In response to a judge's ruling that he pay Rachel Maddow's legal fees in his $50 million lawsuit against her, Christian rock n'roll preacher Bradlee Dean is alleging bias on the part of the judge.
Dean filed suit against Maddow in July 2011 claiming she defamed him as "bloodthirsty" and homicidal toward gays based on remarks he made during a broadcast of his Sons of Liberty radio show in May 2010 . (video clips after page break)
Maddow criticized Dean twice on her MCNBC cable show, in August 2010 and again in May 2011, before he filed suit against her. (Maddow's remarks from both shows can be heard in embedded video).
Back in April, Maddow filed for dismissal of the case, arguing that her criticism of Dean consisted of "classic opinion and rhetorical hyperbole" and was covered by the District of Columbia's so-called Anti-SLAPP Act setting a high bar against allegations of defamation.
After a recent federal court ruling that the Anti-SLAPP statute did not apply to a complaint filed in superior court, Dean filed for a new case in the federal court and for dismissal of the existing case before D.C. Superior Court Judge Joan Zeldon.
In response, Zeldon on June 25 rejected Dean's request and gave him 30 days to pay Maddow's legal fees of $24,625.23 or she will dismiss the case.
"This is a turn of events that was not anticipated when I brought the suit against Maddow and MSNBC," Dean said in a statement issued today. "Judges are to enforce the law, not to defend lawbreakers and then award them money. This generation is being taught that wrong is right and right is wrong. As a preacher, I am combating that ideology, and in my view, I have learned that this ideology is often taught and put into effect by a judicial system that aligns itself with corrupted attorneys and lawbreakers."
It became apparent Zeldon planned to rule against him "given her leftist ideology," Dean said in his statement.
In his filing for Zeldon to recuse herself, Dean's lawyer, Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman, alleges that she showed bias through disparaging comments about him and Dean, her decision against Klayman's request that Maddow justify her claim of $24,000-plus in legal fees, and Zeldon's description of Maddow's lawyers from the D.C.- and Seattle-based law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine as "distinguished."
Klayman also alleged in the filing that Zeldon has acted as a "woman scorned" and "jilted" by Dean's request for a change in venue.
