dartagnan wrote:Lance Starr responds to this thread:
Apparently, I have offended Kevin Graham/dartagnan over on the FOB board. Not sure exactly what I did except proclaim that Wyatt had soundly defeated Sandra Tanner in his law suit. I'm not sure how that is offensive.
I think it's pretty pathetic when an attorney gets on the internet and talks about a case he just tried. I mean, geez... are we still in junior high, and the hot shot is bragging that he beat up the little old lady?
I have a question. I would be extremely interested in learning who paid the bill for "Confidential Informant"'s services. I.e., Did FAIR pay the bill? Or Allen Wyatt? Or, was it the Church? Or did Lance/CI offers his help pro bono? I ask for a few reasons. 1) FAIR has often "boasted" about how "poor" it is, i.e., it has made itself out to be this sort of grassroots, purely member-run effort (once again, this is probably another attempt to distance FAIR from the institutional Church). 2) We know that if the Church were to have footed the bill (or even BYU? or the Maxwell Institute?) that the Church would most likely be interested in covering its tracks (as evidenced by the Brethren's "money trail" behavior during the Mark Hofmann era).
I have no clue who paid Lance's fees, or if he even charged any.
One interesting thing is, though, that they can go around claiming victimhood in this whole thing, and you know, some folks will rise to the occasion and defend a victim. However much I disagree with FAIR's and the other apologists' attempts to defend the LDS church's truth claims, and their obfuscation about Joseph Smith and all of that crap, I have to agree that they were in some ways victims in this case, in that they were made to go through an entire lawsuit process including going to court and having a judge dismiss the claims, for a case that Sandra never should have brought. When confronted by the Tanners over this, Wyatt offered, apparently immediately, to hand over all of the domains in question without charge. That should have been the end of it, but the Tanners decided to press on, apparently to "punish" Wyatt for what he'd done. But they weren't very well-advised in this because Wyatt had a pretty good legal case, as we've seen. And I really don't see this desire to punish Wyatt as having been a reasonable use of the court system.
Wyatt shouldn't have done what he did originally (IMHO), but Tanner shouldn't have made him go through a whole lawsuit over it either. And while you ask about the money trail, it turns out Sandra Tanner pays her legal bills over this from donations from folks who support her mission against the church. Was Allan Wyatt receiving donations, too? Or was this going to have to come out of his own pocket? Why should Sandra Tanner get to pay for this with funds that don't come out of her own pocket, and now we've got conspiracyesque theories going on about the money trail for Wyatt's defense? Is it right and proper that Sandra Tanner gets to pursue a questionable lawsuit with no consequences to her own finances, and yet complain if Wyatt finds a way to get out of having this cost him thousands of dollars out of his own pocket?
Anyhow, I don't know who paid for his defense. But I won't be all that upset any way it goes, if we ever find out, which I doubt.
Mormonism ceased being a compelling topic for me when I finally came to terms with its transformation from a personality cult into a combination of a real estate company, a SuperPac, and Westboro Baptist Church. - Kishkumen
Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me either. You know, taking one for the team and all that. On the other hand, he's pretty young and has only been practicing for a something like two or three years, and so having a good clean kill on his record may well boost his career in some small way.
On the other hand, this guy's gotta eat too, so it's entirely possible someone forked out some kind of fee for him. Either way, he apparently did a pretty good job representing his client, so he'd deserve the pay if there was some.
Mormonism ceased being a compelling topic for me when I finally came to terms with its transformation from a personality cult into a combination of a real estate company, a SuperPac, and Westboro Baptist Church. - Kishkumen
Sethbag wrote:But they weren't very well-advised in this because Wyatt had a pretty good legal case, as we've seen.
Wyatt didn't need "a pretty good legal case." The judge's last name was Kimball.
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"