02x55 - Minors and Majors Slander (Part 2)

[bunniefuu]

How many units did they paint for you?

They didn't finish any of the units.

That's incorrect, Your Honor.

Did you pay them any money for painting?
Yes or no?

No.

He told me that the job
did not have to be perfect.

A nine-year-old can smear paint
on a wall.

Get somebody who knows what they're doing.

[narrator]
This is Judy Justice.

[theme music playing]

[narrator]
Previously on Judy Justice...

You were looking for a job.
And what were you supposed to do?

Bartend, close, open and
run the concession stand.

I want you to do a step-by-step
why you contacted the authorities.

Chris was still giving out free alcohol
to people. Pouring it.

Wasn't even checking people's IDs.
So, I called the ABC

and I said I think there's suspicion
that he's giving minors alcohol.

And that was very distressing to you.
So distressing that you said to him,

Do you have any other work for us?

Yes.

And did he say I have an apartment
complex that needs painting?

Yes.

And it was after the painting kerfuffle
that you called Alcohol Beverage.

So, we shouldn't've, we shouldn't've
reported it at all?

No, I'm trying to get to your motive, sir.

[narrator]
And now, the conclusion...

Noah Joyner and Harland Hendrickson
have accused their former employer,

Christopher Rix, of vandalizing Noah's car
and refusing to pay wages.

Christopher claims they
slandered his business.

Now, you have photographs of the place
before you started painting

and afterwards?
Do you have any photographs?

Absolutely.

I'd like to see them.

It's just the paint on the floor.
The paint is...

- [Judy] Just a second.
- Okay.

I-I have eyes, I can look at the pictures.

So, the top ones are how they are
before we paint them.

That's before they're painted, Your Honor.

[Judy]
These are your photographs?

- Yes, ma'am.
- [Judy] You painted the floor?

No, ma'am. We had to declutter
a couple of units that had stuff...

- One unit.
- [Judy] Ssh. Don't speak.

You had to, what you call, declutter and
you had to sweep it up

before you started painting.

It was worse than that, Your Honor.

- [Judy] And did you?
- Yes, ma'am.

And is this a picture of what you allege
it looked like?

All of the units had stuff in them
just like that, yes, ma'am.

Okay. And this is the floor
that you painted?

- Yes.
- Is that the floor that they painted?

One of the three.

[Judy]
Okay. So, they painted the floors.

Did you paint anything else,
other than the floors?

We painted the walls.
Sorry, it was the walls.

Okay.

[Chris]
They're brand new flooring...

- Ssh. Just a second.
- It didn't have to be perfect.

You didn't put these floors in, did you?

- I did.
- I thought they painted them.

No-no. They were to do touch-up only.

And there were... There was one unit
that needed to be finalized.

And that was the one that you saw
that was bad.

We were having to prime and paint...

Ssh! I told you, don't speak when he is.
I'll come back to you.

The floors are brand new.
And like I said,

I provided drop cloths and such,
they didn't use them.

That's not true, Your Honor.

Ssh! What is this?

[Chris] That's the one unit that was not,
that wasn't completely emptied out.

Okay. This one.

Yeah, there was one single unit.

- And this one.
- That's the same unit.

- And this.
- [Chris] Same unit.

Okay. And the rest of them
were cleaned out?

- Yes, ma'am.
- [Judy] Is that correct?

All new flooring...

The pictures of the... Yes.

[Judy]
The pictures of the mess

- are all one unit, of the 20.
- One unit. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. And how many units
did they paint for you, Mr. Rix?

They didn't finish any of the units.
They were in three units, Your Honor.

- [Judy] Okay. Ssh.
- And three units have damage.

Okay. What you're telling me is
they didn't do a good job in three units.

Correct.

- [Judy] Okay. Well, that, sir...
- They didn't finish it at all.

I'd like to see the photographs
of what they didn't finish.

The paper copies? There you go.

And there's... There should be one
that's a door that's not even painted.

You can see it's two-tone.

And the flooring is where they, I guess,
scraped the floor.

Okay. This is the same picture.

As this.

[Chris] No, that's different. I can
show you on my phone, too, if you'd like.

They're different. It-It's like in one
of the areas they tried to use a tool

to scrape paint off in different areas
and that's what was left.

He didn't provide me with any tools.

That's not true. There was no tools
provided for us at all.

- Just a... I didn't ask you anything.
- [Noah] Sorry.

[Judy] Is what you're saying to me, sir,
that the reason you didn't...

And I assume you weren't paid
for this work. Is that correct?

- No, Your Honor.
- Not even for cleaning out that unit.

