See the update on the next page about a lawsuit being filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 5, 3:23 P.M.: Based on the number of times I see a Lipstick Bounty Hunters vehicle, an employee either resides near someone I visit weekly in Long Beach or perps are routinely busted there.
The California Secretary of State puts at least one of the all-female bounty hunting crew's offices in Lakewood, but it was in Huntington Beach where Lipstickers are accused of severely injuring a man whose bail bond had been revoked, leaving him blind in one eye.
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San Diego attorney Dan Gilleon vows that by the end of today he will have filed a
multi-million dollar lawsuit against Lipstick Bounty Hunters on behalf of his 35-year-old client Daniel Lee Duvall, who is also said to have suffered a broken nose when three women dressed in pink hit him with a stun gun, pepper-sprayed him and shot him with rubber bullets at an Arby's recently. The incident was caught on video Lipstick Bounty Hunters posted online:
Sucks to be Duvall is how the Lipstick Bounty Hunters are essentially responding to the lawsuit threat, saying they are so sure they will prevail they will represent themselves should the matter make it to court.
Gilleon may be characterizing what happened to Duvall as assault and battery and use of excessive force, but bounty hunting company owner Teresa Golt says not enough force was used because the man got away. (He was eventually arrested Tuesday night.) Bounty hunters are allowed by law to use enough force to make an arrest, Golt added.
Meanwhile, the description her company included with the video above claims Gilleon tried to hide Duvall and that the ladies were threatened with death if they showed up to take the bail jumper in.
Duvall is now out after finally making bail, free to sue again.
UPDATE, APRIL 10, 4:13 P.M.: As promised, Daniel Lee Duvall's lawyer has filed a lawsuit against the Lipstick Bounty Hunters and several bail bond companies in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
No total damage award sought in mentioned in the suit, which claims the bounty hunters and bail bond companies deprived Duvall of his civil rights and are guilty of negligence, battery, false arrest and breach of contract.
His complaint claims Lipstick Bounty Hunter Cathy Kessler, who also works for 101 Bail Bonds, arranged to meet Duvall at
the Arby's at 7942 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach, to go over paperwork on March 18. But he arrived to find Kessler, Roni Faciante and other women there to arrest him, states the suit, which adds one lady had a camera.
“Duvall reasonably believed he was under assault and about to
be battered by three unidentified, unprofessional and agitated women and
a cameraperson, three of whom were wearing
bright pink shirts, and two pointing what appeared to Duvall to be
handguns at him in a public place where other Arby's patrons were also
placed in immediate and severe danger,” reads the suit.
“Despite the `keystone cops' level of absurdity depicted in
the video they created of themselves, the Lipstick defendants uploaded
their epic failure to their youtube.com account [see original post], defaming Duvall and other innocent people in the process.”
Faciante reportedly told the Long Beach Press Telegram that they will file a counter claim against Duvall today “based on extortion, inciting terrorist threats,
false accusation, slander and economic harm,” adding, “We don't
agree with anything they have to say.”
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.