Hardware Geeks

Ah, Jack Thompson.  Honestly, I feel a little bit dirty giving the man even this tiny bit of press, but for those who have been aware of his anti-gaming crusade over the last few years and his relentless sparring with opponents ranging from corporate bigwigs to webcomic artists, they can ostensibly stop ignoring him long enough to draw some mild enjoyment from excerpts from the transcripts of his nine-day trial last December. 

Thompson was the plaintiff in an ethics trial at the end of last year that could potentially see him disbarred in the state of Florida, with a decision expected from presiding Judge Dava Tunis some time next month.  Website Gamepolitics.com obtained transcripts of testimony of five prosecution witnesses and has set up a ”Bar Trial Series” in which they focus on the gaming parts of the testimony and cross-examinations.

The first part of the series covers testimony from Clatus Junkin, an attorney from Fayette, Alabama who first interacted with Thompson regarding the killings by Devin Moore in 2004.  Moore was portrayed as having used Grand Theft Auto to “train” for his rampage and now, the lawsuit Strickland vs. Sony, filed by the families of Moore’s victims, seeks $600 million in damages from Sony, Take-Two, Rockstar, Gamestop, and Wal-Mart.  The second and third parts cover the testimony and cross-examination of Judge James Moore, the judge in Alabama who, in November of 2005, revoked Thompson’s pro hac vice (visiting right to practice law) in Alabama, taking him off of the Moore case.

The fourth part of the series is perhaps the most entertaining read of them all, as Mr. Thompson spars (and loses) with Jim Smith, one of the two attorneys for Take-Two called as witnesses by the prosecution.  As Thompson rails at Smith on various topics, he is repeatedly subjected to zingers from the witness, such as:

JT: Mr. Smith, you’re asserting, are you not, that the reason that I brought and sought certain federal relief was to forestall the disciplinary proceedings. You don’t know what was in my mind, do you?

SMITH: Well, it’s true that I don’t know what is in your mind, ever, Mr. Thompson. That is a true statement.

JT: That’s clever. Now answer the question.

SMITH: But I don’t. That was the question, “You don’t know what’s in my mind,” and I answered it.

JT: How do you know that my purpose of seeking the federal action was to forestall the disciplinary proceedings as opposed to getting federal relief for what I thought were inappropriate proceedings? You don’t know that.

SMITH: Because I have a brain.

JT: I beg your pardon?

The fifth and most recent entry in the series covers the testimony of Rebecca Ward, the other Take-Two attorney, and reaffirms his status as a classless bully.  Given the incompetence of his defense and his repeated contentious clashes with the judge, I will personally be very surprised if he is still licensed to practice law in Florida by the end of April.

As amusing and/or sad as these transcripts are, I have to wonder what will come after Jack Thompson is gone?  When it is all said and done, he hasn’t done all that much damage to the industry - he’s spread lies and information ineffectually through the few news stations that were willing to have him on and he generally made such a pest/clown of himself that most people who “have a brain” are now unwilling to accept his gobbledegook.  Video games may very well be the scapegoat of this generation, an easy patsy to blame for the social ills that affect some of our population, just as rock music or comic books were in previous decades.  Hopefully, if someone sinks to take up the tattered, soiled mantle that JT will leave behind, he or she will be equally ineffective, and the industry won’t repeat anything as stupid as the Hot Coffee debacle to keep it that way.

Post Tags: gaming  grand theft auto  jack thompson  take two 

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