s.c. v. dirty world, llc - affidavit of nik lamas-richie in support of defendant's motion for...

8/6/2019 S.C. v. Dirty World, LLC - Affidavit of Nik Lamas-Richie In Support of Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

S.C.,

Plaintiff,

vs.

DIRTY WORLD, LLC, a foreigncorporation; NIK RICHIE, anindividual,

Defendants.

Case No: 4:11-cv-392

AFFIDAVIT OF NIK-LAMASRICHIE IN SUPPORT OFDEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

I, NIK LAMAS-RICHIE, declare as follows:

1. My name is NIK LAMAS-RICHIE. I am a resident of the State of

California, am over the age of 18 years, and if called to testify in court I could and would

truthfully testify to the following information based upon my own personal knowledge.

2. I am currently employed as the manager of Defendant DIRTY WORLD,

LLC (“Dirty World”) which owns and operates the website www.TheDirty.com . In

addition to acting as editor-in-chief of www.TheDirty.com , I am also the founder and

creator of a website called www.DirtyScottsdale.com which I started in March 2007.

3. When I first started www.DirtyScottsdale.com , the site was focused almost

entirely on Scottsdale, Arizona. Initially, I used the site as a forum to post my thoughts,

comments and observations about a variety of topics that I felt were interesting, important,

or deserving of criticism such as certain “fake” (a/k/a “dirty”) residents of Scottsdale.

Case 4:11-cv-00392-DW Document 14-1 Filed 05/24/11 of 7

http://www.thedirty.com/


http://www.dirtyscottsdale.com/








4. The typical subject matter for my early posts on www.DirtyScottsdale.com

was anything “dirty” or humorous, such as drunken people making fools of themselves in

public; i.e., an intoxicated college student urinating on a public sidewalk or someone

passed out on a toilet in a bar.

5. Another favorite subject was the “$30k millionaire”—this is a derogatory

term used to refer to young people (usually males in their early 20s) who live far beyond

their financial means—driving expensive cars they cannot afford and living a lavish

lifestyle often funded by maxed-out credit cards. I focused my criticism on $30k

millionaires because I genuinely believe this overly materialistic lifestyle is socially

destructive and morally unacceptable. For those same reasons, I also frequently posted

stories about “beer-bong-chugging athletes, puking co-eds, drunken drivers and

provocatively posing clubbers”; basically anyone who acted stupidly or attempted to

attract unwarranted attention to themselves was a potential subject of discussion and

criticism on www.DirtyScottsdale.com .

6. I started the www.DirtyScottsdale.com website in my spare time, with

almost no money, working mainly from home. At first, the site had only a tiny amount of

traffic – maybe a few hundred visitors per day. Within a very short period of time, the

site began receiving local media coverage from television stations such as Fox 10 and

ABC 15 in Phoenix, both of which ran lengthy news stories about the site in mid-2007.

7. In 2008, the site began receiving national media coverage, and as a result

our traffic exploded literally overnight. In December 2008, the Arizona Republic ran an

article about me and the site, naming me “One of 2008’s Most Intriguing Arizonans” and

2Case 4:11-cv-00392-DW Document 14-1 Filed 05/24/11 of 7









stating: “what makes him interesting is that his site has prompted a dialogue about public

and private space and about what is and is not celebrity.”

8. As of April 2011, the website now receives an average of 18 million hits per

month or around 600,000 hits per day. As the site increased in popularity, it expanded to

cover more than 50 different U.S. cities and more than 20 cities in Canada. In the process,

the site adopted a more geographically neutral name— www.TheDirty.com .

9. As the site has grown, its focus and format has changed. In the beginning, I

created nearly all of the content posted on the site and, in fact, it was impossible for users

to upload anything directly to the site. This is no longer true. For the last several years,

users of the site have been permitted to “submit dirt” which can include news, photos,

video or text. Users can also post their own comments about material submitted by

others. The majority of stories, photos and material appearing on www.TheDirty.com are

now comprised of submissions uploaded directly to the site by third party users.

10. Users of www.TheDirty.com may submit posts to the site on any topic

whatsoever.

11. As of May 2011, www.TheDirty.com contains more than 75,000 unique

posts on a wide variety of topics.

