Hersh lawsuit: The paranoid vision of conspiracy

The supporters of the Hersh's apparently either don't read my blog or don't wish to take me up on my offer to present their side. Therefore in the name of fairness I am publishing part of a court document filed by the Hersh's criticizing my blog and poster RaP as being part of a conspiracy to slander them. In fact there is no conspiracy and I am not slandering the Hersh's - just trying to report as objectively as possible what is going on for the benefit of all concerned.

================================================

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF KINGS

MIRIAM HERSH and MICHAEL HERSH, Plaintiffs,

AFFIRMATION IN OPPOSITION TO MOTION TO COMPEL_

ELIZABETH REBECCA COHEN, RAPHAEL COHEN, ARYEH LARRY WOLBE, ELI WOLBE, ZVI GLUCK, JOSHUA AMBUSH, ARIEL FISHMAN, HINDA FISHMAN, EFFI GOLDSTEIN, ABE LIFSCHITZ, AYELET MEHLMAN, SARAH KREISLER, YOSEF SHIDLER, RACHEL ROSENGARTEN, DINA DEUSTCH, and JOHN DOES #1-18,
Defendants.

YENISEY RODRIGUEZ-MCCLOSKEY, an attorney [for the plaintiff DT] admitted to practice law in the State of New York affirms the following under penalty of perjury: […]
[DT I am only citing the portion of this document relevant to my blog Daas Torah as cited in the following excerpt :]

2l. The harassment and intimidation campaign of the defendants continues to date. Indeed, after the Oral Argument, defendants again attempted to threaten and harass Plaintiffs, this time to prevent discovery from taking place in this case. Annexed hereto as Exhibit F is the affidavit of Sholom Eliyahi Yorkmark sworn to on the 27th date of June, 2010. Mr. Yorkmark, a longstanding friend of Plaintiffs and son of Rabbi Aaron Schechter, received a call from David Greenbalt who professed to be calling on behalf of the Cohen Defendants. Mr. Greenblatt threatened that if the Hershes do not completely cease their legal action against the Cohens by Tuesday June 29^th, 2010, then Raphael Cohen will "drag the Hershes, their Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, and its head Rabbi, Rabbi Aaron Schechter, through the mud in the media."

22. Defendants made good on their threats and began posting new disparaging information on blogs and internet posts, a sampling of which is annexed hereto as Exhibit F.

The first one of the blogs annexed as Exhibit F states in pertinent part:

This is a heartfelt plea to Michael Hersh and his family to STOP and WITHDRAW their ill-advised actions, legal and otherwise, at this time because it will only harm their cause.

This same blog also mentions the Wolbe defendants and threatens Rabbi Schechter, just as the Cohen Defendants had advised Yorkmark they would do if this case was not immediately dropped.
=============================================================

It is interesting to note that the Hersh’s (through their lawyer) have understood both the comment of R’ Dovid Greenblatt and RaP as threats. At least in the case of RaP’s statement it was clearly not a threat nor meant as a threat or perceived as a threat by the average person. I assume that the statement of R’ Dovid Greenblatt was also not a threat but just commonsense advice but I don't know for sure. In other words anyone with elementary seichel would realize that if you make a 400 million dollar lawsuit in secular court - where the documents are publicly accessible - based on nonsense that the media would pick this up and report on its absurdity. Especially if it involves a drama of a teenager being kidnapped and sent to a prison camp in Jamaica by his chareidi father – with the approval of his spiritual adviser.