On Thursday,October 2nd, the Jury in Forsyth County Superior Court delivered their verdict, in the case that can ONLY be called “A COMPLETE VICTORY” for Alec Peters and Axanar Productions. In the aftermath, the “haters” in that fantasy world known as “Axamonitor” are trying to make every type of excuse they can to explain “why” Paul Jenkins lost. Now for those who didn’t hear about the verdict, the Jury found for the plaintiffs for breach of contract, as well as finding against Paul Jenkins two counter claims, for use of image likeness without permission and fraud (both claims Jenkins failed to prove or even suggest any damages for). The judge had previously found that the plaintiffs DID NOT defame Paul Jenkins in any way. The plaintiffs were awarded $60,000 in damages for the Breach of Contract Claim. The Plaintiffs were also awarded $180,000 in Attorney fees for case.
Now for those who do not understand, the Jury rendered UNANIMOUS Verdicts for each claim that was before them. They also Requested to talk with Alec’s Attorney after the case was over. NONE of the jurors thought Paul was truthful on the stand. they also thought that Paul’s Lawyer was a “blow Hard” who turned what should have been a 3 day trial into a 9 day trial. The Jurors were not happy that Paul was using the case for as part of his “for profit” documentary, one that Paul’s own witnesses testified under oath, was “for profit”, and that he had the nerve to put a witness on the stand who had given him $70,000 dollars towards that documentary. Also NONE of the jurors requested to talk to Paul or Carlos at any time, but none the less Paul and Carlos Pedrazza ambushed jurors who simply wanted to leave, and then crafted leading questions that could only be answered 1 way, to allow him to craft his lying rhetoric, to spin up the rest of the members of the Axamonitor Group. None of the jurors were “sad” about the case, so as usual Carlos is practicing “yellow Journalism”.
We also must remember that Paul wanted to examine every statement that Alec has ever made, even those that had no bearing on the case. The legal finding for defamation must show that statements hurt a person both financially and professionally. Jenkins offered no proof of any damages. Remember Jenkins was paid to be a Script Consultant on Marvel’s Thunderbirds*
The Jurors saw a lot of evidence that proved Paul was a supporter of Axanar, including his email to Alec where he said he was “All In” on getting the movie produced. They also saw Alec only needing about 2 hours of testimony on direct examination to give all the evidence needed to prove that Paul breached his contract. Paul never even addressed the contract claim.
Because Paul wanted to make this trial into a circus, SOLELY for the attempt to get a lot of footage for his “documentary”, what should have been a 3 or 4 day trial(including the day spent picking the Jury), it wound up taking 9 days, becoming the longest civil jury trial in Forysth County, GA history.
Paul’s Lawyer did not call anyone to the stand with any first hand knowledge about the 2019 shoot. He called people solely to speak about how bad of a person Alec was, and yet even then, Robert Meyer Burnett testified under oath that Alec was a good producer, that the documentary was a “money grab”, and that they had funded the film with close to $180,000 from Mike Bawden and others to produce it. In fact Paul’s second lawyer even testified that Paul owed him $296K in legal fees, and that by looking at court documents Paul owed at least $300K to his first lawyers who had dropped out of the case. That documentary was was viewed by Paul as his “saving grace” financially.
Even when Paul’s lawyer filed a motion for a mistrial, he included a photo of the supposed offense, with part of the Jury in full view. You NEVER show the jurors faces, that is defense law 101.
Now, while the haters are correct that Paul can appeal, Paul can’t afford the appeal bond, which will be at least the amount of the courts judgement. So what will happen is either Paul will go further into debt, or he will simply declare bankruptcy.
And to think, Paul could have simply walked away, but his pride wouldn’t let him.
And unlike the Haters claims, in this case, the law worked…….and the good guys won.