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Trials & Litigation

Vacation, mistaken filing led to order to show cause, lawyers for MyPillow CEO say

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 29, 2025, 2:29 pm CDT

Human error led lawyers representing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to file a draft document with incorrect case citations instead of the final version, according to a response to a federal judge’s order to show cause.

The lawyers didn’t realize that they had filed the wrong document, an early draft without corrections, until questioning 55 days later by the judge, according to their April 25 response.

Law360 has the story.

U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang of the District of Colorado had ordered the lawyers on April 23 to show cause why they shouldn’t be referred for discipline. Wang said she identified “nearly 30 defective citations” of cases, including citations to cases that don’t exist, in the lawyers’ Feb. 10 brief.

Lawyer Christopher I. Kachouroff said in a declaration his co-counsel filed the draft document instead of the final version that they “had carefully cite-checked and edited.” At the time, Kachouroff was on a one-week vacation to Mexico, where there were “limitations on internet service.”

But what happened wasn’t clear, Kachouroff said, when he was questioned in court by Wang. Kachouroff was “taken by complete surprise” because he was unaware of the mistake, he said in the declaration.

“In the face of the court’s detailed questioning, I was utterly flustered and embarrassed, and due to my ignorance of what was going on, found myself at a loss for words,” Kachouroff said.

Kachouroff said he routinely uses artificial intelligence to analyze the structure and the logic of legal arguments. He does not, however, rely on AI to do legal research or find cases.

“Regardless of whether I use AI in a particular pleading,” he wrote, “I always conduct verification of citations before filing.”

Kachouroff and his co-counsel, Jennifer T. DeMaster, are seeking leave to replace the draft document with the correct one.

Lindell is being sued for defamation by Eric Coomer, a former executive with Dominion Voting Systems. He alleges that Lindell and his related companies are “among the most prolific vectors of baseless conspiracy theories claiming election fraud in the 2020 election.”

Lindell allegedly amplified false allegations that Coomer may have been involved in a rigged election and a criminal conspiracy, leading to “credible death threats” against him and banishment from the elections industry, Coomer’s second amended complaint alleges.

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Judiciary

Does judge’s reference to ‘little Chinese woman’ show bias? Appellate concurrence sees ‘pure stereotyping’

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 19, 2024, 1:42 pm CST

A California judge who said he was almost amused when a “little Chinese woman” stared him down did not rule against her based on ethnic bias, but his comment was “pure stereotyping,” according to two concurring judges in an appellate opinion.

The California Courts of Appeal’s Second Appellate District certified the Nov. 27 opinion for publication Dec. 17 after receiving requests that it do so from the California Civility Task Force and the Orange County Asian American Bar Association, Law360 reports. Published opinions can be cited as precedent.

The case involved a dispute between the plaintiff, Natalie Lloyd Merrick, and her mother over funds from the sale of a condo in China. Merrick was awarded more than $242,000 from the sale, leading to a dispute over the amount of prejudgment interest.

Judge Randolph M. Hammock of Los Angeles County, California, ruled against Merrick on the interest issue in June 2022 and awarded mandatory attorney fees of about $2,000 to the mother.

During the final hearing, Hammock made these comments: “I already rejected those arguments. OK. I know your client was not happy with my ruling [at a previous hearing]. I mean, she was there, you know, mad dogging me, which didn’t bother me at all. It was almost amusing to see this little Chinese woman stare me down because she didn’t like the ruling. But again, it’s just business. I didn’t take it personally.”

The appeals court opinion by Judge Elizabeth A. Grimes said there is no reason to believe that Hammock harbored any bias against Merrick. She added, however, that “unnecessary references to a litigant’s ethnicity and gender are certainly to be avoided.”

In a concurring opinion, Judge Maria E. Stratton agreed that Hammock’s “gratuitous comments” did not influence his ruling. His findings were supported by evidence, and his decision was based on a realistic evaluation of facts. But his comments “cannot pass without censure,” she said in the concurrence joined by Judge Victor Viramontes.

Stratton asserted that Hammock’s “patronizing description” of Merrick violated judicial canons requiring judges to be dignified and courteous, to act in a manner that promotes confidence in the judiciary, and to refrain from conduct that would reasonably be perceived as biased.