Ssh. Weren't paid. Now,
I assume, Mr. Rix,

that you didn't pay them because you
thought that they did a poor job.

No, ma'am, that's not accurate.

- [Judy] Why didn't you pay them?
- They didn't do the job.

They worked there at some point.

I agreed with Harland, only,
to pay him $3,000.

Harland, that was you.

- Yes.
- [Judy] That's you.

You agreed with Harland...

- For that job...
- [Judy] Yes.

- To do it for $3,000.
- Your Honor, that's incorrect.

You're almost finished.
Do you understand? You're almost done.

One, two, three warnings,
then I'm finished with you.

And it wouldn't bother me at all.

I have to tell you,
it wouldn't bother me at all.

Now, what arrangement did you make
as far as payment is concerned?

On June...

[Judy] Mr. Hendrickson
started the job first on June 23rd.

He was to meet me, and he did.
He was late.

He was supposed to meet me early.

I showed him the whole scope
of the project

'cause he hadn't been there and
what I wanted done, what I expected.

And we agreed on a price of $3,000.

- That's incorrect, Your Honor.
- After they got halfway done,

which was ten units,
I would pay him $1,500.

And then, when they were complete,
I would pay the entire $3,000.

They didn't get past three, Your Honor.

Three of the twenty?

Yes, ma'am, and they didn't finish
any of those at all.

Okay. What I'm saying to you, Mr. Rix,
you took one guy...

[Chris]
Right.

Who you didn't know
from a hole in the wall.

You took a second guy,
who you knew was there,

because I believe that you knew
he was there painting with Mr. Joyner.

Right. Mr. Hendrickson
actually fired him twice.

You can see in text messages
if you need to see that.

You mean, Mr. Hendrickson
fired Mr. Joyner?

He says right here...

- That's correct, Your Honor.
- [Judy] Just a second.

Let me just pull up the text messages.

But you do know that Mr. Joyner was there.

- Yes, ma'am.
- Okay.

It was a group.
They decided to do a group thing.

This is the...
Right here, it says, "never mind,

- Noah's not gonna help me anymore.
- No-no, I can read.

And then, there's an additional,
where he says again,

that I'm gonna let Noah have
a couple of days off.

Just a second. Mr. Hendrickson,
so, on the 29th,

you indicated to Mr. Rix that Noah,
that would be you,

is not going to be helping me anymore.

[Harland]
Yes.

Yes. And you want to tell me why?

- Noah and I had...
- [Judy] No, look at me.

Noah and I had an argument at
the painting job because we were...

[Judy] Tell me about
the argument, sir. When did you have it?

We were arguing about the detail
that we were putting into our work.

I walked in and Noah was
paying a lot of attention to detail.

And Chris told me that the job
did not have to be perfect,

he just wanted it to be done.

- So, Noah was trying to be careful.
- Yes.

[Judy] And you said,
you don't have to be so careful.

- Yes, Your Honor.
- Is that what it boils down to?

- Yes, Your Honor.
- And that was on the 29th.

Yes, correct.

[Judy] So, after that, you said
he's not gonna work for you anymore.

- Correct.
- [Judy] Now, so,

I gather from that statement
that since you were working there

since the 23rd, you didn't feel
you had to be so careful to detail.

That isn't correct.

I mean, that would follow
from what you just said to me.

If Noah wanted to be
more careful to detail,

and you said, you don't have to be
so careful to detail,

It doesn't have to be perfect. Right?
And goodbye, which is what this says.

So, I have to assume,
conjure up in my mind,

that it doesn't have to be perfect,
it doesn't have to be such a great job.

It can be, as my great-grandmother
used to say,

that there's a difference between
a smearer and a painter.

[scoffs] That's right.

Now, I don't know who would understand
that except another Jewish grandmother.

But you understand the connotation.
You can smear paint,

I have a nine-year-old granddaughter
who can smear paint on a wall.

But if I want something professionally
done, I try to get a painter.

I told Chris I was not a professional.

[Judy] Just a second. You see,
that's my problem with Mr. Rix.

If you want something done right,
get a man, not a boy.

Tell me the worst thing he told you to do.

I don't know what you're wanting from me.
[laughs]

What I want you to do is to tell me
what he told you about black mold.

Don't make it up.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Defendant
Christoper Rix claims Noah Joyner

and Harland Hendrickson
slandered his business on social media.

Noah and Harland say they were not paid

for painting Christopher's
apartment complex.

Now, if I wanted somebody
to work on one of my cars,

I would not get somebody off the street
who was selling popcorn

at a concession stand and say, by the way,
my car over there needs a new battery.

