Edited by author 04-17-2002 02:21 PM
Good god, I need to know if this is true. It just seems too good (er...bad) to be authentic, but I'm suspending judgement for now.

One thing: If they took his laptop from his car and erased it, wouldn't that be a criminal offense? I think that wouldn't even fall under a "wrongful termination" suit so much as a B&E/vandalism case.

Edited by author 04-17-2002 04:37 PM
i too, looked in depth to try in verify this yesterday. couldn't find anything. i find it curious too, that the writer suggests that we boycott time warner cable and use the money to help bill german when bill's email address is bgerman@tampabay.rr.com and tampabay rr is the internet access provided by time warner cable in that area! 1. would you continue to patronize a service provided by someone you were suing for wrongful termination AND 2. would you continue to provide service to someone you're in litigation against?

sounds weird. there's something missing here.

p.s. i looked and there are numerous isp options in that area.

  I was a little suspicious too. I dug a little and this is what I found:

  *Judge Lazzara's phone number is not 813-301-5774. That phone # belongs to Judge Elizabeth Jenkins. Lazzara and Jenkins are both judges with the US District Court, Middle District of FL, Tampa division.

   *727-544-6224 doesn't belong to William German either. Or not according to Google. According to Google that # is registered to a Ted W Mcateer of St Pete, FL. A William German of Clearwater, FL, does exist but not with that phone #.

   Lexis-Nexis doesn't cough up anything resembling a German v. Time-Warner Cablevision case, nor did findlaw.com list any Robert McCormick practicing law in FL (Martindale-Hubbell, does, actually, but that McCormick practices real estate law.)

   An earlier incarnation of greenjem.com is cached in Google as *The Alien Containment Facility*. Greenjem.com is registered to one Larry Larsen. Google searches associate the greenjem site with this man.

it was a real case. here's the docket sheet:

Docket as of April 16, 2002 0:00 am Page 1
Proceedings include all events.
8:00cv2501 German v. Time Warner Comm. CLOSED
                                                  EAJ
                                                  CLOSED EAJ
                       U.S. District Court
               Middle District of Florida (Tampa)
               CIVIL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 00-CV-2501
German v. Time Warner Comm. Filed: 12/08/00
Assigned to: Judge Richard A. Lazzara Jury demand: Plaintiff
Demand: $0,000 Nature of Suit: 442
Lead Docket: None Jurisdiction: Federal Question
Dkt# in other court: None
Cause: 42:2000 Job Discrimination (Race)

WILLIAM J. GERMAN J. Robert McCormack
     plaintiff [COR LD NTC]
                                  Persante & McCormack, P.A.
                                  2555 Enterprise Rd., Unit 15
                                  Clearwater, FL 33763
                                  727/796-7666

   v.

TIME WARNER COMMUNICATIONS John D. Mullen
     defendant [COR]
                                  Holland & Knight, LLP
                                  400 N. Ashley Dr., Suite 2300
                                  P.O. Box 1288
                                  Tampa, FL 33602-1288
                                  USA
                                  813/227-8500
                                  William B. deMeza, Jr.
                                  [COR LD NTC]
                                  Holland & Knight LLP
                                  P.O. Box 1288
                                  400 N. Ashley Dr., Suite 2300
                                  Tampa, FL 33601-1288
                                  813/227-8500
 
Docket as of April 16, 2002 0:00 am Page 2
Proceedings include all events.
8:00cv2501 German v. Time Warner Comm. CLOSED
                                                  EAJ
-----------------------------------------------------

he filed the case over a year ago. it looks like he wasn't even suing for damages, he just wanted his job back.

maybe larry isn't an authorized agent of bill german. perhaps it's legit and he's just trying to be helpful. i don't give money under these circumstances though.

Hmm. Don't know what to make of this - is it even possible that the world's biggest mega-corp could be so obvious? And get away with it?
Anyway, I have always been firmly against intra-racial dating. Go Bill!

Hi, I'm the guy that wrote that page. And yes, I'm also the guy at Poynter.

I did have the wrong number for the judge. I found that out when I called it to get the docket number. The assistant said "What in the world is going on???" So I reposted the right number.

I'll try to address some of the other things here. His laptop, as best I can remember (judge didn't allow note taking) was removed from his company car. As for there being newspaper stories, I don't know why no one is writing about it. I guess if it turned out against Time Warner they probably would have. We still found race played a part in the demotion, so there is plenty there to nibble on for the papers.

As for something not being told, I wrote this right after the trial. It was just a list of the facts as I remembered them. I'm positive I'm forgetting LOTS of facts of the case. I would like to get the transcripts and post them so others can judge for themselves. I'll admit I was pulling for the plaintiff from the majority of the trial. And I'd like to state for the record that I made the right decision in the end finding for Time Warner. Time Warner screwed him over but technically what they did wasn't a violation of the civil rights act since they probably would have demoted him if he made that phone call to a white person. I'm going to ask one of the other jurors that didn't agree with me to write something.

I don't know why Mr. German still has road runner, personally I think that is kinda twisted. I have road runner too and I'm not about to change. Bandwidth is bandwidth and I can get nearly 1.5 mbit download on that thing so there is no way I'm switching. Pay channels are gone though.

