The last court date involving former poker pro Mike Postle was May 12, when Judge Shama Mesiwala of the Superior Court of California ruled that he owes former defendant Todd Witteles nearly $27K. It was another in a string of bad days for Postle.
The situation appears to be worsening.
Not only does Postle face a court date next week for Veronica Brill’s legal fees, he tried to submit a document to the court…but the court rejected it. It was so inappropriately formatted that the court returned it to him this week.
On top of that, Brill released an hour-long video of a conversation with Sabina Johnson, Postle’s ex-wife. Needless to say, Postle’s name did not emerge unscathed.
Scheduled June 16 Hearing
Didn’t Mike Postle drop his massive lawsuit against a list of people in the poker world? Yes, he certainly did. However, as it turns out, a person can’t simply file a $360M-ish defamation lawsuit, accuse people of various forms of criminal behavior, and then just walk away. This is especially the case when two of the defendants hired attorneys to defend themselves and filed anti-SLAPP motions.
Evidently, Postle is on the hook for legal fees per anti-SLAPP precedent. Postle had not defended himself against the anti-SLAPP motions. When he simply withdrew his lawsuit, that declares the anti-SLAPP filers the victors. Witteles and Brill won their anti-SLAPP claims against Postle.
https://twitter.com/marcorandazza/status/1378069741055660040?s=20
The May 12 hearing brought Judge Mesiwala to a virtual courtroom with Witteles’ attorney Eric Bensamochan and Postle himself.
Postle decided to attend the virtual hearing without an actual statement and without having done sufficient research. His rambling defense appeared more like an airing of grievances, and Mesiwala officially ruled that Postle owed Witteles $26,982 in legal fees.
On June 19, Postle faces another hearing, this one of the same nature but with regard to Brill’s legal fees. Her attorney, Marc Randazza, filed that motion on May 19 and claimed that Brill, too, is due costs and legal fees.
Those amounted to $961.61 in costs and between $67,677.50 and $77,677.50 for attorneys’ fees.
Postle Tries to Defend in Writing
Evidently, Postle chose to submit a supplemental document to the court prior to the upcoming June 19 hearing. There is no way to tell the contents of the filing because the clerk of the court rejected it.
On June 7, the clerk filed a notice regarding the inability to process the supplemental brief because it was inappropriately formatted. The document was not in “proper legal pleading format,” nor did it include the original and a copy for the court. Apparently, he also submitted the documents in a binder and with side tabs, both of which are forbidden by the rules of the court.
The notice to Postle returned the documents to him and instructed him:
“It is the responsibility of the filing party to review any applicable statute, California Rules of Court, California Code of Civil Procedure, and Sacramento Superior Court Local Rules prior to submitting documents.”
Oops.
If Postle chooses to resubmit his brief in the proper format, he must do some with some expediency, as Judge Mesiwala will issue her tentative ruling at 2pm on the day before the hearing.
Explosive Statements by Ex-Wife
Also on June 7, Brill premiered a video in which she spoke with Sabina Johnson, Postle’s ex-wife and mother of their shared daughter.
Without the ability to corroborate most of what Johnson said, we will not go into a great amount of detail here. We will summarize her claims in a few bullet points.
-Postle often referred to himself as “the fleecer,” meaning someone who makes money by tricking other people. Johnson recounted numerous such instances of alleged shady conduct, both in and out of poker.-Postle abused Johnson during their marriage to the point of calling the police three times. -Postle tried to recruit Johnson to befriend Brill and solicit damaging information that he could use in his case against her. Further, he used their daughter as leverage in his threats.-PokerStars once accused him of cheating in online poker.-Postle had been friends with known online poker cheater Russ Hamilton at the time he appeared on a blackjack TV program.-Postle maintained a strong friendship with Chris Moneymaker throughout that PokerStars allegations and up until very recently, through some of the most recent scandal as well. However, she doesn’t believe Moneymaker had any knowledge of the alleged cheating at Stones Gambling Hall.-Rounder Life owner Evert Caldwell defends Postle due to business favors.-Producer Dave Broome, who claimed to be working on a fair-and-balanced documentary about the recent scandal, was Caldwell’s friend.-Postle has been known to bully people on social media when they angered him.
At the end of the video, Brill posted screenshots from Johnson of threats from Postle, many involving their daughter. The final message posted ended with a threat about the impending broadcast of the interview with Brill. “I don’t think you understand what’s going to happen if that video gets aired.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lJTD-E6FWo
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