXISTED) for myself.

"So, what does this mean?
We'll soon find out more, for a Settlement Conference is scheduled for
February 15th, 2011 and the filing here says that a Request for
Dismissal will be filed no later than February 28th, 2011.  However, I
think the language of this filing is important.  It says,
specifically:
"This case has been conditionally resolved.  The resolution conditions
dismissal of this matter on the satisfactory completion of specified
terms that might not be performed within 45 days of the date of the
mediated resolution.   A request for dismissal will be filed no later
than February 28th, 2011.
“My guess is that Polevoy wants Ilena Rosenthal off his back - and the
resolution conditions are probably the paying off of the money owed
her - about $450,000 US.”
How many of Bolen's guesses do NOT involve huge losses for those he
identifies as “quackbusters” and/or big payouts to his “allies”? Not
many. How many can be verified to be true? NONE that have come to my
attention. In addition, as I have pointed out before, California's
fixed interests rates on judgments do not appear high enough for the
current amount to exceed ca. $400K. Also, Terry Polevoy seems to have
had no great difficulty defeating or at least stonewalling Rosenthal's
previous collection efforts. And, now that I think about it, Mr.
Bolen has NOT stood out as a reliable source of information about
Rosenthal's case. Indeed, in my experience, BOLEN's reports have made
major aspects of Ms. Rosenthal's account (up to and including whether
the ca. 435K figure was actually FOR a judgment to be paid to her)
appear unclear or entirely doubtful, where statements from BARRETT on
the matter proved easy to harmonize with her story. All of which
would rather reinforce the conclusion that, whether or not Ms.
Rosenthal ought to have been held legally liable, she exercised poor
judgment in using Mr. Bolen as a source and especially in investing so
much of her own resources in defending his material.

“But, What Else Will Polevoy Demand?
“Let's be realistic.  Terry Polevoy, according to his lawsuit
statement got REALLY USED AND ABUSED by Grell, Barrett, and according
to him, nineteen others not-yet-named in the lawsuit.  You could say
that he was used like Kleenex and thrown away, but frankly I think it
was more like toilet paper.”
As long as we're discussing the suit BOLEN PROVOKED against himself,
Ms. Rosenthal and many others, would he care to explain what, if
anything, he did to assist Rosenthal's very expensive defense after
removing HIMSELF as a defendant?

“So, I think, Polevoy may have demanded a lot more - and he was in a
position to get pretty much what he wanted - or else, I suspect, he
was going to get VERY SPECIFIC - VERY PUBLICLY about the roles that
Barrett and the other nineteen as-yet-unnamed Defendants played in the
case - and in ALL CASES.”
Again, Mr. Bolen, what is there in the court documents that would
suggest that Polevoy wished to make any issue of the conduct of
Barrett, who was NOT named as a defendant? (For that matter, could
you give an EXACT citation for the “nineteen unnamed defendants”
bit?) Your “interpretation” is, in fact, rather counterintuitive. It
is clearly GRELL's conduct in the SUIT V. ROSENTHAL that is the
central issue in Polevoy's suit. Any attempt to subpoena or depose
BARRETT, except for the LIMITED purpose of giving an account of
Grell's actions, would appear to have had limited value, relevance,
and chances of approval by the court.

“Of course, the people over at Doctor's Data v Stephen Barrett Federal
Court case, were, of course, waiting with sharpened teeth to see if
that case was going to go to Discovery.  They could then grab that
Discovery for themselves.  My guess is that Barrett, and the other
unnamed nineteen, were sweating a lot.
“So, Polevoy had a BIG lever.”
So, exactly WHY would this case have been of interest to Doctor's
Data? And even if it had been, why would Barrett have been
concerned? As things currently stand, it seems most likely that DDI's
suit against him will be dismissed or otherwise defeated sometime in
March, days or weeks ahead of the April date(s) set for hearings in
Polevoy v. Grell. As recently as the week before last, the outlook
was in many ways BETTER for Barrett, as it remained to be seen exactly
how Judge Chang would respond to a number of motions by Barrett's
defense (which might have been heard earlier if the case had not been
reassigned from Judge Hibbler). In short, even if Polevoy v. Grell
had any chance of furnishing anything of relevance or value in DDI's
suit, it would do no more good than Sam Houston did for the Alamo.

“In defense, Grell and Barrett probably threatened to release the
information they probably have about why Polevoy is practicing as a
pimple doctor and not as a Pediatrician.”
And what “information” leads Bolen to say that Polevoy IS practicing
as a “pimple doctor” (whatever that is supposed to mean)? Is it any
better than the curiously elusive “evidence” that Robert Baratz runs
or ever ran a “hair removal salon”? And, incidentally, Bolen's most
loyal reposter, Russ Tanner, has a business that is registered as a
“salon”, so it might not be in the Bolenator's best interests to keep
making that an issue...

“So, it will be interesting to see what develops.  For instance:
“(1)  Did Polevoy demand rights of survivorship to Barrett's websites
so that he, Terry Polevoy, would be publicly acknowledged as Barrett's
official successor once Barrett dies?  I think that's very possible,
since `Orac the Nipple Ripper' stumbled a few times.”
Gee, Mr. Bolen, exactly what “official” title do you think Barrett has
that he could bestow upon Polevoy, or anyone else? And why do you
think anything Barrett did would have any great impact on anyone
else? If one is to speak of “status” in the “blogosphere”, then the
most obvious measure would be CURRENT output, and in those terms,
Barrett, whose site seems dominated by material years old, is already
far behind “Orac's” blog.

“(2)  Did Polevoy demand a well paying job in the vaccine industry?
“(3)  Did Polevoy demand positions on the Board of CSICOP, the ACSH,
the James Randi Foundation, the NCAHF, etc.?”
What power would Barrett have had to GIVE any of these things?

“We'll soon find out.
I love it.
Stay tuned...”
How about I save the Bolenator the trouble? DDI is going to be forced
to reply to Barrett's motion to dismiss in about a month, and the
judge will uphold Barrett's motion, if DDI doesn't do something (like
withdrawing the case and voluntarily paying Barrett's legal expenses)
to get out of it sooner. Then the Bolenator will very conveniently
blame DDI's defeat (or retreat) on the settlement between Polevoy and
Grell, rather than issues like the suit's lack of factual and legal
merit, the ineptitude with which it was filed, and quite possibly
Bolen's own efforts to “help” DDI.