Monday saw a small victory for self-proclaimed YouTube influencer, activist and constitutional law scholar Jose “Chille” DeCastro as he earned a delay in his quest to serve a batch of Las Vegas Metro Police Department officers who arrested him for interference in a crime scene on Valentine’s Day of 2024.
DeCastro, mysteriously, tried to file the extension as an ex parte motion under seal, which has puzzled everyone, including the judge overseeing the lawsuit. He was apparently seeking a typical action of DeCastro – a massive delay to service of those who he was suing because he was far too busy to serve the defendants in the case due to all of his other lawsuits.
While the request was made in May, it took about a month for United States Magistrate Judge Maximiliano D. Couvillier III to review his request, rule on it, and to unseal the motion DeCastro had filed.
Couvillier wrote:
The Court cautions plaintiff that he has not articulated the rule that would permit one to file a motion ex parte. Plaintiff’s proffered reason for doing so (because the defendants have not appeared) is rejected because plaintiff will have a better chance of serving the defendants if they have public notice of his lawsuit, including his request to extend the time for service. Plaintiff has also not shown good cause to seal his Motion because he has not met his burden of showing specific prejudice or harm here.
Plaintiff seeks additional time to serve specified defendants. ECF No. 8. Plaintiff states that in the last ninety days he has been actively prosecuting and defending multiple federal cases, so he has been unable to serve the defendants in this case. ECF No. 8 at 4. Plaintiff states he will be prejudiced if this case is dismissed because he is concerned about the statute of limitations in his case. Id. at 5.
The Court finds that plaintiff has not been diligent in attempting to locate and serve the defendants. Litigating multiple pro se cases does not create diligence in the instant case. Considering, however, the plaintiff’s alternative argument that he will be prejudiced if this case is dismissed pursuant to the statute of limitations, the Court will give plaintiff another opportunity to serve the defendants. At this time, the Court finds that the defendants will not be prejudiced by a reasonable extension. The Court has broad discretion to permit an extension under Rule 4 and grants plaintiff a reasonable extension to serve.
ACCORDINGLY,
IT IS ORDERED that:
- Plaintiff’s Motion to Extend Time for Service (ECF No. 8) is GRANTED.
- Plaintiff has until July 31, 2026, to serve the defendants.
- The Clerk of Court is DIRECTED TO UNSEAL the Motion (ECF No. 8).
DeCastro’s original motion, marked as ECF No. 8, has yet to be unsealed or released as of press time.
That brief ruling was the end of the good news for DeCastro on Monday. He was still faced with one of the reasons that he needed the delay: mainly, he claims he is out of money, and he does not have the $150.00 per officer it would take to serve the defendants in this case.
The diminutive YouTuber has been raising money for what he claims to be the final push to launch his YouVeGotBail.AI social media platform/crowd sourcing network/media empire via a GoFundMe campaign with a hard deadline of June 30, 2026.
As usual, DeCastro wasn’t quite forthcoming with what else he was going to do with the money as his later news that he’s using major portions of the money he was raising not to launch YouVeGotBail.AI but to fund his for-profit lawsuits.
The campaign has been controversial at best and has failed to bring in major donations as DeCastro has now passed the halfway mark to his deadline. DeCastro did not go live on Monday, nor did he do anything to promote his campaign.
For Tuesday, the campaign brought in $15.00 in new donations, bringing its total to $3,242.00. With 14 days left until the end of his campaign, DeCastro must raise an average of $1,554.14 to meet his goals by his very public deadline.
DeCastro’s campaign placed fourth for the day, behind three other campaigns that had received little to no promotion. SeanPaul “Long Island Audit” Reyes took the top spot with a $100.00 donation to his Support The Fight Against Tyranny & Corruption campaign.
Roy Tripoloni’s campaign for James “James Freeman” Springer placed second with $60.00 in new donations. Angel “Kansas City Accountability” Moses took the third slot with $20.00 in new donations.
No other campaigns that we follow saw new donations for Tuesday.
It is unclear whether or not DeCastro has given up on his campaign as he seems to have backed away from promotion of YouVeGotBail.AI and his previously announced plans to rebrand for the end of the month.
We will continue to monitor DeCastro’s activities and provide updates as they happen.
