Roca Labs Exec Claims Marc Randazza Bribed Nevada Politician To Get Anti-SLAPP Law Passed

from the say-what-now? dept

It is said that politics make strange bedfellows; so what could be stranger than Democratic State Senator Justin Jones, a Mormon with family values, and Marc Randazza, a porn attorney and a speech advocate for pedophiles whose client list includes Phillip Greaves author of "The Pedophile's Guide”, Kink.com, Bang Bus and Milf Hunter. So what brings these two opposite personalities together: money and politics.

"Two years ago, my partner, Ron Green, introduced me to a guy. That guy’s name was Justin Jones. Justin was running for State Senate in Nevada. … I shook his hand and said “if you will sponsor an Anti-SLAPP bill, I’ll vote for you, and I’ll contribute to your campaign.” He promised me that he would do so. Within days of taking office, he made good on his promise. Today, Nevada has the strongest Anti-SLAPP law in the country"

Mr. Randazza is a proponent of an Anti-SLAPP law (pornography lawyers generally want to be able to say and show anything), and he has brought numerous SLAPP lawsuits and generated tens of thousands of dollars in revenue for himself and his law firm. A stronger Nevada Anti-SLAPP law means more money for Randazza.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community. Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis. While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

The Roca Labs story just keeps getting weirder and weirder. You can click that link to go back through the earlier stories, since I won't rehash them all here, but the latest is that Don Juravin, the "vice president" of Roca Labs who filed an earlier affidavit in the case (which caused some problems with actor Alfonso Ribiero's lawyers), has apparently decided to go directly after Marc Randazza, the lawyer representing Consumer Opinion Corp. (better known as PissedConsumer.com) in the lawsuit that Roca filed against that company.Juravin has put out a press release accusing Randazza of bribing a Nevada politician in order to get Nevada to pass an anti-SLAPP law (thanks to Adam Steinbaugh for the pointer). You kind of have to read the whole thing to get a feel for it. The press release is clearly designed to attack Randazza's (somewhat well known) reputation for defending the First Amendment rights of folks who work in the adult entertainment industry.So what's the specific details of the supposed "bribery"? Randazza recently wrote a blog post -- since taken down -- talking about how he had met Justin Jones and promised to support his campaign if he'd support an anti-SLAPP law:Now, this is perhaps not a particularly wise thing to say either in private or in public concerning a politician. It's possible that the statement on the blog is exaggerated as well. But to Juravin -- who amusingly describes himself as a "concerned public citizen" who "believes in the integrity of our electoral system and that no one person should wield undue influence over government officials" -- it's apparently a sign of our failing republic. Uh huh.Juravin -- whose company it should be noted has threatened us with what I would argue would be a SLAPP lawsuit -- also claims that the reason Randazza likes anti-SLAPP laws is because he can make money with them, and not because, you know, free speech is a good thing and thuggishly trying to shut people up is a bad thing.Either way, it will be interesting to see whether the "integrity complaint" Juravin filed with the Nevada Attorney General actually goes anywhere. It does seem worth noting, of course, that many states have been passing anti-SLAPP laws (because they're a good thing, and we really should have a federal anti-SLAPP law ) and that the Nevada one passed unanimously without a single negative vote (there was one "excused" -- and everyone else voted in favor). That certainly makes Juravin's statement that he "speculate[s]" that "the law would not have passed" if the Nevada legislature were aware of Randazza's promise to contribute to Jones' campaign.Again, making any sort of statement of "if you support this bill then I'll give you money" is not a good idea (even as it's often done implicitly). So, it's reasonable to at least question Randazza's statements on the matter, but considering it "bribery" seems like a pretty big stretch -- and Juravin is far from an unbiased party. At the very least, at the end, Juravin does admit that Roca Labs is in litigation with a company represented by Randazza, but either way, it seems like playing dirty. It appears to be similar to Roca Labs' behavior throughout this entire effort, basically attack or threaten almost everyone calling the company out.

Filed Under: anti-slapp, bribery, dan juravin, free speech, justin jones, marc randazza, nevada

Companies: roca labs