I have seen the .jpg scans, and they are indeed impressive.
SATIRE ALERT NOTE: A BIT OF SATIRE THAT HAS NO REAL BEARING ON THE MARK RAPPAPORT PROCEEDINGS – SO CAN BE SKIPPED
John Pastuch (on p. 14) said:
I wonder how much Ray Carney would charge if you lent him a pen and wanted it back.
Well, I promised to let this thread play out without any more on-going serious comments from me until we know more, but I just couldn’t resist adding (I hope) a bit of levity and satire to this grim situation – and answer John’s question. Just to provide us a bit of possible (momentary) comic relief, as we wait for further developments. (No offense meant in this bit of farce to any of the parties, including Dr. Carney):
If this went to court…
The Case of Pastuch vs Carney
Document to the Court #1 – from Dr. Carney
As you can imagine, as a very busy academic with many projects, books, classes, etc. in hand, I did not have the time to look through all the thousands and thousands of pens in my possession for Mr. Pastuch’s pen. Besides, I sincerely thought he had gifted it to me. The pen was quite badly worn, had tooth marks on the top (Mr. Pastuch’s?), and I assumed he wouldn’t want it back, anyway, due to its sorry condition. Also, I may have given it to a third person, never dreaming that he would want the pen back.
So, as I am preparing to defend my self right now over another manner to a Board of Administrators with a lynch-mob mentality (the Court is surely familiar with the case of Howard Zinn?), you will forgive me if I give this silly matter a pass.
Document to the Court #2 – from Dr. Carney
Since the Court has instructed me, through my lawyer, to find and return Mr. Pastuch’s pen to him, I am hearby complying, even though I incurred considerable costs through the lost time spent finding said pen. I am providing this document (with many pages of supporting documents, photocopies, etc.) to fully itemize costs incurred to me while searching for Mr. Pastuch’s pen. When duly found, I then recalled having restored (at considerable expense to myself) the pen Mr. Pastuch gifted to me. I have included these costs, also, as they greatly add to and enhance the value of said pen. This matter can then be resolved if Mr. Pastuch, through his lawyer, acknowledges and settles the costs itemized below – as well as the costs related to my separate defamation lawsuit (itemized separately).
Hereby is a summary of the material costs to me for finding this pen, which took me several hours (admidst all the academic clutter of my premises, as the Court can understand, considering my long and distinguished career at B.U.) looking through all the pens in my possession (now all separately and duly itemized), many of which were also gifted to me for academic services rendered.
I have listed the costs in time incurred by me in finding this pen. Also noted are the costs incurred by me to greatly enhance and restore the pen from its original decrepit condition (unfortunately, photos of the original are lost, but I know a photo exists somewhere with me using the pen, before restoration, to sign a contract for a book deal). As noted in accompanying documents, I have lost the original receipts as to cost of the restoration, but all these are fair approximations. I had spent considerable amounts of my own money and effort to fully restore the pen to a much more favorable condition, greatly adding to it value now.
Itemized costs:
Hours spent looking for and retrieving said pen & itemizing all pens in my possession – Charge for this at my lower academic rate of $250.00 an hour: 15 ½ hrs @ $250.00 – $3875.00
Cost to remove teeth marks from original pen at a shop specializing in pen restoration – $175.00
Gold tip added to pen to enhance its look by said shop – $225.00
Fee for storage of said pen in my own collection of pens for 8 weeks (@100.00 per week) – $800.00
Total cost to me of storage, restoration, and retrieval of pen: Total: $5075.00
I am sure the Court will agree that this would be a fair and equitable finder’s fee for settling this dispute with Mr. Pastuch and returning him his (now fully restored and enhanced) pen. I will no longer contest the “gift” issues, as I unfortunately lost any documentation in my possession where he may have, to my best recollection, signed over the pen to me (using said pen for his signature, as I recall).
Document to the Court #3 – from Dr. Carney
Whereas Mr. Pastuch launched this suit against me to ‘recover’ his pen (even though I have contested his version of events), and has accused me of some grievous wrong in his own writ before the court, I will itemize and submit separately costs of my own suit for defamation and damages against Mr. Pastuch, costs which I expect him to meet, to fully settle the affair and provide due compensation to me for all the time and effort this vexing affair has cost me and my good reputation.
Itemized lawyer’s fees and fees necessary to settle defamation proceedings against Mr. Pastuch (too long to post): Total: $27,105.63.
That’s how much it might have cost John Pastuch to get a pen back he had lent to Ray Carney – were it to go to court! SATIRE ALERT ENDED
@Mark
Unfortunately, the scans from the court documents didn’t show on the screen when I posted a word file here. The scans were JPEGs.
Open a Photobucket account – it’s free. Upload the Jpegs to your account.
Post the htttp code for the image (on the image page right at Photobucket) between exclamation points here at Mubi.
Hello everyone:
For those who would like to read Mark’s response in PDF—with correct formatting and image scans of the legal documents he mentions—you can go to the page linked below, which I set up on my personal site. Should be working.
Copy/Paste: http://completist.typepad.com/the_completist/mark-rappaports-pdf-response-to-ray-carney.html
or
Click here.
Thanks for posting the PDF Keith, and also thanks for stopping by, I hope you will do so more often and under better circumstances. (By the way, like the look of the new blog, it’s now bookmarked.)
Thank you, Greg.
I’d like to note that Filmmaker Magazine (via Nick Dawson) has published a copy of Mr. Rappaport’s PDF as well, on a single page that can be accessed at the following:
http://filmmakermagazine.com/67190-mark-rappaport-fires-back-at-ray-carney/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FM_Blog+%28Filmmaker+Magazine+RSS+Feed%29
or
Click here.
Thanks, Keith.
For a bit more on this sordid matter – see
http://cinemaelectronica.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/chained-relations-redux-9/
www.jonjost.wordpress.com
www.cinemaelectronica.wordpress.com
www.americanplainsongs.wordpress.com
www.jonjostcomingtoterms.wordpress.com
www.paginasparaclarinha.wordpress.com
www.jon-jost.com
Here’s an update on this sorry affair.
http://cinemaelectronica.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/chained-relations-10/
It appears that Professor Carney is game to go into hiding and hope this all blows over, and for whatever bizarre reasons he imagines in his head, that he can keep Mark’s work (this item lists all the things he has – a rather costly assortment for an independent film artist like Mark, who like me, basically makes nothing off his work).
Mark Rappaport
Thank you, David for posting my rebuttal to Carney’s latest jeremiad. Unfortunately, the scans from the court documents didn’t show on the screen when I posted a word file here. The scans were JPEGs. And the post won’t accept a pdf file. It’s too bad because the official-looking scans—from the actual documents—with Carney’s signature swearing to the truth of his statements is—in it’s totally creepy way, of course—very impressive. Ah, well…