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I contemplated doing this for months because I was torn if it was deserving of help or not…
April 2018, I was sued by a company. I had no clue they even filed a lawsuit until a bunch of people started tagging me in posts on their Facebook page which had 500k+ followers as of then. The post had the entire complaint full of insane lies and made up stories. People we’re threatening to find me and kill me. They were posting the address of my mothers home and my business location in Texas.
This was the most difficult time of my life. Not only was I being sued for things that were not even true, I was being portrayed to hundreds of thousands of people as a thief and liar. The people involved with the company had infiltrated the Ranger community through nonprofits, blogs, etc and began to spread lies about me. I couldn’t go to a majority of Ranger events anywhere in the world because my name was tarnished and ruined by people who couldn’t bully me into submission.
This resulted in me losing countless business relationships. People I had invested tens of thousands of dollars in, backed away, ignored me, decided to cut ties, never paid me back, etc. I had people pull their contracts, new clients on the verge of signing pull away. Anytime I approached someone in the Veteran community I was met with hesitance and rejection and was called names like thief, liar, etc. I had what I considered to be good friends stop associating with me. Nonprofits I supported and assisted for years turn their backs on me. All of this over lies, straight LIES!
I went from having almost double and triple month over month growth to an insane loss of revenue and income. Between the crippling amount of lost revenue, legal fees and so much more, I have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of this. I still owe my lawyers tens of thousands of dollars and it may grow larger by trying to collect on the judgement I won. These people literally ruined my life and destroyed me financially.
I also lost my sanity, self-worth, motivation, etc. I was the most depressed person I’ve ever known. I was having suicidal thoughts every time they would double down and lie and post more shit to further ruin me. I can say right now that I was at the lowest point of my entire life and I still am working on digging myself out of the cave they bullied me into because their reach was a million times larger than mine.
In the end, on October 3rd 2019, I got my day in court but it wasn’t the day I wanted. I was met by 20-50 of their supporters crowding the hallways as I walked to the courtroom. They again tried to bully me and intimidate me. The owners of the company requested a 4-day jury trial. For the next 3 days they sat on the bench and gloated about themselves and discussed almost nothing of the case. At this point we’re on the verge of a mistrial because we haven’t even had the chance to present our case which would mean this could drag on for months or even years more. I had less than a couple hours to present my case and thankfully my lawyers got it done. However not having time to present a majority of the case hurt the judgement we could have obtained. Nonetheless, the jury returned with a verdict granting me over $80k+ for them abusing the process, defamation, etc.
After more months of waiting after trial we finally got our Judgement, the company owes me 75,703.18 to date which I’ll probably never see a dime of. It cost me over $50k+ dollars just to defend myself and probably going to cost more to try and collect the money or fight appeals. The whole process is exhausting both emotionally and financially. The only good part of this story is that I won… I WON! …it may only be a victory on paper and it will never fix the damage it caused my business and myself. It won’t repay the hundreds of thousands of dollars I’ve lost, but it feels good knowing every person who called me a thief and liar have nothing to stand on.
The money will go to my lawyers, some nonprofit organizations I made commitments to and had to withdraw as a result of this, as well as some debts I’ve acquired too as a result of this all. I don’t have a goal because the bills, losses, etc. are far more than I can ever imagine I’m deserving of. So, anything you can do will greatly help and being insanely appreciated. If you wish to make a donation to any of the charities, I had to withdraw my larger donations to please donate to the following:
Lead The Way Fund: https://www.leadthewayfund.org/
Stag Vets (Comfort Farms): https://www.stagvetsinc.org/
Heroic Hearts Project: https://www.stagvetsinc.org/
Who you are and where you’re from: Johnathon Melamed / Austin, TX
Your relationship or contact to the parties you're raising funds for: Myself
How the funds will be spent (be as specific as possible): Legal Fees, Debts, Donations, Etc.
Your withdrawal plan to get the funds from the fundraiser to the person that they're intended for: Once closed I'll withdraw and pay the bills!
