An attorney who alleges YouTube personality Jack Doherty ordered his bodyguard to beat him up during a live-streamed Halloween party wants a judge to grant him pretrial knowledge of the defendant’s financial worth, but the social media personality says in new court papers that the motion is invasive and a fishing expedition.
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.
Gardella’s attorneys previously filed court papers with Judge Michael 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.”
But in their own court papers, Doherty’s lawyers contend that using “out-of-court video clips taken wholly out of context” in order to obtain “unfettered access” to the defendant’s finances is just the type of “fishing expedition” the state Civil Code seeks to prevent.
“Critically, Mr. Doherty did not throw the punch, testified under oath that he did not instruct defendant Kongg to strike plaintiff and was not even facing the altercation when it occurred,” Doherty’s attorneys write. “Once the distorted, inadmissible, speculative and irrelevant material is set aside, it is clear plaintiff’s standard is not met and his motion should be denied.”
Doherty’s lawyers further state that if the motion is granted, the financial records should be “narrowly limited to the period immediately surrounding the incident and narrowly scoped to the specific content and revenue at issue.”
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, but Gardella’s attorneys state in their court papers that the plaintiff is likely to prevail in his request that a jury award him punitive damages.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.”
Trial of Gardella’s suit is scheduled for Nov. 2.