Thompson v. The Florida Bar

Filing 345

Plaintiff's MOTION Judicial Notice by John B. Thompson. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit News Release and Letter by Four US Senators Re SLAPP Bar Complainant and the ESRB# 2 Exhibit Letter to Senator Lieberman)(Thompson, John)

Thompson v. The Florida Bar

Doc. 345 Att. 2

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law 1172 S. Dixie Hwy., Suite 111 Coral Gables, Florida 33146 305-666-4366 [e-mail]
November 20, 2007 The Honorable Joseph Lieberman United States Senator 706 Hart Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Via Fax to 202-224-9750 Re: Manhunt 2, the ESRB, and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., Dear Senator Lieberman: I thank you and fellow Senators Bayh, Clinton, and Brownback for your letter and news release yesterday regarding the ESRB's clearly improper re-rating of Take-Two's Manhunt 2 from "Adults Only" to "Mature." I have spoken with your Chief of Staff and a legislative aide on this matter today because of your and my longstanding cooperative efforts on this issue. This letter is in furtherance of that collaboration and conversation. You and the other Senators may not be aware of the following: The ESRB allowed TakeTwo to leave certain "adult" material in store shelf copies of Manhunt 2 which was unlocked within 24 hours of the game's commercial release. This is worse that the "Hot Coffee" scandal of 2005, on which I was happy to work with Senator Clinton, because in this instance the ESRB, which promised never to let something like "Hot Coffee" happen again, actually conspired with Take-Two to leave the adult material in Manhunt 2! Further, you need to know that in early 2007 I met with Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick in New York to discuss a number of matters face-to-face, as I have been that company's most abiding and most visible critic for five years, having granted hundreds of major media interviews as to how Take-Two has single-handedly sabotaged the video game rating system. At this two-hour meeting, I urged Mr. Zelnick not to Manhunt 2, that it would be a terrible mistake and that the game would fall into the hands of kids. Mr. Zelnick responded: No one will stop his company from selling his mature products to minor, and he warned that his company would wage a "war" (his word) against me. True to Zelnick's word, Take-Two has done to me what Big Tobacco did to Jeffrey Wiegand for his "Insider" whistle-blowing. Take-Two and its lawyers a) have filed fraudulent, perjury-based bar complaints against me, b) corrupted a judge in Alabama who presides over our wrongful death case against Take-Two as seen on 60 Minutes, c) 1
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branded me a bisexual pedophile on its corporate web site, d) orchestrated the sending of sex aid products to my wife at our home while she was battling ovarian cancer, e) threatened my incarceration, f) extorted me in violation of state and federal criminal laws, and g) incited repeated death threats against me from video gamers and at video game industry web sites. Take-Two has done all of this because I have four Congressional experts, one of whom is Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, who have now testified in our Alabama cop-killing case, cleared for trial in 2008 by the Alabama Supreme Court, that Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City trained an Alabama teen to kill three policemen. Take-Two's decision to "shoot the messenger," figuratively or literally, began the instant I appeared on 60 Minutes at the request of the great and now late Ed Bradley. Mr. Bradley had asked me to appear again on 60 Minutes because I had appeared six years earlier with Col. Grossman the Sunday after "Columbine," as the two of us proved the link between Doom and the school massacres not only in Littleton but in Paducah, Kentucky. The law firm involved in this ongoing criminal extortion of me is the giant Philadelphiabased Blank Rome, which serves Take-Two as its registered lobbyist in both the U.S. House and Senate. If there is to be a federal investigation of the failure of the ESRB's video game rating system, then it must include a hard look at what this one company, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., has done to possibly violate federal laws prohibiting the distribution of "sexual material harmful to minors" and to extort its most abiding critic, the undersigned, the minute he appeared on 60 Minutes. As to the former, it is a mistake to focus only on the violence in Manhunt 2. The ESRB "descriptor" thereon states that it contains "Strong Sexual Content," and yet this game is being sold to minors. There are many responsible companies within the video game industry. Take-Two is not one of them, as it has single-handedly managed to paint a bulls eye on the back of the pliant ESRB and gut, by its corporate practices, the usefulness of the ESRB rating system. Finally, I can provide you a man who has now come forward from within the video game industry and who can blow the whistle not only on Take-Two but on others as to how certain sectors of this industry design, market, and sell adult video games to children. I look forward to working with you and other Members of Congress on all of this, assuming Take-Two doesn't manage to incite my murder in the meantime. Regards, Jack Thompson

Copy: Congressman Fred Upton Case No. 07-21256, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida

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