A very disturbing series of e-mail exchanges between GABE KOERNER and me…

79 thoughts on “A very disturbing series of e-mail exchanges between GABE KOERNER and me…”

1. Gee, that dude really needs help. Hope he gets it, because I actually like his work…

   1. Yeah, me too, Olaf.

2. Exactly, there are times when we talk that Gabe is the kind of friend everyone wants to have…..then the switch flips, and he becomes the “raging idiot” people are embarrassed to say they know.

   He is brilliantly talented as a VFX guy, and when he is not bashing people in 2am(east coast) texts, I enjoy talking to him.

   He should not blame this disease, or stresses in his life, because we all have stresses and a lot of us have “issues”. Hell for full disclosure I suffer from PTSD, and while I will sometimes rage at things, I don’t use it as an excuse.

   I happen to like Gabe, I only wish “the Gabe I like” would be the one in control more often than not. Heck I don’t want to see him in trouble with Fox, but at some point “half hearted apologies” are cries for help.

   Like you, I hope he “figures it out, sonner than later”.

3. Gabe has had some troubles in his life. Got knocked down and got back up and pretty much had a golden egg handed to him with The Orville.

   When he lost his money to the tax man a few weeks ago people helped him out.

   To blame this on mental illness is s disservice to people with mental illness. It has nothing to do with that.

   Gabe’s hates Axanar and Peters, he targeted an Axanar supporter. If it was mental illness Gabe wouldn’t take negatively about the guy…but he does. So it’s personal to him.

   Sooner or later word of this will get out and he will lose everything he attempted to build. Who is gonna want to hire an adult who is harrasing people like a teenager?

   He should just leave social media all together. He can’t handle it.

4. He represents Star Trek to a lot of people…he literally became a part of the Trek story. The Trek actors know him. Talk about living every fans dream right.

   Yet he seems not able grasp and live by the ideals of Trek he always touts.

   In regard to his dig about marriage. I suspect since he torpedoed his own marriage he can’t stand people who are happily married.

   1. Possibly. He might also not understand that raising a child isn’t simply “driving him to soccar.” He actually thinks I don’t work. Any parents out there want to explain my “job” to him? 🙂

      1. The biggest responsibility one will ever have is raising a child. You are responsible for their life. Everything about them.

         …since it sounds like his parents screwed up with him his view of parenting is probably skewed a bit.

         1. Perhaps. Gabe has spoken to me on occasion about his upbringing, but I don’t feel comfortable sharing those kinds of intimate details of his life. The e-mails he just wrote, yes. Stuff about his family, no.

5. I think your first instinct (not to publish) was the correct one, Jon.

   What do you expect from someone who can’t spell “soccer”?

   1. He couldn’t spell “hypocrisy” either, although admittedly, that’s a harder word. 🙂

      I went back and forth a lot of times before finally deciding to hit “publish.” And I’ll freely admit it: much of the reason was because I was pissed off. Gabe pushed me too far, and that’s actually quite difficult to do. Anyway, too late now. I’m not taking the blog down, even though Gabe sent me this e-mail at 4:28am…

      You were gonna do it anyways. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a moment when you weren’t.

      And there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.

      Jon, I’m sorry to you, your wife, your son, your family, and the community you service for disrespecting you and turning mockery into terrible acts. I humbly beg you to please take the blog entry off of being a matter of public record.
      

      I realize that Gabe is probably avoiding this blog and won’t see the following screen cap, but lest he think I was always planning to publish the blog anyway, this would be People’s Exhibit A:

      

   2. Yeh because its spelt “football” :p sorry even though I’m British I don’t even care for the game 😉

      1. I find it hard to be interested in a game where a final score of 1-0 is considered exciting. 🙂

         1. I’m the same, other than various Fifa games on the Sega Mega Drive (you guys would know it as the Genesis) I’ve never been overly interested.

            Basket Ball was always the sport I took a little more of a like to followed by Formula 1, though I haven’t kept up with either in years.

         2. Try Ice Hockey! 😉

            1. Bowling for dollars!

            2. I actually had NHL 95 for the Sega… Thinking back for someone who has never really been a “sports guy” I oddly had a fair amount a 16 bit sports games!

6. Wow…Gabe’s apparently got some serious issues he either refuses to acknowledge, or just doesn’t give a damn.

   “Off his meds”? A very convenient excuse for being a total ass to people.

