Updated 10/4/19 with transcript of Sept. 5 hearing; previously updated with details of Judge John Chupp ordering the two sides into mediation.

State District Judge John Chupp must come from a family of firefighters because Friday he managed a hearing in his Tarrant County courtroom that was more dumpster blaze than legal proceeding.

Friday was a significant milestone in a civil lawsuit brought by local anime voice actor Vic Mignogna against two of his Dallas-area colleagues, the fiance of one of the women, and a company that cut ties with him. Mignogna says their statements about his inappropriate behavior with women amount to an unfair campaign to destroy his career. His accusers say his lawsuit is aimed at silencing them.

After three hours of arguments between a tightly scripted defense team and Mignogna’s astonishingly unorganized -- and at times ill-prepared and illogical -- attorney, Chupp dismissed a number of the claims and promised to rule on the remainder in the next 30 days.

On Sept. 17, 11 days after the hearing, Chupp called attorneys for both sides to his courtroom and ordered them to mediate by Oct. 3. If mediation is not successful, he told the lawyers, he would rule on all outstanding orders the following day.

Chupp also handed out some of the threats of violence against him and others that were referred to him by the Fort Worth Police Department after his Sept. 6 hearing.

One email read: Hello, I just wanted to let you know that judge Chupp is a braindead moron and I sincerely hope someone accuses him of rape. You are the cause of school shootings ... suicides ... hate and violence. Judge Chupp just let a group of open criminals go free, shame on your kangaroo court. When people start uprising I hope your court is the first thing targeted.

One series of tweets included: "Disillusioned -- the strong reminder that justice only leaves the barrel of a gun." and "When the state fails to defend its citizens, it's only natural that the citizens take care of themselves. It would be a justified kill, and the person doing it can even get annulled for the act of killing and found not guilty for murder."

Chupp called on both sets of attorneys to refrain from inciting their supporters.

This case is the first big test of the #MeToo movement in the multimillion-dollar anime industry. In this instance, Mignogna is digging in and fighting back in court.

Given the high-stakes issues in play, it’s troubling that the case has turned into a circus.

As one of the defense lawyers, Andrea Perez, told me earlier this summer, “This case is something I wake up thinking about and it’s the last thing I think about when I go to sleep. I too, being a woman, and a woman lawyer -- this hit me particularly hard because I have experiences too. I know there is too often silence. So to be able to support and help get women out there to talk about what they have been going through is so important to me.”

Jamie Marchi (left) and Monica Rial comfort each other during a hearing Friday on various civil claims, including defamation, brought against them, Rial's fiance, Ron Toye, and Funimation Productions by voice actor Vic Mignogna. (Lawrence Jenkins / Special Contributor)

Mignogna has been the voice of hundreds of roles in the world of anime. Most recently, he portrayed the beloved villain-hero in Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

But January's record-breaking opening of Broly also set off another round of accusations and stories on social media about the 56-year-old actor's long-rumored inappropriate behavior with women -- which allegedly has included aggressive kisses, hugs and unwanted sexual advances.

Online, thousands of anime fans rushed to pick a side in the warfare hashtagged #kickvic and #IStandWithVic. Mignogna repeatedly, and sometimes in great detail, denied all the allegations.

Amid the outcry, Flower Mound-based Funimation Productions, which dubs and distributes anime shows, including much of the Dragon Ball franchise, announced in February that it had severed ties with Mignogna after an internal investigation.

Mignogna’s lawsuit, filed April 18, alleged defamation, tortious interference, conspiracy and other charges against Funimation, voice actors Jamie Marchi and Monica Rial, and Rial’s fiance, Ron Toye. The lawsuit painted the company and three individuals as a band of conspirators leading the charge to reduce Mignogna to ruins.

Friday the 141st District Court’s gallery was packed with interested parties, and many of them were there to support Rial and Marchi. But Mignogna was nowhere to be found. Perhaps that was for the best, given the often befuddled oral arguments of his Tyler-based attorney, Ty Beard.

