Jessica Medeiros Garris
When last we visited Jessica Garrison's Wide World of Cash, our heroine was convinced she was on the verge of landing a job that would pay her $10 million over a 10-year period. Those, however, are not the only fabulous figures Garrison threw out during testimony in her defamation case against Legal Schnauzer and me.Garrison, as one might expect from a good Republican operative, sounds crazy about cash. So let's consider some of the other jumbo numbers from her testimony. (A transcript of testimony from Garrison and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange is embedded at the end of this post.)
Our gal Jessica endures $25 million worth of "suffering"
Jessica Garrison claims under oath, in so many words, that our reporting about her extramarital affair with Luther Strange has caused her $25 million of damages. We're not making this up; you can read it on pages 65-67 at the transcript below. And this is from reporting that, as a matter of law, has never been found to be false or defamatory. God only knows how much she would be damaged if someone actually defamed her.
Here is part of the exchange between Garrison and her attorney, Bill Baxley:
Q. (MR. BAXLEY:) Jessica, if somebody offered you $25 million to let them do this to you publicly, what has been done, would you say it would be worth it?
A. No, sir.
Q. Have you had expenses that you've had to go through with us representing you?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And have you had expenses with trying to get Mr. Shuler served -
A. Yes, sir.
Q. -- over and over again?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. That's run up in the many thousands of dollars, hasn't it?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And you can't quantify what it's done to -- the dollar amount as far as the amount of mental anguish and suffering and angst this caused you, can you?
A. No, sir.
Q. But you say you wouldn't let somebody do this for $25 million for you?
A. Huh-uh (no).
Q. You need to speak up.
A. No, sir.
Q. So you would not let them do that for any amount of money, would you?
A. No. You couldn't pay me to go through this voluntarily.
Was any actual evidence presented that goes to the expenses Garrison concurred? Maybe canceled checks, invoices, etc.? Nope. Before the exchange above begins, something curious happens. It can be found on page 65 of the transcript:
MR. BAXLEY: Your Honor, I think that's all.
THE COURT: Is that all?
MR. BAXLEY: Yes, sir, I think so.
THE COURT: Approach, Mr. Baxley.
(A sidebar discussion was had off the record.)
Q. (MR. BAXLEY:) Jessica, if somebody offered you $25 million . . .
During the sidebar, one can almost imagine Judge Don Blankenship leaning toward Baxley and whispering:
Judge: Uh, Bill we're supposed to be establishing an extremely high figure for damages here; it's part of our plan to terrorize Mr. Shuler. But you haven't done that. You have to ask your client a leading question that establishes some outlandish figure for damages.
Baxley: Oh, that's right, Your Honor, I forgot about that. Haven't had my Jack Daniels yet today . . . heh, heh.
Judge: Will you please get some nutty figure in the record . . . and do it quickly, or I'm going to need some Jack Daniels.
Baxley: You got it, Donnie Boy. Comin' right up -- the nutty figure, that is. I don't share my JD.
Our gal Jessica is paid serious bucks for managing Luther Strange's campaign
On page 40 of the transcript, Garrison lets it be known that she is no regular working girl. She gets paid serious bucks -- $10,000 a month -- for her services:
Q. (MR. BAXLEY:) I'll show you what's been marked Plaintiff's Exhibit Number 10 and I'll ask you what that is.
A. That's my contract to serve as campaign manager for Luther's 2010 attorney general's race.
Q. And what did it call for you to be paid?
A. Ten thousand dollars a month plus expenses.
Q. And what else?
A. Oh, and they provided an iPhone, our computer -- our computer was a Mac. It was a portable computer -- and reimbursement of healthcare insurance premiums.
I don't claim to be a political insider, but $10,000 a month, plus expenses and various goodies (iPhone, Mac computer, etc.) for running an AG campaign in Alabama? Seems a bit high to me, especially for someone who had an 0-1 record at the time as a campaign manager.
Jessica doesn't just make big bucks, she pays big bucks -- and not very intelligently
On page 67 of the transcript, we learned that Garrison has paid Baxley and his firm more than $50,000 to bring the lawsuit against me:
Q. Has the amount you've had to pay for service and our services up to this point exceeded $50,000?As a party to the case, I have a pretty good idea of how much work Mr. Baxley and his firm put in. Here are the items I can recall:
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Have you had travel expenses having to come back to court when Mr. Shuler wouldn't show up?
A. Yes, sir.
* Baxley wrote me a couple of threatening letters, making outlandish misstatements of law;
* Someone wrote a complaint, which was filled with misstatements of fact and law.
* Baxley attended a couple of hearings where I was present, and probably 1-2 others where I was not present because I did not receive notice, making Garrison's $3.5-million judgment void.
* Someone printed out a bunch of blog posts and news articles, and it's not clear if any of them had to do with the matter being argued at the time -- whether Garrison's default judgment should be upheld or not. In essence, this was a "document dump," of little or no value.
There might have been a few other things Baxley and Co. did, but that's all I can think of right now. This much is certain: The Baxley lawyers did not engage in any discovery, there was no trial or trial preparation . . . so, how does Jessica Garrison wind up paying them more than $50,000? Were they charging her $10,000 an hour?
Was there any sign in the transcript that Garrison produced invoices or canceled checks to show she had been charged, and paid, $50,000? The answer is no.
If that amount was paid, did Garrison do it on her own, or did she have help? Did she walk "bravely" into filing a baseless lawsuit because someone was helping her with expenses? Did Baxley charge an outrageous amount because he knew Garrison's benefactors -- whoever they might be -- could afford it?
I know this: If Jessica Garrison paid Bill Baxley $50,000 for the puny and sorry work he did, she's the biggest dolt ever to land on planet Earth.
