TECH STOCKS: Judge Told Tesla To Release Evidence In Short Seller Trial, So Tesla Dropped The Case
July 20 2019 - 2:41PM
Dow Jones News
By Russ Mitchell
The company said it chose not to release the evidence to protect
the privacy of its employees
Tesla claimed Randeep Hothi was a dangerous stalker who injured
a security guard and endangered Tesla employees with his car. It
asked a judge to slap Hothi with a restraining order.
But Tesla (TSLA) dropped the suit Friday after the judge ordered
the company to turn over video and audio evidence to prove its
case. The company said it chose not to release the evidence to
protect the privacy of its employees, the Los Angeles Times
reported on Saturday
(https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-07-20/judge-told-tesla-to-release-evidence-in-short-seller-trial-instead-tesla-dropped-the-case).
In a letter to Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey
Brand, Tesla said the employees suffered "unwanted publicity and
online harassment" and that "production of their private
conversations to Mr. Hothi would, in Tesla's view, inflict more
damage by subjecting them to an unwarranted invasion of their
privacy and further harassment."
It was Tesla, in the lawsuit, that had revealed the employees'
names, not Hothi.
Hothi could not be reached for comment. He said outside the
courtroom at an earlier hearing that Tesla was making up stories to
smear him and shut him up. Video and audio evidence would clear
him, he said. His attorney, Gill Sperlein, said he sent Tesla
lawyers a letter Friday noting that his client plans to file a
malicious prosecution suit against the company. The letter demands
that Tesla retain all evidence.
"It's clear that this case was intended from the beginning to
intimidate Mr. Hothi," Sperlein said. "He will not be intimidated.
We will continue a dedicated search for the truth."
Hothi is a member of an online community known as $TslaQ, which
uses Twitter to trade information about the company, most of it
negative. Most members are short sellers, who bet that a company's
stock price is overvalued and can make money when the stock price
goes down.
A resident of Fremont and doctoral student at the University of
Michigan, Hothi used cameras to monitor and document production
levels at the Tesla automobile assembly plant there.
Tesla alleged that Hothi struck a security guard with his car in
the factory's parking lot last February, and two months later used
his car to threaten and endanger three Tesla employees testing a
Model 3's Autopilot system on Interstate 880 between Fremont and
Oakland. The employees, according to a court document filed by
Tesla, feared that Hothi's "road conduct would cause a collision
and injure them."
Hothi said he hit no one with his car. Fremont police reviewed
security video of the alleged event and filed no charges.
A Tesla spokesman said Friday: "Tesla believes it has given Mr.
Hothi clear notice not to enter Tesla's property, and Tesla will
not hesitate to take legal action if he ever returns."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 20, 2019 14:26 ET (18:26 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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