Anime gets its #MeToo moment in clash between Dallas-area voice actors

And the many worldwide Mignogna fans who have contributed to the massive GoFundMe for his legal fees, a war chest which now stands at more than $242,000, might well have wanted their money back if they had been in the courtroom today.

I’d like to tell you what Beard thought of his performance. Ditto for being able to say with authority the reason Mignogna was not on hand (the defense team believes he had a professional appearance in California), but Beard refused to speak to me as he left the courtroom. Likewise, just as he refused to talk when I wrote previously about this case, he didn’t respond to my email earlier this week seeking comment.

From the moment Chupp first called on Beard during Friday’s hearing, the attorney seemed totally unprepared. Dead air -- while he fumbled for documents, or answers -- seemed to take up as much time as Beard’s actual responses. I’ve sat in two dozen or more civil and criminal courtrooms and never have I seen anything like this.

At the end of the proceedings -- which went an hour longer than the court had allocated -- Chupp dismissed all claims against Marchi, all except defamation against Funimation and all except defamation and conspiracy against Rial and Toye.

Those outstanding claims are weighty ones -- Funimation, Rial and Toye are still on a sharp hook. I suspect Chupp needed to give more consideration and study to each before making his ruling. Or maybe the amateurish performance of the plaintiff’s legal team had just worn on his last nerve to the point that the extremely patient judge needed a break.

In contrast to the buttoned-down, PowerPoint-proficient defense lawyers, Beard was not ready for a stage like this. Too often his response to Chupp about an exhibit or fact was “at this time, I can’t find it.”

Voice actor Vic Mignogna at the 20th annual Webby Awards in New York in May 2016. (Mark Sagliocco / Getty Images)

At one point in Beard’s arguments against Marchi, Chupp said, “I don’t think you have any evidence and that’s your problem.”

Beard later reacted with surprise when Chupp indicated he had dropped all the claims against Marchi: “Wait, defamation was dismissed as well?”

“Yes, I said that a long time ago,” Chupp had to point out.

In another exchange, a slightly exasperated Chupp said, “Am I not being clear?” Beard responded, “No, your honor, it’s that I’m not listening“ -- to which the judge said, “It would help if you would.”

I’ve got a dozen more examples, but you probably get the picture.

None of this means Chupp will rule against the plaintiff on the remaining claims. For instance, he was very interested in Beard’s arguments about “implied defamation” by Funimation, which was vague in its tweets related to Mignogna’s termination at a time when vile accusations were flying around on social media.

Chupp pointedly noted the several hundred individual tweets by Toye, who repeatedly used the label “predator” online in reference to Mignogna and said more than 100 individuals had made accusations “of assault,” that the allegations were “corroborated” and that “[there were] mounds of testimony.”

He also was keenly interested in emails provided by Beard that showed communications between Rial and Funimation about Mignogna after his termination.

Funimation's tweets after its investigation and termination of Vic Mignogna.

Earlier plaintiff filings had focused on Rial's lengthy Feb. 19 tweet in which she alleged that Mignogna grabbed her in a hotel room and forcibly kissed her without her consent at an anime convention in 2007. Rial said that she decided to go public with her account of Mignogna's actions "to put a face to the voices."

Mignogna said in his deposition that he could never recall an instance when she was even in his hotel room.

Although her case is not over, Rial told me she was relieved by Friday’s outcome because after all the mistruths that have spread, “today was about the actual evidence that a judge can see -- and we have a lot of it and the other side has nothing.”

Marchi is off the hook but still dead set on “making sure that people hear the truth.”

The two women are steadfast that this case, despite the pain and harassment that have come with it, will make a difference. As we parted in the Fort Worth courtroom, Rial smiled through her tears: “We want other women to see we got through it -- we are getting through it -- and it will be OK for them too.”