An attorney who alleges YouTube personality Jack Doherty ordered his bodyguard to beat him up during a live-streamed 2023 Halloween party wants a judge to grant him pretrial knowledge of the defendant’s financial worth.
Chase Cameron Gardella, who since the alleged attack has become a practicing lawyer, is the plaintiff in a Van Nuys Superior Court lawsuit filed against Doherty, Jack Doherty LLC, Banger Official LLC and the bodyguard, Justin “Kane Kongg” Goslee. The suit’s allegations include assault, battery, negligence, negligent hiring, retention, supervision and training, aiding and abetting, unjust enrichment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
On Friday, Gardella’s attorneys filed court papers with Judge Michael R. Amerian in advance of a June 29 hearing requesting that Doherty’s own recorded statements and conduct establish that he acted with malice and conscious disregard for the rights and safety of others, treating physical violence against Gardella as a “calculated business decision designed to generate viral content and profit.”
Therefore, Gardella is likely to prevail in his request that a jury award him punitive damages, according to Gardella’s attorneys’ court papers. Access to a defendant’s assets normally occurs after a trial and jurors have formally found that he or she acted with malice, oppression or fraud.
“Defendant Doherty told his audience that physical injury and the lawsuits that follow can be economically worthwhile so long as the violence generates more content revenue than the claim costs,” Gardella’s lawyers state in their pleadings. “That profit-over-safety calculation is the exact conduct punitive damages are designed to punish and deter.”
Doherty became famous for intentionally creating dangerous and violent situations, which he streams to his social media channels in order to achieve fame and profit, Gardella’s attorneys state in their court papers.
“He uses security guards as pawns in his content and puts them in violent situations to entertain his viewers,” according to the plaintiff’s lawyers’ pleadings.
Doherty, now 22, hired Kongg as his defender and to participate in content in 2023 because he wanted to profit off of Kongg’s tendency to engage in violent behavior, Gardella’s lawyers further allege in their pleadings.
Before leaving for a party in October 2023, Doherty and Kongg viewed a video of Kongg knocking a woman unconscious while providing security for a previous employer, according to Gardella’s attorneys’ court papers. Inspired, Doherty sought ways to encourage Kongg to engage in violent behavior in order to impress his viewers and instructed Kongg to fight the plaintiff, then celebrated that he got good content, Gardella’s lawyers further contend in their court papers.
Doherty is trying to avoid liability by contending that he was an innocent bystander despite having called for Kongg to attack Gardella, the plaintiff’s lawyers further state in their pleadings.
But in their court papers, Doherty’s attorneys state that Kongg was acting independently, out of his own personal frustrations and “clearly outside the scope of any assigned duties as security for Mr. Doherty when (Goslee) struck plaintiff.”
At its core, the lawsuit asks the court to hold Doherty liable for a punch he did not throw, an argument he did not provoke and conduct that fell entirely outside any conceivable scope of Kongg’s duties as Doherty’s independent contractor security guard, Doherty’s lawyers further state.
Gardella also is not entitled to punitive damages from Doherty because he cannot demonstrate that the YouTube personality engaged in conduct involving malice, fraud or oppression, the Doherty attorneys contend in their pleadings.
According to the suit, Gardella attended a Sherman Oaks Halloween party in October 2023 and early the next morning was on the street outside talking to Doherty and Goslee when the latter asked, “What are we doing?,” prompting Doherty to respond, “We’re gonna fight. Us two versus you two, all right go,” then gestured that he and Goslee were going to fight Gardella and a friend who was with the plaintiff, the suit states.
Moments later, Goslee punched Gardella in the face, causing him to fall and hurt his head, face and neck, the suit filed in February 2024 states.
Doherty live-streamed the assault on Gardella on the platform Kick and, in the hours and days that followed, posted videos of the assault on YouTube, X and TikTok channels, where he has a combined 22.8 million followers, the suit alleges.
“Doherty has a history, both before and after the subject incident, of filming himself harassing, assaulting and antagonizing members of the public by having his security guards step in to intimidate and assault them if they react to Doherty’s harassment,” the suit states.
Trial is scheduled Nov. 2.