One other thing. I suspect, like the jury, most people won't agree with my position that he deserves money. It was true that he wasn't asking for anything, which is part of the reason I thought he deserved something. That page is for the 2 out of 8 that would be more than willing to paypal a couple bucks to him. I threw away $4 on a venti non-fat iced latte every morning of that trial. I got no problem sending Mr. German a couple bones for his trouble.

All in all, the page is my opinion stating the facts as I saw them in the front row of the jury box. I never claimed to be non-partisan. But it absolutely isn't a hoax.

Larry

  Nice work, Denise! I stand corrected. Ok, if everything the author asserts about the case is true, Mr. German's superiors certainly acted criminally. And I hope he receives whatever restitution he desires. There's no reason not to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I can't shake the feeling that something's still a little fishy here. The author writes "Today I finished serving ..." without saying what date "today" was. Did it take a year and a half (almost) to conclude a suit filed in 2000? Maybe. Probably. But explaining this might make his story more credible. Otherwise he sounds like an infomercial demanding that I "Act now!"
  Also, who's writing this, actually? I assume Mr. Larsen, the site's registered owner, is the author here, but I can't be sure because he doesn't identify himself. Mr. Larsen--if he is the author--should strive to make his story more credible by clearly indentifying himself and explaining his own motives. German v. Time-Warner might be an important story. If the local news hasn't picked this story up, maybe the author could help Mr. German most by writing the story himself. But until I read an account that meets higher journalistic standards, I won't feel comfortable giving money or advising anyone else too.

i read some information about the judge when i found the district's court page. (same one you linked to.) the case was filed in december 2000 and that judge requires a 6 month deferrment on civil cases for the parties to try mediation. then, they get a month for pretrial motions and then they get worked into the schedule. so, it's entirely likely that the case didn't get heard until january 2002.

it just looks like he sued for the wrong thing. people rarely win wrongful termination suits. especially a white guy suing over race issues. even though he's married to the woman now, he wasn't at the time the actions occurred. a better thing to sue for and one which he probably could have won and received damages for is "hostile work environment" and/or harrassment.

Pudntane_Wilson:
Everything I assert is true to the best of my recollection after sitting in a box for a week without being able to take notes. His superiors did -not- act criminally, this was a civil trial. He will receive no restitution other than paypals and checks that people send from my site because he lost the case.

"Today I finished" was written the same day I posted it. That posted date was 4/12 and is at the top of the page. I don't know when the suit was filed. This was foreign to me until I was selected to be on the jury April 8th.

I wrote it but I'm also a huge privacy advocate. Privacy, to me, is vastly important. I've never tried to be a rock star or an actor and I never would because I value being a guy that can walk down the street and not be recognized. Greenjem.com has been up since '96 and I don't recall ever having my name on it. That has all changed in the last 24 hours, my home address and phone number was posted to Fark and a number of blogs and other places. While I'm willing to lean into a pitch for this cause, this story isn't about me and it really shouldn't be. I've explained my "motives" here and every other forum that I know of; I found Time Warner won the case but screwed over a decent guy. I think he should be compensated. That about wraps it up in 18 words.

As for meeting a "higher journalistic standard", I'll leave that to any journalism organizations that do a story on this. This is simply my analysis of what I saw from the jurors box, not my attempt to win a pulitzer.

And if you aren't motivated to give him a dime, don't. I was the first to send him money and when I get my check for serving on jury duty I'll send him more money. What other people do is up to their beliefs, conscience, and financial ability.

I'm just stunned at how many people have attempted to shoot the messenger.

Denise:
>>he probably could have won and received damages for is "hostile work environment" and/or harrassment.

You can't sue for either of these things in Florida. I think that is wrong, but that is how it is. They took the only legal path that was available and they lost. Everyone in the jury admitted right off the bat, if this was a harrasment case he would have won.

wow. i did not know that, larry. thanks!

>>maybe larry isn't an authorized agent of bill german.

My juror's certificate is here: http://www.greenjem.com/LDLJUROR.jpg

  Larry:

  I hope you'll take my comments in the spirit in which they were intended. I wasn't trying to shoot the messenger; just trying to ferret out I could about the case. It sounds so unfair, I'd ask the same questions if I heard it from someone or received it by e-mail. That's what I meant by "journalist standards," really, just answers to "who, what, where, when, why, how." You've answered most of them now. Thanks.

  If suit for harrassment or hostile work enviroment is out of the question, perhaps Mr. German could sue his worst tormentors for personal slander or libel?

I talked to his lawyers and asked if there was any other recourse, and there is not. Apparently employees have almost no rights at all in Florida.

By the way, I was getting a lot of flack about it being one sided so I emailed a guy I considered the co-foreman. He and I were the main people in the room debating the issues. I figured he would have an opposing viewpoint and would want to write a little rebuttal for my site to explain another viewpoint. He looked at the sight and said it was just as he viewed the facts and there was nothing to add other than the HR lady is a dumbass. I'll leave that off for now. :)