Publicly shamed by #MeToo allegations, man sues his accusers and the media who reported on the story

Imagine waking up one day to find that you are accused of sexual misconduct by some anonymous woman (or women) and then the media comes out in full force to report on your inappropriate behavior without even giving you the chance to defend yourself.

As we’ve learned in the adult industry this is becoming a common occurrence. People can say anything they want, without proof and suddenly overnight you are public enemy #1.

This happened to one guy in Canada and he said OH HELL NO! He got a lawyer and he fought back. He not only sued his accusers but also the media who reported on it.

The full story from the National Post is below. But before you start reading that, know this story isn’t unique. We all just saw it play out with Just Dave with Leigh Raven in our own industry.

• There was also the story of the Texas Trooper. A woman claimed she was raped, but turns out there was dash cam footage to show she lied.
• Last year I reported on the story of porn star Melina Mason who told another agent that while she was asleep in the Society 15 Model house Randy showed up high or drunk and tried to molest her in her sleep. She said that Randy said it didn’t count because he was gay. After the story came out she recanted her story.
• Two days ago a woman flat out made up a story about being raped because she was mad that her date wouldn’t drive her home.
• Only July 11th, another girl reported being sexually assaulted at a pool in Springfield. Now she admitted she made up the whole thing.
• There is was a girl in our industry last year who lied about being gang-raped just so she could get her agent to come to pick her up and give her a ride home because she didn’t have enough money to take an Uber.
• Only July 4th this year a woman from Indianapolis said she was raped by a truck driver. This women already had a warrant from Iowa for reporting a false rape against her ex-husband. Turns out, she had made up this newest rape story as well.
• In June a college student made up a story about being raped in a college parking lot. The man was picked up and detained by police. He even had to take a lie detector. He was put through a serious investigation but after the THIRD time, they interviewed the victim she finally confessed he lied.

A false accusation of rape or sexual assault can ruin a man’s life.  People know this and are using these allegations in mainstream and even worse, in our industry as well.

I’m not saying sexual assaults don’t take place. Clearly, they do, but when you have so many cases of girls making up these stories, it’s hard to know who is telling the truth. And when they can just flat out make up a story without any proof, well …. makes it hard to sort through the lies.

Last week the Observer reported that about 200 women have been jailed for sale rape claims. These are the women who have been caught but there are many more who lie just because they are angry and want revenge and aren’t ever caught or worse are caught but never prosecuted.

Women have to deal with a lot of bullshit in life. We most often can’t even walk down the damn street without being harassed by men. We also face serious sexual harassment on a regular basis.  But these women who lie, they hurt all of us. They hurt the real victims of crimes and enough is enough.

Now because of girls like Leigh Raven, we simply can’t believe all accusers. We are learning the hard way that sometimes people flat out make up lies to try and get out of their contracts or for a multitude of other reasons.

People can say anything they want because they think there will be no repercussions.  When are we going to say enough is enough?

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Jeramy Dodds worked part-time for Coach House Books in Toronto until an anonymous letter circulated claiming he used his literary prominence to sexually exploit women.

A poet and editor who lost his job at a prominent publishing house after being the subject of anonymous accusations of sexual misconduct has filed a lawsuit against The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and four unidentified women, alleging defamation, conspiracy, and negligent investigation.

Jeramy Dodds, 43, a well-known Canadian poet based in Montreal, worked part-time for Coach House Books in Toronto until his name appeared on a list of “shitty media men” and an anonymous letter circulated claiming he used his literary prominence to sexually exploit women, according to his statement of claim.

News stories about him left the impression that he pressured women to have sex and “targeted much younger women for his sexual predations,” his claim says.

“These allegations were false,” the lawsuit says. Dodds alleged they were “founded and perpetuated maliciously by a conspiracy” of the four unidentified women, “joined in” by the newspapers despite “various red flags, such as the sources being cloaked in two levels of anonymity.”

The goal of the conspiracy, Dodds claims, was to ruin him professionally, make him lose his job, damage his personal and professional reputation and livelihood, and to “achieve revenge” for “unknown personal reasons.”

To that end, he claims, it was effective. Dodds claims a “catastrophic” loss of professional and personal reputation, loss of income, “mental anguish” and “irreparable damage” to his future.

This public shaming “continues in perpetuity,” the suit alleges, because the stories remain online and because they were written in a way that was “slanted” to “make an example of Mr. Dodds” as part of the larger cultural story about the #MeToo movement.

“As soon as you say that somebody has been caught up by the #MeToo movement, you’re automatically associating them with everyone else,” Dodds’ lawyer Richard Watson said in an interview. “It portrays the world in a cartoon fashion.”

The suit claims the four women “participated in in the creation and transmission” of a letter to Buzzfeed News last November. Known as the “Shitty Media Men” list, it accused 21 people in the media and publishing industry of “sexual harassment, discrimination, and assault.”

The women conspired to ensure that the email would be widely publicized, Dodds alleges. As a result, they should be made to pay additional punitive damages because they had “great power over Mr. Dodds,” in that they had relationships with him and therefore had the power to “ruin” him with allegations that would be given “undue credibility.”

In January this year, a few weeks after the letter to BuzzFeed, the four women sent the allegations to Coach House by an anonymous email, Dodds claims then, “addressed their allegations to the media and actively sought out publicity.” The source of these news tips came to be known as the CanLit Janitors Collective.

BuzzFeed reported on Dodds’ dismissal and the closing of the Coach House Books poetry program on January 24, but did not detail the specific allegations. The Globe reported on the allegations online that same day and in print the next, quoting at length from the anonymous letter. The Star followed much later in March after speaking to Dodds, who had posted a public statement. It also quoted details from the letter.

The Globe and Mail’s defence says Dodds has failed to make out a case for defamation, conspiracy or negligent investigation, and that he failed to serve a libel notice within six weeks after he learned of the article, which should bar his action. The Globe relies on the legal defences of fair comment and responsible communication on matters of public interest. It denies intending to cause Dodds any harm, and says he has not alleged any actual loss.

It portrays the world in a cartoon fashion

A separate lawsuit making similar claims against BuzzFeed News is to be filed shortly, Watson said. It was delayed for procedural reasons, as BuzzFeed Canada is not incorporated in Ontario, he said. (It is incorporated in New Brunswick, and its head office is in New York.) BuzzFeed News media editor Craig Silverman declined to comment on a potential suit.

The women, all listed in court records as “Jane Doe,” have not been served notice of the suit, and Watson would not say whether Dodds knows who they are. “We haven’t named them on the public record yet,” Watson said.

All of these women “allege that they have had a past personal relationship” with him, the claim says.

The newspapers “intentionally or recklessly” cooperated with the women’s agenda by publishing the “salacious” allegations “despite knowing the serious flaws in the credibility and reliability of the narrative,” the lawsuit claims. They tried to make Dodds look “guilty by association.”

“Each of the Globe and the Star created its stories in a way to highlight the sensationalism of the material and to make it fit their preferred narrative catering to the then-current popularity of stories about the sexual abuse by men of women through abuse of power,” the lawsuit claims.

This lawsuit was filed in late April, according to court records. The total amount of Dodds’ claim is $13.5 million.

Dodds claims Coach House Books had policies on conflicts of interest in the case of an editor having a personal relationship with an author, and that on several occasions he followed these policies by removing himself from considering submissions.

Dodds did not reply to an emailed request for comment.