Day 4 of the Trial, and we have gotten a couple of new Legal documents that must be talked about before anything else. First, the Judge released an amended Pre-Trial Order that stated the following:
“Upon consideration of the Court Record, The Court finds that it would be manifestly unjust for the plaintiff (defendant in the counterclaim) to have to answer claims of libel or slander that are not specific as to content, date and means of electronic communication of allegedly libelous or slanderous statements.
Therefore, pursuant to OCGA 9-11-16(b) the Consolidated Pre-Trial Order entered on August 19, 2025 is hereby AMENDED to specify that only the counterclaims for libel and slander set out in pleadings are those subject to adjudication, to wit: statements alleged to have been made (1) on October 20, 2020 as alleged in paragraph 64 of the amended and supplemental counterclaims filed February 17, 2023 and (2) on March 24, 2022 as alleged in Paragraph 65 of the amended and supplemental counterclaims filed February 17, 2023.”
So ORDERED, this 24th day of September 2025
Signed
Honorable Philip C Smith
What this document means is that Paul’s attempt to bring up any alleged claims of libel or slander from Alec Peters past, that are not actually listed in the Pre-trial order, cannot be brought up in Court. This definitely limits the goal of showing that Alec is a “mean and nasty guy”.
The 2nd Document is a motion from a witness named N. Andrew Crain to quash a subpoena that he received today to testify for the defense on Friday September 26, 2025. His request to quash is due to the fact that when a person is subpoena’d to testify under Georgia law, and he doesn’t live in the county the trial is taking place in, there are 3 things that must happen,
1 – subpoena must be served at least 24 hours in advance, since Mr Crain was served today at work, he only has 18 hours notice.
2 – the subpoena must have the witness fee for each days attendance attached to it
3 – the subpoena must also have a travel fee of .45 cents per mile to and from the courtroom attached to it.
Mr Crain in his motion to quash, states neither the 24 hour advance notice, nor the witness attendance fee nor travel fee were attached to the subpoena, for all those reason, he wants the subpoena to be thrown out. N. Andrew Crain is a managing partner in the law firm of Thomas Horstmeyer LLP, and leads the firm’s Intellectual property litigation practice. Currently in Cobb County Superior Court, Paul Jenkins is being sued by Horstmeyer LLP for unpaid legal services for $305,000. Horstmeyer V Jenkins is a case that has been going on for more than 2 years, having originally been filed on 7/13/2023. I am sure that Mr Crain is being called to talk about the copyright filing and work performed in that regard, however, calling an attorney whose firm you currently are in litigation with an owe a large sum of money can backfire under a good cross examination.
Today, the Judge denied 4 motions from Paul’s attorney, including one to have witnesses testify by zoom. Today the Defense called Mike Bawden to the stand. Alec’s attorney was granted the request to Voir Dire the witness to see if he actually had any relevant testimony. for those of you who do not know what Voir Dire means, remember the courtroom scene in “My Cousin Vinny” when the prosecutor asks Marissa Tomei’s character about her automotive knowledge…..that is a voir dire.
The judge denied defense attorneys request to make Mike Bawden an “expert”.
Mike Bawden was asked about his former role working for Alec on Axanar, and he testified under oath that he is a producer on Paul’s documentary “into the wormhole”. Under oath, Mike admitted that the goal of the “documentary” was to make money. He also admitted that he paid Paul Jenkins $70,000 dollars for his part in the documentary.
That’s all for day 4, see you all tomorrow.