Paul Jenkins is in serious legal trouble, and not just for his copyright fraud against Alec Peters and Axanar. The former Axanar director, who was fired in 2020 for unprofessional behavior and inappropriate behavior towards women, was hit with three motions by his his former law firm Thomas Horstemeyer, who is suing Paul for over $300,000 in unpaid legal bills. You can download all of the documents in the case here.
This week Thomas Horstemeyer filed three motions challenging the motions Paul wrote up himself as he cannot afford another lawyer to just fight the legal debt he owes. Paul’s arguments are all long shots. Paul rang up over $300,000 in legal debt with no way to pay for it, and now he is arguing that Thomas Horstemeyer never should have done the work in the first place. The arguments are pretty craven and typical of a man who refuses to take responsibility for his own bad decisions.
After firing Paul, Alec Peters offered Paul a walk away deal that allowed him to keep his co-director credit and both parties would not say anything derogatory of the other. Paul turned the offer down and tried to screw Axanar by putting out a press release claiming he quit (just one in a long line of Paul Jenkins lies) and by denying Alec and Axanar the right to use the footage donors had paid over $65,000 to secure by filing a fraudulent copyright.
Alec and Axanar had no choice but to sue Paul and it is well established that Paul brought the lawsuit on himself by refusing to leave the project like a professional.
What makes Paul’s decision even worse was that while Alec offered Paul a chance to walk away at no cost, Paul decided to start spending money he didn’t have, putting his family’s future at risk, all to satisfy his petty need for retribution. Now Paul will probably lose his house because of his irresponsible actions.
It is unclear why the firm of Thomas Horstemeyer allowed Jenkins to run up over $300,000 in legal fees when he was offered multiple chances to walk away. The firm filed the fraudulent copyright and so opened itself up to a potential lawsuit by Alec Peters by filing a copyright they knew had to be fraudulent, since Paul has just sworn to a co-authorship copyright. Their behavior in wasting a lot of time with ridiculous counter claims and multiple motions ran up both parties bills, and Alec’s lawyers plan on asking for legal fees from the judge when the case is over.
It is also unclear how much Paul owes his current lawyer, Elie Wolfe, but Paul claims it is almost $350,000.  In Wolfe, Jenkins found a lawyer as wasteful as he is. Wolfe filed a 220 page motion in December, not a good use of Paul’s money (which he doesn’t have). Alec’s attorney dismissed that motion with a 3 page answer. Ultimately, this is the difference between Paul’s attorney and Alec’s. Dave Messer, Alec’s attorney, isn’t wasting anyone’s time like Elie Wolfe has been doing since he took Paul’s doomed case.
Paul is a copyright fraud and a liar. He tried to screw Axanar donors and Alec and now it is coming home to roost with him.   All because he was more interested in retribution than walking away as a professional. Clearly Paul never learned anything from Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan.
Team Axanar