Now, would I take my car back
to the same dealership?

Maybe not, 'cause they're very expensive.
But would I find somebody

who at least had a referral,
a recommendation.

I have a 20-unit apartment complex
that was empty,

you want to use it as a business.
You don't hire two smearers

[laughing] to go and
take care of your property.

But you have to...
If you didn't like their work, fire 'em.

And if their work was not complete
and only three units were touched,

which I don't think that they argue with.

So far, that's correct, Mr. Hendrickson?

That is incorrect.

- [Judy] How many units did you paint?
- Five.

And I actually painted seven,
but I didn't complete the last two,

- I just did the trim.
- Okay, so,

you completed five units out of 20.

Yes.

[Judy] I'm giving him
the benefit of the doubt.

- Mm-hmm.
- And you agreed to $3,000.

- That's incorrect, Your Honor.
- [Judy] How much?

We did not have a meeting to
talk about a payment until the 29th.

And that was actually part of the reason
that him and I were arguing.

Um, Chris and I and Noah
met at a coffee shop

and we spoke about how much
we would be getting paid.

We agreed on a $3,000 price
for the end of the month of July,

because Christopher was supposed to be
going on a vacation until July 20th.

So, the $3,000 was mentioned and...

It was mentioned. And then, he told
me and Noah, Chris told me and Noah

that on the 30th, he would pay us half
of what he was going to be paying us.

Just a second. You were hired
to paint 20 units.

Yes, Your Honor.

You painted five, which is
one quarter of the $3,000.

Yes, ma'am.

Let's say those apartments were complete,
not satisfactorily to him,

but now you both agree that the $3,000
price was mentioned for the 20 units.

Yes.

It would be $750 if they did five units.

That's all, $750. That would be $750
if you completed only a quarter of them.

Okay. Did you pay them any money
for painting, yes or no?

No.

Okay. Good. So, best case scenario
for the painting

is $750.

And I haven't gotten to his counterclaim
yet, but you have one more claim.

And your claim is that Mr. Rix vandalized
your car by throwing paint on it.

- Yes, Your Honor.
- [Judy] Tell me when that happened.

We woke up July 20th, 2022...

Seven-twenty.
Where did you wake up?

At our house, our apartment.

- Hot Springs, Arkansas.
- [Judy] Tell me what happened.

I woke up to my car being splattered
with the same color paint

that we were using in his apartments.

Okay. So, your car had paint on it
when you woke up.

- Did you see anybody do it?
- No, ma'am.

Just let me take a look at the photograph.

Okay. Did you file a police report?

- Yes, ma'am.
- I'd like to see it.

Okay. So, no one saw this, but you say
that there is a video that you have.

I assume, Mr. Rix, unless you want to
tell me that you did, in fact,

- throw paint primer on his car.
- [snorts] No.

I absolutely did not.

And you did not see anybody throw paint
primer on the car?

But you say there was a video...
"Noah stated that he has video

from his apartment complex
pointing right at Noah's vehicle."

I think the police put that in there
'cause they had interviewed...

- [Judy] So there is no video.
- No, ma'am.

And you did not witness this.
- No, ma'am.

And other than thinking that
this paint primer was a result of actions

in retaliation for something that you did.

Do you have any witness
that saw him do that?

- No, ma'am.
- [Judy] I have to see proof

that the Defendant had anything
to do with this car.

- Yes, ma'am.
- [Judy] Okay?

Did you take the car in to be cleaned?

Um, yes. I cleaned it myself
just to avoid further damage.

[Judy]
Yes.

But after I cleaned it,
I took it to the auto-body shop

to see what the actual repairs were.

Do you have pictures of it
after you cleaned it?

After we cleaned it,
it looked somewhat like this.

And then we had to take it
to the body shop.

The buffed off the rest of it for us.

What you're telling me is you took it to
an auto-body shop and the auto-body shop.

They helped clean up the rest of it
but the still took off our top coat.

Very good. Well, you have no proof
he did it. So far, he owes you $750.

May I interject that he
doesn't even own...

I don't care. There's no proof
you did anything to the car.

Okay. I'm not going to get into filing
a false ABC complaint with the sheriff,

because he's not going to be able to
prove to me that it's true,

other than by what he says or
his own observations.

He doesn't have anybody who's here
who's under the age of 21

who's gonna testify that
you served them alcohol.

So, I'm not gonna entertain
that part of your claim.

Money owed for slander.
That, I would like to see.

That's your cross-complaint.
So far, the Plaintiff has $750

for painting one quarter of the places
that he was contracted to do.

