Evil Angel, Jules Jordan Piracy Win Passes Another Hurdle
Judge denies defendants' motion for a new trial
By: Mark Kernes
Posted: 12/20/2007
LOS ANGELES – Evil Angel Productions and Jules Jordan
Productions got a little closer to collecting their multi-million dollar piracy
win against Kaytel Distribution, Leisure Time Canada Inc. and their principal
Alain Elmaleh yesterday when U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero, who had
presided over the trial last August, denied the defendants' motion for a new
trial.
"The judge reduced the judgment [for Jules] to $2.9 million
from $5.5 million, and I think Al's [Gelbard, Evil Angel's attorney] got
knocked down from $11 million to $7 million," noted Jordan's attorney Sean
Macias, "but the great part about it is, he denied their [defendants']
motion for a new trial, so that stands, and the only outstanding motion is ours
for $800,000 for attorneys fees and costs, and that gets heard on the
7th."
With the results of the trial now "set in stone,"
Elmaleh's only recourse would be to appeal the verdict to the Ninth Circuit U.S.
Court of Appeals. Such a move, however, would require the defendants to prove
that Judge Otero had made reversible error in his handling of the case – an
attempt that Macias thinks would be fruitless.
"They can still appeal it, but they've been denied a
motion for a new trial, so we're happy," Macias said.
In addition to filing an appeal, Elmaleh would also have to
put up a "good faith" bond to secure the trial verdict should he lose
the appeal.
"They've got to put up a bond, and now that the
judgment has been entered, we can start collecting," Macias told AVN. "They have to put up
one-and-a-half times the value, so that's a little bit over five and a half
million just for our [Jordan's] case; they have to put a 10% bond on that, but
they have to have at least $5 million of assets or something. So everybody's
real excited about this. We're in the last stage of our victory. It feels
good."
The defendants would have to file their notice of appeal
within 45 days of Otero's denial of the motion for a new trial. At press time,
Elmaleh's attorney, Michael Plotkin, could not be reached for comment as to
whether his client planned to file such a motion.
