My former fiance threatened to make fabricated and scandalous public accusations about me unless I paid her $9 million in one week. Two years later, a Judge ordered her to pay me $584,199.16 for fees I spent defending my innocence.
It started on April 6th, 2021 with a thirteen-page letter from her lawyers: “[Redacted] is willing to settle all of her claims against Mr. Johnson and his companies for $9 million dollars…”. After over a year of our relationship ending, for the first time ever, she was accusing me of a wide range of “abusive and perverse” behavior. Through her attorneys, she threatened to make her allegations public if I didn’t pay her $9 million dollars within one week. WTF? What claims? What wrong-doing? It must be April Fools. Am I getting punked? This person who I’d once had the most beautiful relationship with was now unrecognizable to me.
The contents of the letter were shocking, but even more shocking was the fact that this letter was arriving after we had signed a separation agreement (with the help of our attorneys) a year earlier when ending our relationship. She and her attorneys were gambling that, even though she had already agreed that we’d go our separate ways, I'd cave and pay up to avoid my reputation being publicly tarnished.
She was emboldened by lawyers blinded by their greed to take advantage of her vulnerabilities and exploit my wealth. After over six months of threatening to destroy me with more scandalous allegations in “her new podcast”, a “book deal” and a “potential TV series”, the attorneys who sent the demand letter never filed a complaint or produced a single piece of evidence to support the allegations.
Then she got new attorneys. Seeing that threats alone were insufficient, they filed a case in court and tried to make me look like a monster. I successfully moved part of the case into arbitration, where we had agreed to resolve any disputes. As their legal losses mounted, they became increasingly unhinged in what they were willing to say. Global media ate it up.
On March 31st, 2023, after extensive motions, depositions and discovery, the arbitrator dismissed all her causes of action that had been referred to arbitration and ordered that my accuser pay me $584,199.16 to reimburse attorneys' fees I’d been forced to spend defending my innocence. The ruling and award were confirmed by an active Superior Court Judge on September 29th, 2023.
After years of litigation, the corroborating evidence my accuser had of any of my accused wrongdoings? Nothing. Not a single thing. In considering my accuser’s attempt to invalidate the separation agreement she had signed, the arbitrator, a well-respected retired judge, pointed out that my accuser’s “undisputed conduct and testimony refute her claim[s].” In other words, my accuser's own evidence contradicted her own story. Noteworthy as my accuser’s day job is Chief Storytelling Officer at an implantable medical device company where trust is life and death.
The entire thing was bizarre and surreal. My accuser's attorneys were sanctioned by the Judge - a severe reprimand that courts reserve for truly egregious conduct - for making, as the Judge wrote: “serious allegations…factually and legally baseless and frivolous”. Her lawyers were ordered to pay the court a fine of $2,500. In our settlement discussions, I also insisted her attorneys pay some of what my accuser owed to me for their complicitness.
It would have been so easy to relent and quietly settle to make this go away. That’s what nearly everyone does. But I am not guilty and they gave me no choice but to spend over two years litigating to prove my innocence. Giving in and paying up would have been an injustice to me; an injustice to society enabling this twisted practice.
The legal fight was ugly and awful. The worst. The most hurtful part of the whole ordeal was that she spoke about our relationship in ways that were unrecognizable to me. For example, when she was sadly diagnosed with a serious health condition, I rearranged my life and worked non-stop beside her to beat it. We flew around the country together to meet with doctors and explore clinical trials. Together we conducted extensive research into additional therapies and tests. It was our shared omnipresent focus. When tests showed that she was in the clear and it was time to celebrate her new lease on life, who was the one person in the world she invited to be by her side at this sacred event? Me. She honored my unwavering devotion to her well-being.
The case is now wrapped and behind us. This time with a promise that she won’t sue me again, a provision the previous agreement didn’t have and which allowed her and her attorneys to weaponize the legal system for over two years. Their strategy was to inflict maximum pain and suffering on me so I’d pay up privately. They miscalculated my tenaciousness and resolve and their strategy backfired, inflicting collateral damage upon themselves. One of her attorneys is no longer with that firm and my accuser’s health deteriorated within the blast radius of her own creation.
My accuser has been astonishingly pernicious. Nonetheless, I choose, again, to support her as she works through her health challenges. The settlement funds she owes me will be routed to a trust I established for her medical needs. She is the sole beneficiary and the only person who can access this trust. I won’t keep a penny of what she pays me as part of the judgment.
Every minute of every day each of us diligently works to build and fortify our personal reputations. Showing up on time. Being respectful. Offering sympathy. Helping out. Apologizing when at fault. Telling the truth. Our reputation is our life currency. Then, in one moment, a headline can cause everyone you love and care about to question everything they thought they knew about you. A lifetime of work now in question. It’s great entertainment when it’s about someone else; a different thing when it’s your name in the headline. It’s been no fun having my name dragged through the mud and not being able to comment during the proceedings.
