Connor Cochran lied to the public about the lawsuit, documented below.

The Last Unicorn fraud story has a clear right side and wrong side. In this update, we share yet another reason not to sit on the fence. Please stand with Peter Beagle.

Stand with Peter to reduce harm. Peter isn’t being paid while sales of his work pay for Cochran’s fight. (Peter’s lawyer wants your help to document sales.)

Stand with Peter to stop delaying justice. Cochran has long used a strategy of blowing smoke, stringing people along, and running out the clock. If justice can’t be delayed, he misuses courts to make it prohibitively expensive to victims. Professional Litigant is a good term. (See the failed conservatorship case against Peter.)

That misbehavior is part of many legal disputes against him. Author Jim Hines shared some of them in December 2015:

“This isn’t the first time Cochran has been sued in the publishing world. February 2010: Baker and Taylor sued Cochran for approximately $6300 for breach of contract. Cochran’s response to this lawsuit is here, and claims he was offered other terms. However, there’s no written documentation of those alternate terms, aside from an email that, to my non-lawyer mind, is in no way a written contract. August 2011: Sydney Clemens sued Cochran for for the return of $25,000 she invested in Cochran’s company as part of a signed 2009 agreement promising her work would be published within 12 months. Cochran did not publish Clemens’ work within that time frame. January 2012: Penguin Group sued Cochran for approximately $3400 plus legal fees for unspecified goods from 2009 that were never paid for.”

Those cases were first publicized by Fans Against Fraud in late 2014. That’s when Cochran posted a defense (PDF): conlanpress.com/fansagainstfraud

Cochran’s defense is gone from the site, but we archived it. He was forced to scrub it from the internet and go silent after his credibility was ruined by a series of false claims. (For example, he falsely accused a former whistleblower employee, Mike, who isn’t involved – and claimed court victory and shutting us down that never happened.) It’s unpleasant to read the whole deceptive thing, but look at this part…

Cochran’s claim about the Penguin lawsuit:

” — $3000+ unpaid bill: Penguin Group (usa) Inc v. Conlan Press Inc . More b.s. Penguin failed to process a credit card payment we made over the phone. Because of the internal confusion (possibly caused by the Random House/Penguin merger) they lost track of our payment attempt, assumed we hadn’t tried, and sued us. We pointed out that we had tendered payment, they said oops and took our company card over the phone (actually processing it this time) and dropped the suit. End of story.”

The truth was shared with Peter Beagle’s lawsuit:

Penguin Group (usa) Inc. v. Conlan Press, Inc. , San Mateo Superior Court, case #CLJ511166. Public records indicate that the plaintiff in that matter obtained a default judgment against Conlan and a writ of execution was issued in the amount of $6001.28. The judgment was finally satisfied in early 2015.

In plain words, it wasn’t paid and dropped. He lost; they took it from his bank.

Penguin sued someone with so much guilt that he didn’t bother to answer in court. The court judged against Cochran months before he made the above claims. They didn’t just award the original $3000, they doubled it. He thought nobody would notice and claimed it was paid and dropped. Then on 2/5/15, Cochran’s bank account was levied for $6,001.28. Soon after, he deleted conlanpress.com/fansagainstfraud.

If you find yourself on the fence about sides of the story, please remember the deception you can see here. There is no credibility for Cochran’s defenses about defrauding Peter Beagle and his fans. And if you run into his smokescreen again, we recommend to be prepared with info like this: Diversion Tactics used by Highly Manipulative Narcissists and Sociopaths. That’s not an insult, it’s a sincere warning.

Thanks to all who stand with Peter.

Jim Hines shared info publicized here without linking us, avoiding too strong of a stand. That’s completely understandable. Sharing the info accomplishes our goal and we want nothing more than fairness. But there soon won’t be any need for delicacy. After Cochran’s decade of cheating against fans, associates, and ultimately Peter, the chickens are coming home to roost.

Word is getting out about Peter’s recent victory against the conservatorship attempt. Other fans are spreading it much better than we could alone – with hundreds of shares for Drunkinagraveyard.com’s story (thanks for fighting the good fight, Robin.)

That led to an excellent writeup from Scifi4me.com: LAST UNICORN Author Peter S Beagle Mentally OK, Heirs’ Lawyer Quits. Again it delicately avoids linking to our publication of the court docs, but it recognizes the reason we exist:

an increasingly upset and angry fanbase.

Our greatest hope is that enough fans will stand with Peter so that we can finally end our effort and see justice for all. Please share with hashtag #TakeBackTheUnicorn.