   Let’s hope he does get the help he so desperately needs, before he causes more harm to not only himself, but those around him.

   Doug

   1. I think the bigger issue is his presence on social media. On the one hand it’s how his fans seek him out…and yes he does have fans. To Trekkies/Trekkers my age he was our voice in fandom during the TNG era.

      On the other hand….he can’t control himself and should remove himself from Facebook, Twitter…everything. Focus on his job, make those work connections, and live his life.

7. Gabe’s actions towards Barney are indefensible, but I take issue with your comment on mental illness. Many mental ill peopLe do not realize that their behavior off of their meds is different then their behavior on meds. The other thing is that Gabe is autistic. He has probably been taught not to crank call people, but he may not understand the emotional impact that his actions can have. He needs to be taught not drug out behind the woodshed.

   1. Gabe goes to a therapist regularly, Gary. Any decision to go off his meds can and should be carefully monitored. And Gabe has gone off his meds before and behaved just as badly, and he knows it. We’ve spoken at length about it both during and after the last two times it happened before this. (The “during” was particularly unpleasant.) Gabe knows exactly what happens when he goes off his meds and also what happens when he starts drinking…at least, the sober Gabe does.

      As for the autistic claim, Gabe has never shared that with me, so I can’t independently verify it. Likely, he does lack empathy for others, as I’ve seen that often. So the choice for the rest fo us is to either ignore his antics and do nothing or else show him that there are strong consequences to him personally, even if he can’t empathize with those he insults and harasses. Between the two, I think the ignoring is guaranteed not to work, as it didn’t work for Barney and his family for five months and Gabe didn’t seem to be slowing down or stopping. In my case, ignoring his insults and digs e-mail after e-mail yesterday didn’t seem to be working either. So dragging him out behind the woodshed looked to be a potentially more effective Plan B than the ineffective Plan A of turning the other cheek.

8. Wow, powerful piece. I would like to say though, that Bi-Polar disorder can cause behavior such as his, BUT should never be used as an excuse for any behavior that is destructive to oneself or others. I pray for his future wellness and sobriety. If he is a type two diabetic (as am I) he needs to stay on his medication. I hope that he learns his lesson, does some serious soul searching, and comes out with forgiveness from all involved in the end.

9. Hey Jonathan,
   I don’t know if this helps at all, but as I read the email exchange, I don’t see Gabe using you as a punching bag here, I just see a paranoid person, feeling like the weight of the world lies against him and no-one wants him to succeed, so I don’t seem him using you as a punching bag, but rather trying to explain to you how he sees things from his (paranoid) perspective.

   So yeah, in that last email, I don’t see Gabe attacking you, quite the opposite, to me I read it as a cry for help, from someone under an enormous amount of stress (yes, of his own making, but that doesn’t change facts in the present), his repeated calls of “I don’t have time” suggests that he feels like the world moves too fast for him, that he doesn’t have the time to process all of the emotions that goes on inside of him, and every time you say “But just understand that every insult and harsh thing you say about me loses you some of my sympathy.” you just pile on more emotions that he needs to feel through when he already has enough to feel through all ready.

   So yeah, I just read Gabe’s responses as saying “Please, just give me time and I will do it, please don’t put anymore pressure on me, because you have no idea how much pressure I feel at the moment”.

   The biggest thing that struck me here though was your comment saying “many Axanar detractors have cheered on Gabe”, and I think this probably exists at the biggest problem for Gabe. So long as he has people cheering him on he has no reason to stop and self-reflect, it helps to perpetuate these paranoid delusions and keeps him trapped and these people act as enablers. While most of us don’t see his ban as any kind of punishment, I can understand that for Gabe, he might see the group as his world that keeps him safe in his fantasies and taking away someone’s world can feel like a huge punishment who spends most of their time in that world, and also as I say, it forces him to confront his actions without the reinforcement from others that he does the right thing and that might exist as a thing that Gabe fears going, to come face to face with reality, at least without the time to properly commit to this process. For these reasons, I suspect the ban, rather than acting as a “punishment” exists as the best thing for him, it gives him exactly what he needs, time away from the fake inner world and to interact with the real world outside of it. I would guess his therapist would say the same thing.