This is the first, um, document.
And I had calls just pour in,

um, wanting to know if I'd seen it.
And then...

Just a second. Don't tell me
you had calls pouring in, sir,

- because that's hearsay.
- Yes, ma'am.

What's the date on this? This one
that I'm reading. It says one day ago.

It was around the first couple of weeks
of July.

Okay. I'd like you to tell me, Mr. Joyner,
the conversation, where it took place,

and under what circumstances,
when you had a conversation with Mr. Rix

about covering up certain hazards.
I'd like to hear that.

What would you like to hear?

I'd like to hear
where the conversation took place,

exactly what you said to him
and what he said to you.

Where it took place?
- [Judy] Yes. Where it took place,

exactly what you said to him and
exactly what he said to you.

I'm confused. So, like, what is...
What are we... What is...

- [Judy] We're on now, a post.
- I know, the post about the...

We're on now, a post.
So, I want you to tell me

when you had the conversation,
where you were,

and what you said to him,
mostly what he said to you,

about covering up certain things
with paint.

Okay, yes, ma'am. So, we were told
to cover up holes and stuff

with caulking and then paint over it.
And then, we were told that...

- I was told...
- No, look at me.

I was told to go declutter
one of the units

that had a bunch of old parquet tiles,
ceramic tiles piled high to the ceiling,

with old ceiling fans disintegrating.

Yeah, that was the unit that was...
Go ahead. And?

So, he told me that I had...

I want you to tell me the worst thing
he told you to do,

in the apartment complex. Tell me
the worst thing he told you to do.

There were a lot of terrible things.

[Judy] Just stop and think of
what is the worst thing he told you to do.

The worst instruction he gave you.

Pretty much, that I should do it
without the proper protective...

- [Judy] No, that's general, sir.
- Okay.

I asked you specific. You posted something
about him, about his apartment complex,

about the work that you were doing.
And I want you to tell me

the worst thing he told you
to make short shrift of,

or to cover up.

Mm, water damage, black mold...

Okay. Let's go to black mold.
When did you have a discussion with him

about black mold?

The day that he told me
to declutter the apartment.

So, that would be Wednesday, June...

[Judy] So, there was one apartment
that he told you to declutter.

Okay, and that would be June what?

Monday, June 27th.
I think that's what that...

[Judy]
Was he there in person?

[Noah] Yes, ma'am.

So, I'd like you to tell me what
he said to you and what you said to him.

He told me to go...

Look here. Look here.

He told me to declutter the unit,
take out all of it, throw it away.

And to just...

No-no, don't look over there.

- [Noah] Just to clean it, basically.
- To clean it.

So it'd be ready to be painted.

- And?
- I did. I cleaned it.

[Judy]
And?

- I'm done.
- You're done?

I don't know what else to say, that's...

Well, "I want you to clean it"
doesn't tell me anything about black mold.

I don't know what you're wanting from me.
[laughs]

What I want you to do is
to tell me what he told you

about black mold. Don't make it up.

Your post, based upon your testimony,
was slanderous.

I got confused. I don't know what you were
really trying to like, ask out of me.

I asked you specific questions,
you gave me answers.

Now is not the time to play catch up.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Defendant
Christoper Rix claims Noah Joyner

and Harland Hendrickson
slandered his business on social media.

Noah and Harland say they were not paid

for painting Christopher's
apartment complex.

Now, tell me what he told you
about black mold.

He didn't tell me anything
about the black mold.

Great. And what did he tell you
about rat feces?

He didn't tell me anything
about rat feces.

- I handled all that stuff without...
- [Judy] Ssh!

Then you did that all yourself.

Well, in this posting you said, "Chris,"
that would be you,

"wanted us to paint over chips,"
possible, "dust," maybe,

"mold," never. He never told you that.
That's what you just told me.

"Black mold, rat feces and urine."

He never told you
to cover up those things.

You may have done it, but
according to you, he just said clean it.

He had told us to cover up the mold
that...

Oh, I don't believe that.
Oh, I don't believe that.

"In a second." That's Mr. Joyner.

- Yeah, it was Mr. Joyner.

This is Mr. Joyner's post.
And he never told him anything.

According to him, he said just clean it.
Do you have the second post?

That one was taken down. And
this is the second post that he reposted.

And then, his account got blocked because
they don't allow that type of behavior.

This is the next one. And this is where he
claimed to be a bartender on Facebook.

And he just took it down recently.
It's been up there for months.

And I never hired him for a bartender.

That's all right, I don't care.
That's not important.

