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San Francisco federal court stops Russ Whitney from taking John T. Reed’s deposition in Whitney suit against his former associate Glenn Purdy

Russ Whitney’s lawyer Scott Rothstein sent me a notice of deposition a few months back. It said I had to appear to give a deposition in downtown San Francisco in the middle of a business day. Initially, I thought it was in Whitney’s case against me. Then I noticed it was for a case called Whitney Information Network, Inc. vs. Glenn Purdy.
Who is Glenn Purdy?
From what I understand, Purdy is a former Whitney speaker. Whitney is apparently suing him for breach of contract and violation of a Florida trade secrets act. The case was in the same federal court in Fort Lauderdale and before the same judge as Whitney’s case against me.
I am curious as to why a resident of Fort Myers, FL is being sued by a corporation in adjacent Cape Coral, FL in federal court over violation of a contract and a state statute. You are not supposed to be in federal court unless you are suing under a federal law or the parties are in different states and the amount in dispute exceeds $75,000.
I don’t know what Whitney v. Purdy has to do with me. I have never laid eyes on, met, or communicated with Purdy. Ditto Whitney, except through his attorneys. Sounds like Whitney is just using that case to jerk me around.
Listed in ‘initial disclosures’
Whitney’s attorney said Purdy listed me in his initial disclosures in the case. Initial disclosures are statements that parties must exchange relatively early in a lawsuit. Among other things, you have to list potential fact witnesses. A fact witness is someone who perceived events relevant to the case with one or more of his five senses. Purdy’s list included the name “John Reed.”
Purdy and his attorney refuse to answer me
When I learned about this, I called Purdy. He did not return my call. I emailed him. He did not return my email.
According to Fort Lauderdale court records, Purdy had an attorney when he named “John Reed” as a potential fact witness. Later, he represented himself. Still later, he hired a different attorney. I called the current attorney repeatedly. They would not talk to me or return my phone calls.
I have no idea what I did to Purdy to cause him to list me as a witness and thereby let Whitney use that listing to harass me. Nor do I know what I did that would warrant his refusal to respond to my inquiries about why he listed me as a witness.
I also asked them in a phone message to remove me from the list of fact witnesses in his case. Again, no response.
‘I’m subpoenaing you.’
Anyway, I told Rothstein that I was declining his invitation to give a subpoena. He said, “I am not inviting you. I am subpoenaing you.”
A subpoena is a court order that can be issued—under certain circumstances—by a lawyer for a party in a lawsuit. I wrote back to tell him that to subpoena someone, you have to serve a subpoena on him, which he had not done. I guess he figured with my not being an attorney and all that I would not know that.
Process server
Eventually, a process server delivered a subpoena to my house. I hope Whitney is getting a volume discount from them. They have been here about eight times. I surmise that Whitney believes people are intimidated by process servers. Although, I suspect that effect lessens when you do it so much that the process server is on a first-name basis with the servee. A conversation between his process server and me might go like this. “Freddy! Whas up? We gotta stop meeting like this. Another missive from the Wizard of Cape Coral? You owe me a lunch, buddy. I’m not generating all this business for you for nothing.”
Fort Lauderdale subpoena
When I finally got the subpoena, I checked the pertinent court rules. Rothstein had violated them. The subpoena was issued by the federal court in Fort Lauderdale. The federal rules say that you have to get the subpoena from the federal court that is in the area where the subpoena is to be taken.
But, hey, I’m just a little old “fool for a client” guy acting as his own attorney. What would I know compared to a big shot lawyer like Scott Rothstein?
Motion to quash
I then filed a motion in San Francisco federal court to quash the subpoena. “Quash” is what it’s called when you ask the court to invalidate a subpoena.
Some people ask we where I get all my legal knowledge. Well, in the case of the motion to quash, it’s written on the back of the subpoena form they serve you.
‘My process server says you have not been served’
You have to serve the motion on all the interested parties, which I did. Of course, it took some days because I had to research it, write it, FedEx it, and all that. When Rothstein got his copy, he sent me an email thundering back that the federal court in San Francisco had no jurisdiction in the matter. He also demanded to know whether I had been served because his process server had told him my wife kept saying I was “working late” whenever he tried to serve me.