“Beyond being generally demeaning,” Stratton wrote, “the trial judge’s fatuous comment traded on racist and sexist tropes.” Hammock found it almost amusing that Merrick, “a little Chinese woman,” stared him down, she wrote.

“Implicit in the court’s identification of these characteristics as what made Merrick’s conduct funny was the concept that her behavior was incongruous; that is, someone like Merrick was neither expected nor supposed to act in a certain manner. This is pure stereotyping. How should a ‘little Chinese woman’ have acted? Like the stereotype of an Asian woman—demure, meek, eager to please, deferential to men?”

Stratton acknowledged that Hammock’s comment may have been “unwitting” and said such remarks implicate implicit bias, which can influence behaviors without awareness.

Stratton added that “being mindful of the stereotypes we all carry” is part of a judge’s job.

“Reining in impulses, our inner autopilot, to make random comments that personally denigrate a litigant is also part of our job,” she wrote.

Hammock told the ABA Journal that he couldn’t comment because there is no final judgment yet.

Hammock apologized for his conduct to his presiding judge after the appellate opinion was issued.

“Suffice it to state, I am extremely embarrassed and regretful of those comments,” he said in a letter self-reporting his conduct to the judge.

Hammock’s letter said he accepts that his comments violated judicial canons.

“I have certainly thought long and hard as to my actions in this regard, and moreover, I have considered what I need to do myself in order to take the appropriate ‘corrective actions’ needed to ensure that such violations do not occur again by me,” Hammock wrote.

The first step, Hammock wrote, was to self-report. He has also read publications on implicit bias mentioned in the concurrence and plans to take the next judicial course offered on the subject.

“You can rest assured that I will strive to do my best to learn a serious lesson from this incident and to act accordingly,” Hammock wrote. “I must and will do better.”

A Texas teenager was arrested after being accused of allegedly poisoning a show goat named Willie — an act that she reportedly admitted to attempting once before.

The arrest of Aubrey Vanlandingham, 17, took place on Nov. 22 following an investigation into the death of a show goat belonging to another family. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Austin American-Statesman, Vanlandingham apparently confessed to deliberately poisoning the goat by force-feeding it pesticide, an act that was caught by security cameras. She apparently told police that she “doesn’t like cheaters,” referring to the family who owned the goat and were Vanlandingham’s competitors in a local Future Farmers of America livestock show.

Donald Trump indicated on Tuesday that he will attend a largely procedural hearing for his criminal hush-money case in New York instead of an arguably more significant hearing in Georgia where the very prosecutor he has steadily railed against for more than a year could potentially be thrown off the case.

The development was first reported by Politico. Trump’s attorney in the Georgia election interference indictment, Steve Sadow, made the disclosure Tuesday.

Notably, Trump’s hearing in his criminal case in New York will not be televised, whereas the hearing in Georgia will likely be livestreamed from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s courtroom.

The decision to forgo the spotlight in Georgia comes during a slog of a legal week for the Republican Party’s presumptive 2024 presidential nominee. The hearing in New York is expected to determine whether Trump’s trial will get underway starting March 25. It could be the first criminal trial he faces this year.

Two women in Michigan — one of whom is an officer with the Detroit Police Department — are accused of exchanging dozens of text messages showing that they planned and executed a home invasion in which they stole and destroyed tens of thousands of dollars in property as a means of “seeking revenge” on a man — himself a police officer — who was dating both of them simultaneously.

The text conversation allegedly happened last year between suspended officer Brianna Cabano, 29, and Colleen Compton, 30, both of whom are charged by the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office with one count each of second-degree home invasion, second-degree conspiracy to commit home invasion, malicious destruction of property between $1,000 and $20,000, and larceny in a building.

Prosecutors on Wednesday presented the messages during the preliminary hearing for the two women, arguing the messages show that the duo broke into the home of then-suspended police officer Otis Funchess Jr. on April 11, 2023, the Macomb Daily reported. Funchess was reportedly suspended after allegedly pleading guilty to assaulting Cabano in 2021 and receiving a deferred sentence.

According to the report, DPD Detective Joanna Gudel testified about the contents of the alleged messages during the proceeding.

Gudel reportedly told the court that the messages began on April 8 and showed that the two women “were seeking revenge” against Funchess for sleeping with the two of them at the same time. Fuchess at the time of the alleged break-in was reportedly living with Compton but had recently engaged in sexual intercourse with Cabano.