Lawyers for a Jewish woman suing prominent white supremacist Andrew Anglin have served their lawsuit in a local Ohio newspaper after being unable to find him for almost five months.
In new court filings, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lawyers said an Ohio court clerk has published a legal notice in the Daily Reporter, a legal and business newspaper published daily in Columbus, Ohio, the same state as several addresses tied to Anglin. The notice must run for six weeks before the plaintiffs can claim they have served the lawsuit.
“Plaintiff has worked diligently to comply with the steps necessary to effect service under Ohio law, including working with the Clerk for the Franklin County, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas to effect service by publication,” reads the filing. “The Clerk has now placed a legal notice of this action in a newspaper of general circulation in Franklin County, Ohio, where Defendant’s last known address is located.”
The Daily Reporter confirmed to the Daily Dot in a phone call that the notice began appearing in its newspaper on Wednesday, September 13.
Here is the full notice that appears in the Daily Reporter:
Public Notice
Common Pleas Court
Franklin County, Ohio
17-MS-000343 – Tanya Gersh, Plaintiff vs. Andrew Anglin, publisher of The Daily Stormer, Defendant
Andrew Anglin, whose last known address is unknown, is hereby notified that a complaint was filed in the United States District Court, District of Montana, Missoula Division, Russell Smith Federal Courthouse, 201 E. Broadway, Missoula, MT 59802 (case number 9:17-cv-50-DLC-JCL) alleging that Plaintiff is a Jewish real estate agent living in Whitefish, Montana; that Defendant launched a terror campaign, known as a “troll storm,” against Plaintiff; that Plaintiff and her immediate family received hundreds of hateful and threatening anti-Semitic phone calls, voicemails, text messages, e-mails, letters, social media comments and false online business reviews; that Defendant continually posted stories about and contact information for Plaintiff, her family members and colleagues; that Defendant has invaded Plaintiff’s privacy and caused serious and severe emotional distress; that Defendant has violated the Montana Anti-Intimidation Act; wherefore Plaintiff requests the Court grant general damages, special damages, compensatory damages, consequential damages, nominal damages and punitive damages, plus attorney fees, costs, disbursements and such other and further relief as the Court deems just.
Defendant is further notified to answer said complaint within 21 days after the last day of publication.
David C. Dinielli, Southern Poverty Law Center, Attorney for Plaintiff, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36104
Sep 13/20/27 Oct 4/11/18
Anglin, the founder of neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Dot about the latest court filings.
The filings also state that lawyers for the plaintiff, Tanya Gersh, have still not heard from Marc J. Randazza, who has said publicly that he is representing Anglin.
“Neither Mr. Randazza nor anyone from his firm has responded to telephone messages or emails or made any contact with or communicated with Plaintiff’s counsel in any way, nor has he or any other attorney entered an appearance on Mr. Anglin’s behalf in this matter,” the filing stated.
The Daily Dot left a message at Randazza’s office and emailed him at two different email addresses, but did not hear back by press time.
In earlier filings, lawyers for the Southern Poverty Law Center said they used public records to find four addresses connected to Anglin. They also hired a process server, whose job it is to serve legal notices to defendants.
The process server detailed more than 15 attempts to serve Anglin with the SPLC’s lawsuit between April and May, but each one failed. An Ohio court clerk, working on the direction of Gersh’s legal team, also served the lawsuit to Anglin’s four known addresses, but each time the mail was returned and marked as undeliverable.
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s lawsuit claims Anglin launched a “terror campaign” or “troll storm” on Gersh, a Jewish real estate agent living in Montana, via a series of articles he published on the Daily Stormer.
“These articles caused his followers to overwhelm Ms. Gersh with hundreds of hateful and threatening anti-Semitic phone calls, voicemails, text messages, emails, letters, social media comments, and false online business reviews,” the lawsuit reads.
Anglin decided to attack Gersh after the mother of white nationalist Richard Spencer, Sherry Spencer, claimed Gersh had suggested there would be protests and media attention unless she agreed to sell a property she owned in Whitefish, Montana. In an interview with the Guardian in April, Gersh said this was a “twisted version” of the pair’s interactions.
After mocking victims of violence at a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, Anglin was forced to repeatedly change the Daily Stormer’s domain after several hosting companies rejected the site for violating their terms of service.
Update 4:10pm CT, Sept. 18: Added text of the full legal notice to Anglin that appears in the Daily Reporter.
