In what could be called the most minimal of efforts, new documents released by California’s Superior court on Monday reveal Jose “Chille” DeCastro responded to Judge H. Jay Ford’s order to respond to a sanctions motion with an equivalent of “the dog ate my homework.”
Judge Ford issued the order on February 21, 2025, after a scheduled hearing in his on-going civil lawsuit against Kate Peter, Team Skeptic, Daniel Clement and Michael “Blue Bacon” Pierattini was delayed as DeCastro’s attorney, Steven T. Gebelin, either arrived at court without a needed response from DeCastro or without properly filing said response from DeCastro.
The hearing was rescheduled for April 23, 2025. This is the second delay in a row caused by DeCastro’s camp, as the previous hearing to go over the same motions was delayed as Gebelin filed over 100 pages of material provided to him by DeCastro the night before that hearing.
Part of the argument made by Pierattini’s attorney, R. Paul Katrinak, in the current round of sanction requests against DeCastro is that DeCastro seems less interested in participating in the lawsuit than he is in delaying the process. DeCastro has openly stated that he is out to delay the proceedings as much as possible to financially drain Pierattini of the ability to provide a defense.
The four-page document released Monday essentially blames DeCastro’s 2024 incarceration for lack of due process, not enough time with his attorney to respond to motions after he got out of jail, a dead computer that he didn’t have access to for most of the year, PTSD from his time in jail and “mental stress” that prevented him from complying with various motions and orders by Judge Ford over the last year.
DeCastro’s response ends with, “Despite the mental stress, I have provided supplemental responses to the written discovery to the best of my ability.”
This statement may prove problematic for DeCastro as the supplemental responses and the documents he presented in the discovery process do not include any evidence that the defendants were guilty of his accusations.
The YouTuber’s response further contains vague statements to back up his various excuses, without citing times, dates, or even the motions or orders he’s referring to. Furthermore, it alludes to things like a receipt to show computer repairs to show he didn’t have access to his evidence “until only days before the unforgiving court deadline”, or an apparent PTSD diagnosis, without presenting the receipt or medical diagnosis as evidence.
The PTSD excuse is also interesting as DeCastro has made many statements that he “cured” himself of the condition at Thanksgiving of last year after an intense workout. According to his own statements on his recent livestreams, his inability to focus on anything else has been due to his obsession with putting out his “Constitution Headquarters” board game.
Pierattini has the opportunity to submit a rebuttal to DeCastro’s statement before the next hearing in the case on April 23, 2025.
