If the saying “actions have consequences” is true, then so do accusations, especially if they’re false.
Just ask “Game of Thrones” actor Joseph Gatt.
The 52-year-old British-born Gatt is suing the Los Angeles Police Department, the City of Los Angeles, L.A. District Attorney George Gascón and others for falsely accusing him of inappropriate online communication with a teenage girl.
He’s seeking $40 million dollars for “the shocking and intentional destruction” of his career, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in California.
Gatt’s lawsuit says authorities “publicly branded him as a serial pedophile” before determining evidence against him was fabricated.
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Also named in the lawsuit for “personal bias and animosity” toward Gatt was Deputy District Attorney Angela Brunson.
In late 2020, Gatt, “whose earning capacity is tied, at least in part to various measures of his social media engagement, responded [to a 16-year- old girl] in a manner that was wholly appropriate and consistent with typical celebrity-fan exchanges,” Gatt’s lawsuit said.
‘Game of Thrones’ actor Joseph Gatt sues LA, DA Gascón for $40M over false pedophile charges https://t.co/wY18QyGfni pic.twitter.com/g7An6CcsDN
— New York Post (@nypost) April 5, 2024
But in 2021, a friend of the 16-year-old girl’s older sister found sexually explicit Snapchat communication on the girl’s phone implicating Gatt but which the girl “had faked,” the lawsuit said.
Without interviewing the 16-year-old and without verifying the “obviously fake” Snapchat screenshots, Los Angeles authorities arrested Gatt, and “released a press statement publicly branding Gatt as a serial pedophile.
“More than 200 different media outlets picked up the story and reported on the utterly false allegations,” the lawsuit said.
Gatt’s previously “burgeoning acting career was destroyed,” according to the court document.
“Gatt’s agent and PR representatives dropped him immediately, he was fired from two different movies in which he had already been cast, and he was recast in a third movie in which he had been hired to play the lead role,” the lawsuit said.
In two unreleased movies, Gatt was replaced with other actors.
In the midst of the bad publicity, Gatt was unable to tell his side of the story, due to a gag order on which his bail was dependent.
Yet, authorities “repeatedly failed and declined to produce to Gatt key discovery materials that exonerated Gatt,” his lawsuit said.
In fact, they refused to take any action, effectively leaving Gatt in a limbo from which he could not defend himself.
When Brunson left the District Attorney’s office, and Gatt had hired a private forensic investigator, material that cleared Gatt was released.
“Not surprisingly, this evidence revealed that [the 16-year-old girl] had entirely manufactured both her allegations and the photographed conversations on which the criminal charges were based,” according to the lawsuit.
Gatt’s attorney was thwarted in attempting to release the exonerating information in open court.
In February, charges against Gatt were dismissed, but even then “the L.A. DA threatened Gatt and [his private forensic investigator] with jail if they sought to make their findings public or if they spoke publicly about the L.A. DA or DDA Brunson specifically.”
Does Gatt’s lawsuit have any merit?
In effect, the lawsuit said Gatt would be punished if he attempted to clear his name.
Woke District Attorney Gascón has been linked with infamous political puppeteer George Soros; however, some of the conflict between Brunson and Gatt, court documents said, stemmed from Gatt being a liberal and, despite her working for Gascón, Brunson being a conservative.
Meanwhile, in January, Los Angeles had to make a $5 million settlement for Gascón’s office arresting an election software manufacturer for claims of criminal activity, charges which were dropped 37 days later.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles and elsewhere, think about all the bad guys who are getting away.
