My former fiance threatened to make fabricated and scandalous public accusations about me unless I paid her $9 million in one week. Two years later, a Judge ordered her to pay me $584,199.16 for fees I spent defending my innocence.
It started on April 6th, 2021 with a thirteen-page letter from her lawyers: “[Redacted] is willing to settle all of her claims against Mr. Johnson and his companies for $9 million dollars…”. After over a year of our relationship ending, for the first time ever, she was accusing me of a wide range of “abusive and perverse” behavior. Through her attorneys, she threatened to make her allegations public if I didn’t pay her $9 million dollars within one week. WTF? What claims? What wrong-doing? It must be April Fools. Am I getting punked? This person who I’d once had the most beautiful relationship with was now unrecognizable to me.
The contents of the letter were shocking, but even more shocking was the fact that this letter was arriving after we had signed a separation agreement (with the help of our attorneys) a year earlier when ending our relationship. She and her attorneys were gambling that, even though she had already agreed that we’d go our separate ways, I'd cave and pay up to avoid my reputation being publicly tarnished.
She was emboldened by lawyers blinded by their greed to take advantage of her vulnerabilities and exploit my wealth. After over six months of threatening to destroy me with more scandalous allegations in “her new podcast”, a “book deal” and a “potential TV series”, the attorneys who sent the demand letter never filed a complaint or produced a single piece of evidence to support the allegations.
Then she got new attorneys. Seeing that threats alone were insufficient, they filed a case in court and tried to make me look like a monster. I successfully moved part of the case into arbitration, where we had agreed to resolve any disputes. As their legal losses mounted, they became increasingly unhinged in what they were willing to say. Global media ate it up.
On March 31st, 2023, after extensive motions, depositions and discovery, the arbitrator dismissed all her causes of action that had been referred to arbitration and ordered that my accuser pay me $584,199.16 to reimburse attorneys' fees I’d been forced to spend defending my innocence. The ruling and award were confirmed by an active Superior Court Judge on September 29th, 2023.
After years of litigation, the corroborating evidence my accuser had of any of my accused wrongdoings? Nothing. Not a single thing. In considering my accuser’s attempt to invalidate the separation agreement she had signed, the arbitrator, a well-respected retired judge, pointed out that my accuser’s “undisputed conduct and testimony refute her claim[s].” In other words, my accuser's own evidence contradicted her own story. Noteworthy as my accuser’s day job is Chief Storytelling Officer at an implantable medical device company where trust is life and death.
The entire thing was bizarre and surreal. My accuser's attorneys were sanctioned by the Judge - a severe reprimand that courts reserve for truly egregious conduct - for making, as the Judge wrote: “serious allegations…factually and legally baseless and frivolous”. Her lawyers were ordered to pay the court a fine of $2,500. In our settlement discussions, I also insisted her attorneys pay some of what my accuser owed to me for their complicitness.
It would have been so easy to relent and quietly settle to make this go away. That’s what nearly everyone does. But I am not guilty and they gave me no choice but to spend over two years litigating to prove my innocence. Giving in and paying up would have been an injustice to me; an injustice to society enabling this twisted practice.
The legal fight was ugly and awful. The worst. The most hurtful part of the whole ordeal was that she spoke about our relationship in ways that were unrecognizable to me. For example, when she was sadly diagnosed with a serious health condition, I rearranged my life and worked non-stop beside her to beat it. We flew around the country together to meet with doctors and explore clinical trials. Together we conducted extensive research into additional therapies and tests. It was our shared omnipresent focus. When tests showed that she was in the clear and it was time to celebrate her new lease on life, who was the one person in the world she invited to be by her side at this sacred event? Me. She honored my unwavering devotion to her well-being.
The case is now wrapped and behind us. This time with a promise that she won’t sue me again, a provision the previous agreement didn’t have and which allowed her and her attorneys to weaponize the legal system for over two years. Their strategy was to inflict maximum pain and suffering on me so I’d pay up privately. They miscalculated my tenaciousness and resolve and their strategy backfired, inflicting collateral damage upon themselves. One of her attorneys is no longer with that firm and my accuser’s health deteriorated within the blast radius of her own creation.
My accuser has been astonishingly pernicious. Nonetheless, I choose, again, to support her as she works through her health challenges. The settlement funds she owes me will be routed to a trust I established for her medical needs. She is the sole beneficiary and the only person who can access this trust. I won’t keep a penny of what she pays me as part of the judgment.
Every minute of every day each of us diligently works to build and fortify our personal reputations. Showing up on time. Being respectful. Offering sympathy. Helping out. Apologizing when at fault. Telling the truth. Our reputation is our life currency. Then, in one moment, a headline can cause everyone you love and care about to question everything they thought they knew about you. A lifetime of work now in question. It’s great entertainment when it’s about someone else; a different thing when it’s your name in the headline. It’s been no fun having my name dragged through the mud and not being able to comment during the proceedings.
“Innocent until proven guilty” is a bedrock of our society. In recent years, accusations have been weaponized and exploited for profit as “guilty until proven innocent” became de facto by mob rule. Ruining people’s careers, lives and reputations. Taking away from those who legitimately need the legal system. It has created a booming, dark underground economy that has destabilized society by straining our bonds of trust.
Our social fabric is fragile; woven together by a shared trust. The accusation strategy she used is corrosive to our shared stability. I hope more people stand up to this dark and twisted practice.
Endnotes:
Before the Apr '21 thirteen page scorched-earth letter from her attorneys, my accuser's first tactic to get money from me was a letter she penned in Sep '20. She praised my integrity, spoke of our shared love, & emphasized the reciprocal care we’d show for each other.
When that didn’t work, she and her attorneys sought to disparage me and create scandal. As their legal losses mounted, they became increasingly unhinged in what they were willing to say. For example, by accusing me of bribing the arbitrator. Trying to embarrass and pressure me into private settlement. As my court filing put it:
The Judge wasn’t having their bribery fiction. She found that the attorneys “acted with reckless disregard for the truth and the law in making the accusations” and “violated” their “duties of respect and honesty.” The Judge severely reprimanded the attorneys for making “frivolous” claims with “no evidence” to support them, “undermin[ing] the dignity and integrity of th[e] court’s proceedings.” She sanctioned the attorneys $2,500.
Press, why do you gotta be like this?
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