April 2018, I was sued by a company. I had no clue they even filed a lawsuit until a bunch of people started tagging me in posts on their Facebook page which had 500k+ followers as of then. The post had the entire complaint full of insane lies and made up stories. People we’re threatening to find me and kill me. They were posting the address of my mothers home and my business location in Texas.
This was the most difficult time of my life. Not only was I being sued for things that were not even true, I was being portrayed to hundreds of thousands of people as a thief and liar. The people involved with the company had infiltrated the Ranger community through nonprofits, blogs, etc and began to spread lies about me. I couldn’t go to a majority of Ranger events anywhere in the world because my name was tarnished and ruined by people who couldn’t bully me into submission.
This resulted in me losing countless business relationships. People I had invested tens of thousands of dollars in, backed away, ignored me, decided to cut ties, never paid me back, etc. I had people pull their contracts, new clients on the verge of signing pull away. Anytime I approached someone in the Veteran community I was met with hesitance and rejection and was called names like thief, liar, etc. I had what I considered to be good friends stop associating with me. Nonprofits I supported and assisted for years turn their backs on me. All of this over lies, straight LIES!
I went from having almost double and triple month over month growth to an insane loss of revenue and income. Between the crippling amount of lost revenue, legal fees and so much more, I have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of this. I still owe my lawyers tens of thousands of dollars and it may grow larger by trying to collect on the judgement I won. These people literally ruined my life and destroyed me financially.
I also lost my sanity, self-worth, motivation, etc. I was the most depressed person I’ve ever known. I was having suicidal thoughts every time they would double down and lie and post more shit to further ruin me. I can say right now that I was at the lowest point of my entire life and I still am working on digging myself out of the cave they bullied me into because their reach was a million times larger than mine.
In the end, on October 3rd 2019, I got my day in court but it wasn’t the day I wanted. I was met by 20-50 of their supporters crowding the hallways as I walked to the courtroom. They again tried to bully me and intimidate me. The owners of the company requested a 4-day jury trial. For the next 3 days they sat on the bench and gloated about themselves and discussed almost nothing of the case. At this point we’re on the verge of a mistrial because we haven’t even had the chance to present our case which would mean this could drag on for months or even years more. I had less than a couple hours to present my case and thankfully my lawyers got it done. However not having time to present a majority of the case hurt the judgement we could have obtained. Nonetheless, the jury returned with a verdict granting me over $80k+ for them abusing the process, defamation, etc.
After more months of waiting after trial we finally got our Judgement, the company owes me 75,703.18 to date which I’ll probably never see a dime of. It cost me over $50k+ dollars just to defend myself and probably going to cost more to try and collect the money or fight appeals. The whole process is exhausting both emotionally and financially. The only good part of this story is that I won… I WON! …it may only be a victory on paper and it will never fix the damage it caused my business and myself. It won’t repay the hundreds of thousands of dollars I’ve lost, but it feels good knowing every person who called me a thief and liar have nothing to stand on.
The money will go to my lawyers, some nonprofit organizations I made commitments to and had to withdraw as a result of this, as well as some debts I’ve acquired too as a result of this all. I don’t have a goal because the bills, losses, etc. are far more than I can ever imagine I’m deserving of. So, anything you can do will greatly help and being insanely appreciated. If you wish to make a donation to any of the charities, I had to withdraw my larger donations to please donate to the following:
Lead The Way Fund: https://www.leadthewayfund.org/
Stag Vets (Comfort Farms): https://www.stagvetsinc.org/
Heroic Hearts Project: https://www.stagvetsinc.org/
Who you are and where you’re from: Johnathon Melamed / Austin, TX
Your relationship or contact to the parties you're raising funds for: Myself
How the funds will be spent (be as specific as possible): Legal Fees, Debts, Donations, Etc.
Your withdrawal plan to get the funds from the fundraiser to the person that they're intended for: Once closed I'll withdraw and pay the bills!