   Anyway, I think you do a wonderful job here considering that you don’t work as his therapist, so I hope I don’t come of as critical, I just want to try and give an alternate perspective, especially on his last email, given that you said it was that email that pushed you to posting this blog.

   1. The shortened version of above, I read Gabe’s last email as not an attack on you, but rather self-deprecating. Instead of seeing it as him looking up and attacking you for what he sees (at least in his mind) that you have; you can also see it as the other way of seeing you with this perceived wonderful life and asking you to look down and realise that he doesn’t have things so great in terms of time, and suffering from depression, that can easily come of sounding like an attack when in fact it was meant as a self-deprecating comment.

      1. Gabe has, in the past, mocked both Alec and me (publicly and privately) for having not achieved the success in Hollywood and Star Trek that he has. It’s true. I’ve never worked on any movie or TV production. My IMDb page doesn’t exist. His is impressive. His talent is obvious. I freely admit that Gabe has achieved more fame and notoriety than I ever will…and well-deserved.

         As for me having a loving wife and son and a wonderful life, I won’t apologize for that. I have a really good friend who lives in Beverly Hills, has a $10 million home, knows everyone in Hollywood (seriously, it’s kinda ridiculous!), has three great kids, a loving wife who is an amazing cook, three cars, a huge pool, and two of his kids just returned from two weeks in Israel with their high school classmates. My friend doesn’t have my health issues (he’s not overweight or pre-diabetic), has much better hair, and a job he loves that pays more than I could ever make. He doesn’t look down on me any more than I would ever resent him for having more than I do. I don’t try to get his sympathy, nor do I try to self-deprecate about all that I don’t have that he does have. Instead, I treasure our friendship and look forward to geeking out with him once a week, eating whatever his wife makes, and watching Walking Dead or Game of Thrones or Preacher.

         In other words, it’s possible to interact with others without being resentful of them or wanting them to pity you. Add it to the things that Gabe should be working on, I suppose…

         1. I think you misunderstand me here as I agree with your entire comment that I reply to.

            I tried to say that while you could read it as resentment and attack you for your life; you could also read it as a compliment, “You’re so lucky to have such a great life, I wish I was so fortunate”. I guess as a bi-polar person he goes from one extreme to the other from feeling down and unable to do anything, to feeling on top of the world. Given the tone of the exchanges, I would read it in a positive light.

            But yeah. I just try to make you feel better about this exchange by turning negatives into positives :).

            1. I appreciate that, Jack. But also know that Gabe is well aware that what he says to me about my “easy” life is hurtful, not a compliment. How do I know this? Because I’ve told him many, many times over the years we’ve known each other. Wanna say, “I wish I were as fortunate as you”? Then say it that way.

               Here’s one of the e-mails from yesterday that I chose NOT to include on this page:

               There’s not much I agree with my ex wife about, but I remember when I introduced you to her and you bragged about being a “kept man”. Later that evening, she pulled me aside and said, “Nobody who says,that is a ‘man’. Don’t associate with that guy.”

               Character flaws are something we can live with for a long time while completely failing to see the mirror.

               Gabe throws the “kept man” comment back at me a lot. As someone who tried to defend his own prank calls as a “very botched attempt at comedy,” he has never seemed to realize that I was totoally kidding. At the time I said it, Jayden was about six months old, and I was changing about ten diapers a day, half of them filled with poop. I was keeping Jayden on a schedule of naps and meds, feeding him every meal, taking him to all doctors appointments, playing with him, walking him, bathing him, putting him down for naps, getting him ready for bed, doing the dishes, straightening the house…pretty much everything any 1950s TV housewife did and would complain about each time her TV husband would complain about how hard he worked. “Kept man,” indeed! No one would “keep” a 250-pounder like me around…certainly no one that looks like my wife and makes a lawyer’s salary.

               But no, Gabe just doesn’t let stuff like that go…which is ironic, considering the number of times I’ve moved on from hurtful things he’d said to me in the past.

      2. Jack, in my experience with Gabe, whenever he’s talks about work, he sees himself as nearly god-like in what he does, and feels we should bow down to him. He has a similar attitude when it comes to his stature within Star Trek fandom. It’s a fascinating mixture of being holier-than-thou and martyrdom when he goes there.

         1. Gabe does walk on both sides on the security/insecurity tightrope, it seems.

   2. It’s an interesting theory, Jack, and quite possibly on target. However, Gabe spends a LOT of time on social media. He spent a lot of time making those crank calls. One wonders if he’d feel less stressed about time if he didn’t spend so much of it online being nasty to people.

