{"id":17112,"date":"2012-04-04T00:30:25","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T03:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=17112"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:13:59","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:13:59","slug":"michael-weinstein-loses-lawsuit-against-imprecatory-chaplain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/04\/michael-weinstein-loses-lawsuit-against-imprecatory-chaplain\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Weinstein Loses Lawsuit Against Imprecatory Chaplain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Weinstein has lost his lawsuit<\/a> against former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt.\u00a0 In other words, of the 5 lawsuits the former Air Force JAG Weinstein has filed since 2005, he has won zero<\/a>.\u00a0 None have even survived to trial.<\/p>\n

Weinstein filed a\u00a0civil suit<\/a> against Klingenschmitt in 2009\u00a0over the former chaplain’s “imprecatory prayers,” claiming they represented a “terroristic threat” and posed an “imminent danger” to him and his family.\u00a0 As noted here more than two years ago, Weinstein never had a strong case to begin with.\u00a0 His allegations were vague and he undermined his own cause<\/a>.\u00a0 For example, the only specific\u00a0evidence he cited\u00a0were events that occurred prior <\/em>to Klingenschmitt’s public prayer.<\/p>\n

The deposition<\/a> of Michael Weinstein’s wife, Bonnie, may have done the most damage to the Weinsteins’ case.\u00a0 For example, Mrs. Weinstein was asked if “threats of the acts of vandalism” occurred after Weinstein filed his second lawsuit against the US military in 2008.\u00a0 She gave an emotional reply:<\/p>\n

I received email death threats…and then we got the swastikas put on our house.\u00a0 I wasn’t there.\u00a0 My husband and my daughter was there, and then I had to deal with her hysteria, because she was just so traumatized that this would happen.\u00a0 So, yes, it escalated.\u00a0 A lot of things escalated…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She went on to describe the toll the threats were taking on her physically and emotionally in passionate testimony.\u00a0 The personal impact to Mrs. Weinstein was both clear and tragic.<\/p>\n

The problem, though, is she just established the fact her husband’s own conduct<\/em> —\u00a0his notoriety<\/em> —\u00a0was responsible for the threats and vandalism,\u00a0especially since they occurred before Klingenschmitt uttered a single word in 2009<\/em>.\u00a0 In other words, Mrs. Weinstein’s\u00a0sworn deposition indicated\u00a0Michael Weinstein<\/em>, not Gordon Klingenschmitt, was the proximate cause of the threats and vandalism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Court records indicate the judge granted the Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment\u00a0for “causation.”\u00a0 It seems the Weinsteins failed to provide evidence Klingenschmitt was in any way related to a cause\u00a0of the threats their family received.\u00a0 Weinstein disagrees:<\/p>\n

Weinstein said he disagrees with the ruling and, after he sees the judge\u2019s exact wording, “We plan for a very aggressive appeal.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, Weinstein promised an appeal when he lost in 2006 and yet never filed;\u00a0in 2010<\/a>, and yet never filed, and now…well, you get the idea.\u00a0 Weinstein has never appealed, despite his “aggressive” promises.<\/p>\n

Because the Weinsteins’ lawsuit was always predicated on threats and vandalism that occurred prior <\/em>to Klingenschmitt’s prayer, Klingenschmitt alleges the case was frivolous from the start and has asked the court to sanction the Weinsteins for filing a suit based on “claims they knew to be false.”<\/p>\n

The press release<\/a> indicates Weinstein is on the hook for the Defendants’ attorney fees, which may be substantial after more than two years of pre-trial motions.\u00a0 While Weinstein filed the lawsuit in his personal capacity, he\u00a0used Mathis and Donheiser, the same law firm representing the MRFF, his “charity” and self-employer.\u00a0 If Klingenschmitt wins court costs, Weinstein may have to give himself a temporary raise to cover the costs.<\/p>\n

Klingenschmitt has indicated he may now sue Weinstein for defamation.<\/p>\n

Weinstein likely filed his lawsuit because he was mad, which is rarely an auspicious start to judicial proceedings.\u00a0 Weinstein has previously\u00a0demonstrated\u00a0he has a short fuze when it comes to receiving personal criticism, despite his own penchant for criticizing others in hateful and vitriolic terms (and with lots of adjectives).<\/p>\n

In fact, there has been at least one instance in which the time between an article appearing on ChristianFighterPilot.com and a letter being received from<\/span> Weinstein’s lawyers was\u00a0measured in only a few hours<\/em>.\u00a0 The accusatory missive was so hurried it was obvious Weinstein had picked up his red phone hotline and demanded Mathis and Donheiser — the same firm that lost this suit — do something<\/em>, even if it was to compose a legal demand that wasn’t worth the\u00a0ink it was printed with.<\/p>\n

Time and again Weinstein has demonstrated that he’s little more than an easily offended<\/a>, and well paid, schoolyard bully.\u00a0 His ill fated lawsuit against Gordon Klingenschmitt was no exception.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Weinstein has lost his lawsuit against former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt.\u00a0 In other words, of the 5 lawsuits the former Air Force JAG Weinstein has filed since 2005, he has won zero.\u00a0 None have even survived to trial. Weinstein filed a\u00a0civil suit against Klingenschmitt in 2009\u00a0over the former chaplain’s “imprecatory prayers,” claiming they represented a “terroristic threat” and posed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3118,3119,276,3117,1823,85,5218,7,11,17,525],"class_list":["post-17112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-bonnie-weinstein","tag-donheiser","tag-gordon-klingenschmitt","tag-imprecatory","tag-jag","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-prayer","tag-religious-expression","tag-randal-mathis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}