“Innocent until proven guilty” is a bedrock of our society. In recent years, accusations have been weaponized and exploited for profit as “guilty until proven innocent” became de facto by mob rule. Ruining people’s careers, lives and reputations. Taking away from those who legitimately need the legal system. It has created a booming, dark underground economy that has destabilized society by straining our bonds of trust.
Our social fabric is fragile; woven together by a shared trust. The accusation strategy she used is corrosive to our shared stability. I hope more people stand up to this dark and twisted practice.
Endnotes:
Before the Apr '21 thirteen page scorched-earth letter from her attorneys, my accuser's first tactic to get money from me was a letter she penned in Sep '20. She praised my integrity, spoke of our shared love, & emphasized the reciprocal care we’d show for each other.
When that didn’t work, she and her attorneys sought to disparage me and create scandal. As their legal losses mounted, they became increasingly unhinged in what they were willing to say. For example, by accusing me of bribing the arbitrator. Trying to embarrass and pressure me into private settlement. As my court filing put it:
The Judge wasn’t having their bribery fiction. She found that the attorneys “acted with reckless disregard for the truth and the law in making the accusations” and “violated” their “duties of respect and honesty.” The Judge severely reprimanded the attorneys for making “frivolous” claims with “no evidence” to support them, “undermin[ing] the dignity and integrity of th[e] court’s proceedings.” She sanctioned the attorneys $2,500.
Press, why do you gotta be like this?
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New best:
+ VO2 max: 58.7 ml/kg/min, top 1.5% 18 yr olds
+ Leg press single rep max: 800 lbs, top 1-2% 18 yr olds
+ Bench press single rep max 240 lbs, top 10% 18 yr olds
Other:
+ Blood glucose 94% ideal range (w/HGH therapy)
+ golfing + bowling fun
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Note: Reference to age 18 is used because that's when single rep max to body weight ratio (bench and leg press) starts declining in men as per ACSM reference range that is attached.
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New V02 max personal best: 58.7 ml/kg/min, top 1.5% of 18 yr olds
We use washing machines because they’re superior to hand washing.
We use digital navigation systems because they’re better than a printed map in our laps.
We use ChatGPT because its emergent abilities are superior to existing tools.
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Sometimes we excitedly race into the future. Other times the future pulls us forward as we kick and scream. We take credit for seeing the future and forget that we ever opposed it.
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My eyes were fixed on the airplane's attitude indicator. Flying steady at 9,500 feet, both hands gripped the controls. Seeing a bit of direction drift, I corrected ever so slightly left, now down, a tiny bit right…a never-ending game to keep the airplane in optimal position.
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Lost in this play, my mind drifts to my on-ground performance: hard at work making micro-corrections for my well-being. Slightly less food here, a more nutritious menu option there, and squeezing in a good night's sleep whenever possible.
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Dozens of decisions daily that are taxing and energetically draining. A gauntlet of experience, each decision encounter having the power to knock me off balance.
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Individual: oh, I exist. This is uncomfortable. Now what do I do?
Architect: this and you’ll feel better
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Majority of human meaning-making activities throughout history address native discomfort & arousal we feel w/ conscious existence. Biochemical states hunger/satiation, love/heartbreak, lust/orgasm, loneliness/community, jealousy & harmony, boredom and ecstasy, hope and fear.
Designers concocted ideologies, nation states, economic frameworks, social norms and ethical systems, creating incentives to harness the energy of these biochemical states. Their plans utilizing biochemical states as hydroelectric power generation leverages water.
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Evening Bryan here. Pretty unhappy about what Blueprint Bryan said publicly about me a few days ago. Pinning his life problems on me. Reality is that I live life to the fullest. All in. No regrets. Do it all. We live and die. Make the most of the moment.
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What is life worth if not to indulge in all of its pleasures?
Blueprint Bryan’s efforts are frivolous and vain. So what if he extends his life by 20, 30 or even 40 years if he never has time for anything other than extending his life. Isn’t that ridiculous?
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Twenty one year old Bryan said we’d make a lot of money and then do cool stuff. Now we’ve succeeded, he wants to climb the next mountain, enduring all the pain and suffering we already went through to get here in the first place. Who’s the tyrant?
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Nutty Pudding
50-100 mL Almond Milk
3 Tbsp macadamia nuts
2 tsp of walnuts
1 tsp of flaxseed
1 Tbsp non dutched cocoa 1/2 brazil nut
1 tsp sunflower lecithin 1/2 tsp ceylon cinnamon
1 cup blue/rasp/strawberries
3 cherries
2 oz pomegranate juice
Pea protein sprinkled