      Just sayin’.

      1. Forgive me Jonathan, but I don’t see how your “However” connects in with my theory.

         1. Oh, I don’t think your theory is necessarily wrong, Jack. I simply wanted to point out that Gabe is aware that I don’t consider such remarks to be compliments, and he’s been asked not to “poke the bear” when it comes to sharing his opinions of my life and family. In short, he’s been asked not to so something and he does it anyway.

10. Gabe crank calls someone hundred plus times to mess with the guy and his family. I call Sandy Greenberg once, to try and get him to back off the personal attacks on myself (and he hung up after realizing it was me, then lies that I threatened him) and somehow I’m a wacko??

    Gabe, ‘you keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means’…

11. Well, it’s all there, in black and white, unedited and for all to see.
    The man I have long suspected Gabe to be, born out for all to witness.

    Anyone who tries to defend this man’s actions in this matter are either incredibly dumb, or so completely consumed with hatred towards Alec, Crysstal, et all, that they cannot see the sheer hypocrisy in all of this.

    A 30 day temporary ban from the hater echo chamber is a mere slap on the wrist. Where is the condemnation? The haters were very eager and willing to voice condemnation when a supporter for Axanar called a hater to ask him to lay off the personal insults. They were VERY quick to judge and jury him in public about it. But so far, not a peep from them on this matter.

    Their inaction speaks for itself.

    1. I don’t think they want to talk about it much. A few people have said it wasn’t cool, but then you have folks like Terry McIntosh who posted this inspirational gem…

       

       In other words, don’t harass Axanar followers, but harassing Alec Peters is not only fine but encouraged.

       So classy…

       1. Terry McIntosh is a douche-canoe of the highest order. Given how he acted when he was part of Team Axanar towards the people he now associates with, it seems he’ll say anything just as long as it garners him attention.

          1. Remember my rule about name-calling, Dave. Terry is included.

12. All I can think about is what I would have done in your shoes. I don’t have a good answer to that question. All I can do is sigh deeply.

    1. It hasn’t always been easy dealing with Gabe, lo, these past 15 years. He sewed together my late-season DS9 uniform, and I’ll always be grateful to him for doing so. And along the way, we’ve had some good times. But he’s also been maliciously cruel to me in many, many snide remarks he’s made over the years. And honestly, I’ve pretty much reached my limit. I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life. Who does?

       1. I agree. I friended him because I enjoyed his work but when I spoke against him regarding Axanar his response was a stream of obscenities intermixed with the same who’s who comparison and sordid sex acts he’s performed (honest to God I don’t know why he chose to include THAT information). That said it was an easy decision to block Gabe. All his work loses something when the person behind it wallows in such ugliness.

          1. Oh, don’t get me started on the sex acts! 🙂

             1. I never wanted to know ANYTHING about his sex life. I found it a sign of utter immaturity and lack of poor judgement on his part to ever go there. Obviously he was the only one impressed because to my knowledge NO ONE has EVER bragged that they slept with Gabe

13. ..really, really sad =(

    my advice: don’t respond to negativity.

    i see grounds for multiple restraining orders, cease and desists, and defamation suits…

    the guy needs professional pathological help. i hope he gets it.

    1. Not much folks can do about online harassment. There needs to be a threat. Gabe hasn’t threatened me or Barney. (He came close in one of his e-mails that I didn’t include, but even that was just about “our next encounter at a convention will involve us conversing in the parking lot.” Not really a threat.)

       So no restraining order or cease and desist. As for a defamation suit, it’s a pain in the ass to sue someone…and very expensive. And when they’re essentially broke, there’s not even a chance of a payoff at the end.

       So the choice is to either ignore Gabe, which hasn’t really worked, or else do what Barney and I have done and shine a public light on the behavior.

14. Mr. Lane, I have followed this page for a long time when I get an alert in FB. I am a fan of Axanar as well and do not agree with what CBS did, although to some extent I understand. However, bringing politics and the Office of the Presidency into your rebuttals is low brow. Regardless of your political leanings, I respect you and Alec for making the effort to defend the project while STC goes on unscathed. I would hope in the future that your blog is focused on all things Star Trek and be wary of including political comments. Best Regards, Ramius

    1. To be fair, the Trump comment was from a direct e-mail to Gabe. I typically don’t blog about politics here on FFF. When it happens, it’s a VERY rare occurrence. Sorry if I offended you, Ramius.