I thought his asking me whether I had been served was a bit odd. For one thing, why doesn’t he ask his process server—the guy who’s working for him. I’m not working for him.
For another, I thought it was odd for him to ask me if I had been served because you have to attach a copy of the subpoena to the motion to quash and to the copy you send the other parties. I had done that. So when Scott Rothstein demanded that I tell him whether I had been served, it was because he had just received my motion to quash—including the attached copy of the subpoena with Scott Rothstein’s signature on it. I guess those lawyers double- and triple-check everything.
Second subpoena
Regarding the San Francisco federal court having no jurisdiction: Really? That’s not how I read the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, but again I’m just a little old non-lawyer, so what would I know? A little later, Rothstein more quietly said he was going to have me served another subpoena. His tone was along the lines of it wasn’t necessary, but just to humor me.
For some unexplained reason, his second subpoena was issued by the court he previously said had no jurisdiction: the San Francisco federal court.
‘Inaction Jackson’
Process servers often have funny names. I once used one in New York City called Serving by Irving. I saw another named Action Jackson. Some are more prosaic like Same-Day Attorney Service.
Rothstein apparently used Stall by Paul, Inaction Jackson, or Same-Year Attorney Service because the process server took many weeks to deliver the second subpoena.
During this period, Rothstein was ranting and raving at me that he was going to have the judge sanction (punish) me for ducking the subpoena. He accused my wife of repeatedly sending the man away dishonestly telling him I was “working late.” Since I work out of my home office, Rothstein said that had to be a lie.
Actually, the guy only came once when she was home. He asked for me and she said, “He’s not here.” He asked when I would be back. She declined to give that information to a stranger at the door in the dark. Actually, on the night in question, I believe I was at the law library researching my opposition to Whitney’s attempt to shut down my Web site.
On another occasion, the process server came when I was having supper at a Chinese restaurant with one of my sons. Another son told the guy, “He’s not here.” Many weeks went by with no attempt to serve that we knew of.
Whitney’s undisclosed opposition to the motion to quash
Eventually, I got the subpoena that Whitney had issued by the San Francisco federal court. At some point, Rothstein’s law firm made mention of having filed an opposition to my motion to quash. I was not aware of any such opposition.
In order to get such a document filed with the court, you have to swear that you sent the other parties copies of it. Whitney’s attorneys must have filed that sworn statement, but they had not sent me a copy of the opposition, thereby making any such sworn declaration false.
Rothstein did not respond to my statement that I had received no copy of any opposition. I did not even know which court he had sent it to in light of his statement that the San Francisco federal court had no jurisdiction over the subpoena. Rothstein associate Christina Kitterman belatedly sent me a copy of the opposition when I told her I had not received it.
I filed a supplement to my original motion to quash.
I won
On August 13, 2004, I received a court order granting my motion to quash the subpoena.
John T. Reed
Copyright 2004 by John T. Reed
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John T. Reed, a.k.a. John Reed, Jack Reed, 342 Bryan Drive, Alamo, CA 94507, Voice: 925-820-7262, Fax: 925-820-1259, Email: johnreed@johntreed.com

CONSUMER WARNING NOTICE: I recently saw Russ Whitney on a late night TV infomercial and then attended one of his "free" seminars. Unfortunately I believed all of their LIES and FRAUDULENT CLAIMS and I paid thousands of dollars to go to his "training camps". Needless to say I was clearly ripped off, cheated and lied to by Russ Whitney and his employees (band of thieves). My mistake was not searching the Internet to find out more about Russ Whitney and his company's HORRIBLE reputation for fraud, deception and illegal activities. Had I searched online I would have found out about THOUSANDS of customers being cheated, HUNDREDS of investigations by the Attorney General into the fraud of Russ Whitney and his company's, and that Russ Whitney himself is a CONVICTED VIOLENT FELON and spent years in PRISON. I saved the cached pages from the major search engines of the John Reed lawsuit with Russell Whitney and the TRUTH and FACTS that Reed discovered during his investigation of Whitney. I am posting this information on real estate discussion boards so other people do NOT get cheated and ripped off like I did.