Thomas J. Baker's Response to Service of Lawsuit

Yesterday, Santa Monica College student Thomas J. Baker was personally served with a summons and complaint for damages for libel and slander. The lawsuit was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court. Within a short time thereafter, he emailed me, claiming he was improperly served and threatening a counter-suit for harassment and punitive damages. I contend that he was properly served and find his claims to retaliate with a counter-suit and his alleged claims for damages without merit.

Below are both his original email and my response. At a later point, I will place the lawsuit online. Perhaps Mr. Baker should seek his legal advice in the future from an attorney other than Robert Sammis.

-- Des Manttari,
Editor-in-Chief,
Phoenix Genesis

(c) 2006: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP

---------------------- MY EMAIL TO THOMAS BAKER -------------------------

ATTENTION: THOMAS J. BAKER
RE: SERVICE OF SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT

August 3, 2006

Dear Tom,

This is a response to your recent email to me. To the best of my knowledge, you were properly served at approximately 9:15 p.m. last night at your residence. My process server was over the age of 18 and not a party to the action, as required by law. Furthermore, he personally served you with both a conformed copy of the summons and the verified complaint for damages in this action in which you are a named defendant pursuant to California Code of Civil Procedure Section 415.10. The complaint included three labeled exhibits as well as my verification.

By virtue of your email to me, you have acknowledged service. Service is deemed complete at the time of delivery and is both effective and valid. Although you may wish to entertain a motion to quash the service, the Court would most likely reject it as frivolous and without merit. I will file the proof of service with the court at my earliest convenience and mail a copy to you for your records.

You are welcome to correspond with me at this email address. Furthermore, if you have any written correspondence or documents in this matter that you would like to send me, please direct them to my post office address as follows:

Des Manttari
P.O. Box 64563
Los Angeles, CA 90064

You can either represent yourself in this matter or hire an attorney. However, if you represent yourself, you should carefully review the law to make sure you file the proper legal documents, such as an answer to the complaint, within the time limits required by law. At any time during this action, if you wish to propose any sort of settlement on this matter, I will be happy to review such and respond accordingly. If you do retain an attorney, please email me his phone number and address at your earliest convenience.

In response to the second part of your email, if you would like to provide me with the name of the person you reference as to making allegations against me, I would greatly appreciate it so that I can address these false claims accordingly. Although you are correct in your assertion that truth is an absolute defense to libel or slander, it appears on the face of your written statement to the SMCPD and your answer to your TRO to the Court under penalty of perjury, that you have more than one version of the "truth."

I find your claims to counter-sue me for harassment and for punitive damages without merit. For all the foregoing reasons, I will proceed to vigorously defend my rights in this matter in accordance with the law. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to email me.

Very Truly Yours,
Des Manttari

----------------------- THOMAS BAKER'S EMAIL TO ME ----------------------

Thomas Baker thomasjbake@yahoo.com wrote:

Dear Des,

I got another summons from you, but I received [sic] none of the relevant court information about the suit.

A suspicious person arrived at my door, and when I questioned who we was, he answered very rudely, "That doesn't matter, you've been served!" and dropped a pile of papers in front of my door. None of the papers has any of the relevant court information on it, so I am requesting that you re-serve the appropriate documents.

Also, I don't know if you are aware, but truth is an absolute defense against any claims of libel or slander. The claims about threats that I referenced came from a person who claimed to witness the threats that were said that you made. Also, if you choose to continue this, I will be retaining a lawyer and seeking punitive damages. If anyone has suffered through this ordeal, it has been me. You've tried to embarrass [sic], harass, and discredit me falsely in public school arenas, without any action on my part, you tried to discredit me similarly at E3, and have caused me a great amount of demonstratable distress and injury.

I have come to the end of my rope. If you do not stop this behavior towards me, I will be issuing a counter-suit for harassment, as well as a retraining order for the maximum amount of time that can be achieved.

Sincerest regards,
Thomas J. Baker

Feel free to link or print this; just include the SAVE SMC URL: http://savesmc.blogspot.com/

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