       1. No offense good Sir and no need to apologize. It seems Mr. Gabe may be reaching out in some fashion by lashing out. I am by no means defending him, but it may be a situation where Mr. Gabe needs to re-evaluate his choice of approach and words if he is indeed, troubled.

          1. Yeah, I’ve known him over a decade and a half. This isn’t his first time acting out at the rodeo.

             1. You’ve been putting up with that for 15 years? You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din…..

             2. We haven’t been non-stop bosom buddies all that time, Dave. For a 10-year period, I heard from Gabe only very occasionally (like when he was on “Beat the Geeks”—anyone remember that show?). I saw him briefly in 2011, shortly after Jayden was born, and then we didn’t reconnect until, I think it was 2014 or 2015. We became Facebook friends and chatted often. We’d also run into each other at the occasional event–the Star Trek Beyond press event at Paramount, the Star Trek 50th Anniversary Las Vegas Con, our friend Mojo visiting L.A. and hosting a lunch for a bunch of industry folks he’s known (including RMB), that sort of thing.

                When Gabe wasn’t being a jerk, he was fun to talk to. He’d share inside information about Discovery with me while he was working on it early in pre-production. I can’t tell you how many confidential things and concept artwork he’d share with me that I’d have to keep secret. I had an early image of Saru nearly a year before the show debuted (back then, Saru had, like, ten eyes). It was cool, and it was fun.

                But when Gabe turned mean, it was really horrible. The stuff in the e-mails on this blog is nothing next to some of the IM rants he’d make while drunk. I recall the liberal use of terms like “man-baby” and the such, although I’ve tried to block most of it from my memory as I’ve blocked Gabe on many occasions.

                Usually, after completely burning a bridge, Gabe would use a new Facebook account to contact me anew to try to patch things up. I remember the first time he used an account name “Sam Cogley.” To his credit, Gabe would always identify himself early on, unlike the “Ranch Anderson” account he used to attack Alec and friend Barney. I don’t know why I’d keep giving Gabe second chances, but I did. However, I think that’s now finally over.

15. None of this surprises me. What gets me, though, is when he acts like his job is the most precious in the world while dissing you for taking the Mr. Mom route. Raising a child full-time is probably the highest order of job anyone can do, and it should never be frowned upon! I imagine Gabe would light his hair on fire and run screaming after just trying to babysit a kid, let alone try to raise one.

    1. Thanks, Dave. Yeah, I don’t think Gabe gets it. And I have to say: I’ve never once criticized the jobs he’s held or the quality of work he has done. And that’s because there’s nothing to criticize. That said, I think I’ve done a very good job as a dad.

16. “It has certainly lost him nearly any remaining respect and credibility he might have had left with fandom.” There were still somebody who respected him?

    Of course, I can only speak for myself, but I made my opinion a long time ago. I guess it might be about 8 years ago when I started following his Fcb page hoping to learn some news about his involvement in Star Trek fan films that were starting to be quite popular those days and I learned a lot … about everything else and everybody else and I seriously can’t remember if I ever read any one of his posts that didn’t badmouth somebody. Usually other fans, much more meritorious fan filmmakers, movie directors, respectable artists and… just everybody.

    I always waved it off as a sudden strike of bad mood or something and I gave him like a hundered “second” chances before giving up and unfriending him to finally get some peace. I don’t care for excuses. No excuse mentioned in these e-mails can “excuse off” many months long string of spreading vile and poison. And that was long before Axanar and that stuff and long before stalking and phonecalls I just read about and wasn’t surprised at all. He is seriously disturbed. No point to debate it. It’s obvious. And no point to talk reason with him or trying to help him. I am sorry to say this so bluntly, but after so many years of this pattern of behaviour it’s safe to assume he is beyond help. Just give it up anybody before even trying and save yourselves the stress.

17. While I have found myself disagreeing with the Axanar faithful at times over lines in the sand (yadda yadda, not really important) I’ve always thought that if I found myself running into Alec or RMB (just two examples) I wouldn’t be the guy to start going on about a fan film which didn’t happen…

    Life is too short to not just kick back, buy a beer and sit down to talk Star Trek with fellow life long fans (though both do have a couple of years of fandom on me).

