Back in September, Shane Vernon was going to the bathroom at a rodeo at the BOK Center in Tulsa when he saw a man grope a woman, Melissa Smith--twice. So he did what any decent guy would do--he collared the lowlife and gave him an earful. The groper was later identified as Leonel Olivarez, who is now facing the prospect of 10 years in prison and having to register as a sex offender. Well, last weekend, Olivarez turned the tables on Vernon and sued him, saying that Vernon not only humiliated him, but put him in fear of getting beaten up. For more details, check out my piece on this at Liberal America.
I've chewed on this most of the last few days. On paper, this is the definition of a frivolous lawsuit--especially since police not only have surveillance video evidence of what Olivarez did, but also have a confession from Olivarez in which he demonstrated how he groped Smith. He even wrote an apology to Smith. You degrade a woman like that, you DESERVE to be humiliated. About the only way this suit could even potentially go anywhere is if the confession and/or apology were illegally obtained. Otherwise, the velocity with which this should be thrown out ought to create enough of a breeze that I can feel it in North Carolina.
But the mere fact that there's a lawyer willing to even consider such a suit is downright chilling. It means that any time a guy wants to stand up for a woman, he could potentially have to worry about being sued--and with it, the associated loss of time and money. Unless this is smacked down, and smacked down hard, the chilling effect could be astronomical.
KOTV in Tulsa reports that Vernon is taking donations for his defense fund in the suit Olivarez has filed against him at GoFundMe. Hopefully, though, he won't have to worry about tapping into that fund. After all, Olivarez is taking a colossal gamble with this suit. He could not only be staring down the barrel of hefty sanctions, but could also end up paying Vernon's legal expenses. If there's any sanity in Oklahoma, that day will come sooner than later.