What I'm concerned about is what he says
you told him to do, which you did not.

- Right.
- [Judy] He acknowledges that you did not.

Now, you have no witnesses here.

I was gonna bring one person
and she's got COVID.

- Yes, I have no one.
- [Judy] You have no witnesses.

I have no one, Your Honor.

Very good. Okay. I find that the things
that you posted are slanderous

with regard to what he instructed
you to do, Mr. Joyner.

You were the posting person.

As far as covering up black mold,
feces and urine.

And therefore, to beware of Rix Realty.

Your post, based upon your testimony,
was slanderous.

Because he never told you that. So...

But you never really cleared that...
I'm sorry.

You never really cleared it up.
I got confused.

I don't know what you were really trying
to ask out of me.

It was told to me that I needed to take
care of all that stuff and throw it away.

Yes, ma'am, it was told to me that.
So that's why I posted.

It was a warning, so no one else
would have to deal with that same stuff.

Very good. I'm ruling now.
So now, it's my time.

I asked you specific questions,
you gave me answers.

Now is not the time to play catch up.

I find that by posting that he instructed
you to cover up black mold,

people responded to, actually,
and rat feces,

I don't know how you cover rat feces
and urine with paint.

And to stay away from
his place of business without cause,

because what you told me was,
he told me to clean it up,

that that's slanderous.
And so, on the counterclaim

that he has for slander,
I am awarding him $2,750.

That's a net, net to him of $2,000.

Because your claim of $750 for wages

is absorbed by his counterclaim.

So, on your claim, you get zero.
Zippity-doo-dah.

I'm awarding him $2,000 for slander.
We're done here. Thank you very much.

- What about the damages, Your Honor?
- We are finished.

Hire a professional, Mr. Rix.
You want a smearer, that's what you get.

[bailiff]
This court is adjourned.

Regardless of terminology and
how things got messed up,

why would you expect someone
to clean up rat feces,

all of this stuff, and do it for free?

It's clear, no good deed goes unpunished.
I tried to help those kids.

I don't understand any of this, really.

They were trying to extort money from me

and not do work and be lazy and
just get paid for work they didn't do.

- We're trying to move on.
- We'll move on.

I kinda try to give people chances
when they're down on their luck.

I've always been a philanthropist,
try to help people out.

Sometimes you get burned.

First of all, if you're an employee
and you're working, either by the hour,

or by the day, you're not
a weekly employee, or bi-weekly,

salaried employee, you're supposed to
keep track of the hours where you work.

Especially if you wanna s... If there is
a potential of suing later for them.

As a Plaintiff, that is your burden.
I was interested to see

that you were willing to take
that information from the Defendant.

Because if it were me,
if the Plaintiff didn't have it,

that's not the Defendant's burden.

Well, that's actually true.

So, I knew you did it to sort of
round out the sides of the case,

but I think that if you, as the Plaintiff,

want to come here and
ask the court for money,

you better have your ducks in a row and...

Well, that's true, that was true.
That was probably an error for me.

Not that he got anything but...

We got where we needed to go, but...

We got where we needed to go. But that's
true, it's not the Defendant's burden.

Although, the Defendant acknowledged
that he worked for him.

Very forthcoming and honest. But that
again, played better for the Defendant

as we saw in the ruling,
that he was professional...

You're supposed to have
your ducks in a row.

Yes, and as a Plaintiff,
you don't get any money

if you can't even keep track of
the hours that you work.

The second thing is that
the call to Alcohol and Beverage.

You know, if you feel as if
you're doing a public service

by reporting behavior that you think
could be potentially dangerous,

- I support that.
- Mm-hmm.

But if you're doing it as
a retaliatory act,

and you don't do it immediately,
it's like reporting suspected child abuse.

If you see a child being abused
or neglected, and you do nothing,

and wait a month, until you have a fight
with the person who is the ab*ser,

that creates a suspicion that it's
vindictive and there's a motive to lie.

- Of course.
- 'Cause it wasn't done immediately.

And they sought another job
from the same man after reporting him.

Right. You know,
to the Defendant's detriment,

in my eyes, is if you have
a big apartment complex,

and you have guys who were in
the jewelry business and didn't make it,

then came to work for you in your theater,

and really weren't very good at that
either,

then I wouldn't hire them to house paint.

- Yeah. That actually requires a skill.
- You know,

without any credentials. So,

I think that you have to be careful if you
have a valuable piece of real estate.

- Agreed.
- Anyway he can't slander him. And he did.

It all worked out
how it was supposed to.

[Judy]
I hope so.

[narrator] Have you been cheated?