    For me all this activity is just too much effort… I’d rather have an enjoyable life.

    1. Actually, both Alec and Rob are really great people. I enjoy both of them. They’re smart, funny, loyal, and they are both TOTAL geek-nerds when it comes to Trek and sci-fi in general. You can literally talk to either of them for hours and never get bored.

       1. I can imagine, I follow Rob on Twitter and watch the shows with him on Collider (though Ive never tried to get in on the conversation).

          I’ve always said that about them and Alec in particular, I imagine some would just go for the “Yeh Axanar, what happened there!” while I would be much more interested in talking whether he preferred episodes like Best of Both Worlds vs The Inner Light or whether there was a prop or costume he sold during one of his auctions which he really would have wanted himself but lost out on.

          1. There are so many of the Axanar podcasts where Rob and Alec were talking Trek in general, and I wanted nothing more than to be in that room with them, so I could join the conversation.

             1. I really enjoyed those podcasts… and so did I, or at least Skype into the conversation.

18. I wish you were my dad!!!

    1. Awwwww…

       I purchased us tickets to Avengers: Infinity War four weeks ago. We go on Friday afternoon. 🙂

       1. No spoilers Mr Lane… I go tomorrow (Saturday UK time)!

          1. No spoilers, promise. Although Kevin Smith said to stay in the theater until the very last second of the post-credits sequence.

       2. I go Saturday at 9pm, in a recliner, with an adult beverage…..

          1. “with an adult beverage…..”

             Like Metamucil? 🙂

             1. Only if it mixes well with Tequila…….

19. Great article Jonathan… I didn’t know you were a stay-at-home father until I read it… Guess what? I am too… My Wife is an Administrator at a Cemetary & I stopped working for pretty much the same reason in that I couldn’t bear letting him be raised by Nannies, Daycare or Babysitters… He was born 4 days after I turned 44 years old, so his birth to me was a miracle, being that just 2 years prior, I never I would ever be a father…

    1. I was 43 when Jayden was born. Old fart dads unite!

       And hey, administrator at a cemetery, huh? Your wife must have a lot of people under her at work. 🙂

       (That joke NEVER gets old!)

20. Mmm this is all very childish and petty and messed up (on your side too Jonathan). Harassing calls should be reported to the police and they can deal with warnings and whatnot, but other than that, ignore and move on. We should be aspiring to trek ideals, not succumbing to our inner savages.

    1. Well, as the video shows, the police were contacted and cannot do anything. Ignoring it wasn’t working either, as the frequency of the calls only escalated to as many as 15 in 20 minutes after five months of trying to ignore them.

       Do you have a Plan C, Grifter?

       Barney’s Plan C was the video. Mine was the email exchange and the blog.

       1. No I haven’t watched the video, I’m not sure why the police are unable to do anything since that’s kind of their job, the act of making harassing or intimidating phonecalls is illegal according to a quick google at least under california law;

          “2. What makes a phone call harassing?

          When someone calls and uses obscene or threatening language, or even heavy breathing or silence to intimidate you, you are receiving a harassing call. It is against the law in California and other states to make obscene or threatening calls. (California Penal Code section 653m, Penal Code section 422-422.1)”

          according to https://www.privacyrights.org/consumer-guides/how-put-end-unwanted-or-harassing-phone-calls

          If the police are unable to do something then take it up higher with the DA or someone. Sorry don’t know ins and outs of US legal systems. The police are there to protect citizens from things like this, if the police and/or government has collapsed to the point where they’ve failed you so atrociously then you are all in trouble and all your futures are bleak.

          1. So there’s a few important points I’d like for you to try to understand, Grifter…

             1) The police have very limited resources in this country (and in most countries). Often, they have to deal with murders, assaults, break-ins, theft, rape, kidnappings, illegal narcotics, domestic violence, and many other crimes where a victim is physically hurt or endangered. As such, when it comes to crank calls and harassment, the police have a threshold that must be met before they can or will devote their resources to get involved: there has to be a credible threat made. Gabe did not make a threat. He made strange noises and then disguised his voice and repeated Barney’s full name over and over and over again. But he made no actual threat. As such, the law defines this as a “nuisance call” (that part was in the video) and the police could not and would not take any further action.