12. Many posts submitted to www.TheDirty.com relate to stories, news, gossip

and other forms of commentary about local individuals who are not public figures, but not

all posts are of this type. On the contrary, in addition to posts about “non-celebrities”,

material appearing on www.TheDirty.com covers an extremely broad variety of more

ordinary topics including, but not limited to:
















a. President Barack Obama ; see Exhibit A ;

b. Donald Trump ’s presidential campaign; see Exhibit B ;

c. Politicians playing solitaire; see Exhibit C ;

d. Sports , including the 2010 World Series; see Exhibit D ;

e. Stories involving the arrest of celebrities ; see Exhibit E ;

f. L.A. Lakers basketball player Kobe Bryant ; see Exhibit F ;

g. Falling values of U.S. dollars vs. Canadian dollars ; see Exhibit G ;

h. Myself; see Exhibit H .

13. Attached hereto as Exhibit I are screenshots showing the form located at

http://thedirty.com/submit_a_tip/ that a visitor to the site can use to submit news, tips, or

similar “dirt” to the site. As reflected in these screenshots, the form is 100% content

neutral; it does not ask users to post anything about any particular individual, nor does the

site suggest what the author should say. The only instructions given by the site are as

follows: “ Tell us what’s happening. Remember to tell us Who, What, When, Where, Why. ”

The form reflected in Exhibit I was in place on the site during all of 2010.

14. As part of the submission process, users are asked to enter a “title” for their

submission, along with basic information about the material they are submitting.

Specifically, users are asked to identify the “City”, “College”, and “Category” for their

submission.

15. In terms of categories, the user is required to pick from a list of more than

40 different options provided by the site which include: “I HAVE NO IDEA”, “Business”,

“News”, “Spring Break” and “Would You?”.


http://thedirty.com/submit_a_tip/

http://thedirty.com/submit_a_tip/



16. The last category—“Would You?”—is generally understood to apply to

requests for me to express an opinion as to whether I would be romantically interested in

the person submitted; e.g. , “Would you date this person?”

17. I do not take these requests literally, and in my opinion, neither does anyone

else who regularly visits www.TheDirty.com . As I frequently mention on the site and as

a matter of common knowledge among my viewers, I am very happily married to a

wonderful, beautiful and famous television celebrity named Shayne Lamas-Richie.

18. Whenever I receive a submission in the “Would You?” category, I generally

post a short editorial comment below the submission which includes my personal critique

of the woman depicted. My response is nearly always the same—NO! It makes no

difference how attractive or unattractive the person depicted may be.

19. By rejecting 99.9999999% of all such submissions, I am attempting to use

obvious hyperbole to place everyone on an equal playing field and thereby illustrate an

important point about the absurdity and fallacy of today’s perfection-seeking culture. In

other words, no matter how physically perfect someone might think they are, it’s never

possible to literally be perfect. On the contrary, striving to reach unattainable physical

goals is often a self-destructive and self-defeating exercise in futility. My comments in

response to any “Would You?” submissions are intended to illustrate that viewpoint.

20. Regardless of the category selected by a user for his/her submission, in most

cases I will briefly review each new submission to ensure that inappropriate or unduly

offensive material is removed such as threats of violence, profanity, racial slurs, etc.

Despite this, I cannot and do not “fact-check” user submissions for accuracy.






21. I am aware that this case arises from a single post on www.TheDirty.com

about the Plaintiff which was submitted to the site by a third party on January 24, 2011

bearing the title “Nasty Church Girl” (the “Church Girl Post”). A true and correct copy o

this post (excluding subsequent comments by users which I do not understand to be part

of this action) is attached hereto as Exhibit J .

22. I did not create or modify any part of the Church Girl Post or its title. The

text in the body of the Post and the title was created entirely by a third party user of

www.TheDirty.com and the Post was published exactly as it was submitted to the site

without any changes other than an introduction which read “ THE DIRTY ARMY: ” to

accurately reflect that the Post was submitted to the site by a third party user.

23. Regular visitors to www.TheDirty.com often refer to themselves as “The

Dirty Army” which is a generic term applicable to any “fans” of the website.

24. I do not personally know and has never knowingly spoken to the author of

the Church Girl Post.

25. I did nothing to specifically induce the author to create the Church Girl Post

about Plaintiff.

26. I do not know Plaintiff and prior to the commencement of this action had

never heard of Plaintiff.

27. Because the Church Girl post was submitted in the category “Would You?”,

I posted a single-sentence response to that question which read as follows: “Her gumlines

[sic] as big as her teeth, that’s amazing. - nik.”










28. My comment about the Plaintiff’s “gumline” was a reference to her physical

appearance in a photo submitted by the author of the post. In the photo, Plaintiff’s

gumline is plainly visible.

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the

United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct.

EXECUTED ON: May 12, 2011.




Exhibit A



Exhibit B



Exhibit C



Exhibit E



Exhibit F



Exhibit G



Exhibit H



Exhibit I



Exhibit J

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