Thursday, September 5, 2024, was a very bad day for Jose “Chille” DeCastro in California Superior Court, if you believe the documents released by the court on Monday. There are no other words to describe the day than that.
He avoided having his entire California Superior Court case against Michael “Blue Bacon” Pierattini being thrown out by the slimmest of margins. That margin? Wait for it. Pierattini did not prove that Jose “Chille” DeCastro is a public figure.
Okay, okay, let’s step back for a minute.
There was a hearing last week for the motion for summary judgment posed by Pierattini that went up against DeCastro asking for the case to continue.
A motion for summary judgment essentially asks a judge to look at the case the plaintiff has made and the defense the defendant has put up so far and asks him to determine if the case needs to go to trial or if it can be decided right now.
In this case, Pierattini wanted the judge to look at the case – as it applies to him – and see if DeCastro has done enough to show that it should move forward to trial.
We say the case that applies to Pierattini as DeCastro never served Team Skeptic and didn’t properly serve Daniel Clement, so they’re defendants in the case in name only. Kate Peter was found to be in default because she never responded to service, but a default judgment has not been issued against her since we’re not to that part of the case yet.
Because of this, what happened on Thursday applies to Pierattini. Judge H. Jay Ford III may decide to throw out the case against the other defendants, but for now, it’s Pierattini’s arguments to have the case against HIM thrown out.
And he was successful in having the Judge say, “Hey, there’s not enough here to go to trial” on 7 of DeCastro’s 8 charges against Pierattini.
DeCastro said that Pierattini was an underling in Kate Peter’s Masshole Troll Mafia. A nefarious real-world organization that has members, a board, a hierarchy and should be treated like the real mafia.
He said that this group terrorized him, stole his van, putt Nutella err, dog feces on his Air BnB’s front door, and all sorts of fantastic things that caused him harm in the year 2022.
On Thursday, the Judge looked at the evidence, looked at Pierattini’s defense, and found that for someone who wanted to have justice served by the lawsuit, in all the months since filing the lawsuit back in 2023, he’s done nothing to advance his cause or prove his case.
He had chances. For example, he could have deposed Kate Peter or Pierattini or served Team Skeptic or Daniel Clement. While DeCastro blamed the delay on going to jail earlier this year, it didn’t explain why he literally had over a year before that and did nothing.
In fact, Judge Ford said that it looked like DeCastro had no intention of doing anything to move the case to resolution.
For details of charges one through seven, I’ll refer you to the included second amended complaint below.
Essentially, of all the conspiracies and blather and blah blah blah, the Judge looked and said that DeCastro had no path forward.
Charge 8, however, stands as it involves using DeCastro’s likeness without his permission to make money. DeCastro is essentially saying that by using DeCastro’s image in a thumbnail to promote videos where DeCastro was discussed, Pierattini caused damages to DeCastro.
The Judge found that Pierattini did not prove that DeCastro is a “public figure,” a celebrity or a member of government who is well known enough where special rules apply to them compared to a normal citizen or “private figure.”
This one has got to hurt DeCastro’s ego as he’s done nothing but tell his fans that he is known everywhere he goes, that even the people in jail knew him by his enormous fame and that he cannot go out in public without being recognized as a quasi-celebrity.
Pierattini failed because he tried to show that DeCastro was a celebrity due to the number of people who subscribe to DeCastro’s YouTube channel and the number of views his content has received.
So, think of this as we close out this article.
For Chille to win this point, and the remnants of the lawsuit, he has to show that he is unimportant, a normal person a Joe Schmoe like everyone else who is unworthy of special consideration as a future governor, internet celebrity, or influencer status.
That’s either going to kill him or kill the case, not sure what will be harder on him, but it will be fun to watch as things play out.
Neither Pierattini nor DeCastro have made public comment on Thursday’s ruling as of press time.
3 Responses
Kate Peter was found to be in default because she never responded to service,
ya… about that.
See, Kate was never served. What? he gave her copies etc.
ya sure
Cept chilli knew she had a lawyer. (Benjamin Wish)He had to serve the lawyer not her.
You go to the door of the lawyer, knock and speak with the receptionist. You tell her you are there to serve Ben Wish, Kate’s lawyer and she goes, “sure” and signs proof of service card and presto, Kate has been served. No hassle at all. In a busy law firm this could happen many times a day.
Instead he stalked her in some half-@$$ fashion worthy of a B movie and says see i did it. she was served. Except legally speaking, she was represented by a lawyer and since chilli spent a year harassing Wish, he knew it as well, prior to and at the time of. You would think a world famous law scholar would know that?
Well the clerk, goes yes and enters a default. Except now he has to collect. So he goes to a california judge? Sure only then he has to go to a Boston Judge, who will ask did you serve her lawyer? Once someone has a lawyer, you have to talk to the lawyer not the client. Service went to Kate, not her lawyer so she was not served.
No service? No default. Sorry chilli but so funny you had to spend all that much money only to miss the legal mark by a far margin
On to the next item. The judge ruled that chilli is not a public person. WOOO hoooo
So they used his picture and now he must show harm and damages…
Show…
present evidence….
hmmmm
ya that pesky legal thing, evidence.
E-V-I-D-E-N-C-E
Just like his service on Kate, never going to happen.
We’ll see what happens with Kate, though it looks like the judge may toss the whole case if Bacon can show that DeCastro is a public figure.
Even if he cannot, chilli has to show damages, not just assert that he was damaged. Thus far he has failed to do that.
So to recap what chilli has not done
1) show he has a case
2) show he has damages
3) Show that anyone named by him is responsible for this case and these damages
4) Convince the judge all of this is worthy of recovery
Any one of these fails and chilli is going home empty handed.
For the vast majority of lawsuits, same as criminal cases, they are settled out of court. In tort cases usually with go away money. No one is willing to pay him any money to go away, So now he is faced with actually doing a lawsuit. Even with a lawyer and a lot of good that has done for him so far, chilli has an uphill battle and he is on a slippery slope.
Good luck and all but chilli hasn’t a chance.