Letter to Deric Lostutter Probation Officer

Mr.  George:

I am writing this on behalf of any and all individuals who have posted anonymous comments on Alexandria Goddard’s blog and on the www.dericlostutter.org website. To recap., Mr. Lostutter was instructed he must refrain from harassing other people as part of the terms of his probation which allows him to remain free until his sentencing on March 8, 2017.
Mr. Lostutter has violated that probation term by requesting Alexandria Goddard and whoever is/are the administrator(s) of www.dericlostutter.org to turn over all IP addresses associated with any and all comments by anonymous individuals on their respective blogs.

Mr. Lostutter is attempting to unmask anonymous commenters who are not a party to his lawsuit for no other purpose than to harass them. Such actions are prohibited by the terms of his probation. Mr. Lostutter was already warned previously by this probation office not to harass others or threaten to add them to his defamation lawsuit. As seen in <Exhibit A>, Mr. Lostutter demonstrates he intends to harass others who are not a party to his lawsuit as he states he will be asking for IPs from each respective blog as well as private emails, private messages, and information about private phone calls.

Mr. Lostutter filed a pleading for preservation of evidence <Exhibit A> stating he would be seeking IP addresses of anonymous commenters and other communications with non-parties to his lawsuit after he attempted to extort Alexandria Goddard with a settlement offer in which he stated he would not pursue anonymous commenters if Ms. Goddard would meet his settlement terms. In other words, Mr. Lostutter is attempting to extort Ms. Goddard into caving to his terms by threatening to unmask her supporters. The relevant section of this extortionate settlement is attached as <Exhibit B>. I believe Ms. Goddard may have already forwarded a copy of the entire pleading to this office.

Mr. Lostutter has failed to meet even the barest minimum legal standard required to unmask anonymous commenters. He has submitted no Prima Facia case <as required by law> showing that any anonymous commenter has in fact defamed him, or by direct association caused any damages for which he can state a claim for which relief can be granted under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).  Even more troubling, Mr. Lostutter is filing pleadings in his bogus defamation case insisting these blog owners produce confidential information to which he is not entitled on a matter in which the court has not yet ruled.

The established law specifically states that the plaintiff <Mr. Lostutter> must: <1> give reasonable (legally acceptable service) notice to the anonymous speaker(s); <2> allege with specificity the speech or conduct that has allegedly violated his rights; <3> show that the alleged speech or conduct gives rise to a viable cause of action (whereby he is entitled to relief); and <4> produce evidence supporting each element of his claim <proof of defamation and proof of directly related damages>.

Mr. Lostutter has not met any of the four aforementioned requirements, not even partially. Therefore any and all requests produce evidence related to anonymous third party commenters who are not a party to Mr. Lostutter’s lawsuit are in fact a violation of Mr. Lostutter’s probation terms. It is a violation in that Mr. Lostutter is attempting to leverage his baseless civil lawsuit in a blatant attempt to skirt the courts rules and established constitutional law to unmask anonymous commenters who have done nothing but engage in publicly sharing their constitutionally protected opinions of Mr. Lostutter.

Furthermore, Mr. Lostutter’s sole purpose of targeting anonymous commenters is so that he can menace and harass them once unmasked. Whether Mr. Lostutter approves of what is posted about him publicly online is irrelevant, the anonymous commenters he is seeking to unmask have engaged in constitutionally protected speech. In each and every prior situation where Mr. Lostutter has identified someone critical of him, he has threatened and harassed that individual, up to and including filing baseless lawsuits in a pro-se capacity, forcing the individual(s) he is harassing to spend money to defend themselves in court. Such actions are considered by the court system to be vexatious in that they have no merit and are for the sole purpose of harassing the opposing party. There is no reason to believe Mr. Lostutter’s motive in unmasking the anonymous commenters on these two blogs is any different based on his long established history of harassing and threatening his critics.

I ask that your office intervene and put a stop to Mr. Lostutters willful abuse of his probation terms. I ask that you force Mr. Lostutter to strike his motions seeking to identify anonymous commenters or otherwise determine that he has violated the terms of his parole and place him in jail until sentencing in order to protect innocent parties from his ongoing harassment.  Mr. Lostutter should be focusing his attentions on his upcoming sentencing and making plans for taking care of his family after he goes to jail, not trying to track down and harass people who have done nothing but express their constitutionally protected opinions.