             2) Likewise, the District Attorney for L.A. County is also very overworked. Los Angeles has a LOT of crimes from petty drug deals to gang violence to rape to murder to investigate and prosecute. Nuisance phone calls simply do not rise far enough up to the level of major crime to justify investigation (by the police) and prosecution (by the courts)…unless a threat is made.

             3) And before you suggest just suing Gabe, Barney is a man of humble means. Gabe has very little money. So Barney can’t afford a lawyer and no lawyer would take the case on contingency because Gabe has almost no assets to go after.

             And that’s why Barney made his video and why I published the blog.

             As for your last comment: “…if the police and/or government has collapsed to the point where they’ve failed you so atrociously then you are all in trouble and all your futures are bleak.”

             Well, that wasn’t helpful at all. I was hoping you had a solution to offer, but it seems you’re simply criticizing and catastrophizing–and neither really makes the world any better or adds to the greater good of society. Just sayin’…

             1. I wouldn’t have suggested suing anyone. The police should deal with it, that’s their job; the phonecalls he made would definitely be categorized as threatening by anyone who listened to them, it’s just not acceptable to me to have the police not act on it, and it really gasts my flabber that they’re so impotent about this. I have no secret alternate solution, because there shouldn’t need to be one, this is a police matter through and through. I’m really really _really _astounded that they are refusing to help and it’s a complete shambles of a situation. And quite frankly it makes me really mad because that’s just not how it’s supposed to be done.

             2. Well, let’s play out this scenario, then, Grifter. Barney lives in West Virginia. He obviously goes to his local police because they can come over to his house and listen to the recordings and take a statement. Gabe lives in Los Angeles, which is 2,000 miles outside of the jurisdiction of a small West Virginia college town. So assuming the police do act on the call, what happens next in this scenario (in your opinion)?

             3. Grifter, the Police did come to my home & did listen to the harassing phone calls… They stated that Gabe didn’t use foul language & didn’t make any threats… Their advice was to block his calls, which I could do if I’m willing to spend a monthly fee for this service from my phone company or change my phone #, which I’ve had for nearly 35 years…

21. Who is this guy?
    And what in the name of Thanos give him the right to terrorizing people?
    Sorry i don’t get it. I have a bipolar friend as well. But this kind of behaviour seems that this guy have an very heavy reality loss.
    And why is he so obsessed with Axanar?

    1. There’s a lot of folks obsessed with Axanar…on both sides of the fence. It’s kind of like a religion at this point. And those whose beliefs still support Axanar challenge and threaten the beliefs of those who don’t…and vice-versa. In that way, Gabe isn’t much different than a crusader in a holy war…

       …except that this is just a Star Trek fan film. 🙂

       1. I’m sorry there was no more reply button on the previous thread :s

          In my opinion (and possibly fantasy), the police would contact the phone companies, get all information about phonecalls, and forward it to the police in the source’s jurisdiction who would then act on it in whatever manner they have prescribed in law.

          I’m not sure why this is an argument, the police should police. If anyone can make threatening phonecalls to anyone else simply because of distance it kind of breaks down everything society and law is based on. But at the same time I would be hard pressed to believe that if you tried making those phonecalls to some random state senator, the police would just shrug their shoulders and say “Welp, criminals gonna criminal, can’t do nuttin’ bout dat”.

          Can you tell I’m flabbergasted?

          1. Ah, you see, you said it yourself: “threatening phone calls.” There is a legal standard that must be met to classify a call as “threatening,” and these calls did not reach that threshold. The law classifies the kinds of phone calls Gabe made as “nuisance calls” and cannot act on them (even though they scare Barney’s wife and son). In the eyes of the law, what Gabe did was only a step up from, “Is your refrigerator running? Then you’d better catch it! >CLICK<" Annoying, yes. Threatening, no. You and I might feel more strongly about the fact that these calls persisted for five months, but no individual call rose to the level of being considered a threat. In the case of an actual threat, the police don't handle it unless it's local. When the crime crosses state lines, it then gets handed off to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). And yes, had there been even one actual verbal threat in any of these calls, the FBI would have been brought in.

             1. You’re making a very black and white determination on what is considered threatening though, the very act of making multiple calls to someone is harassment, and a threat does not need to be explicity expressed, it’s still implied by the context. This is how it works over here anyway, it’s a case by case basis but the content and context is always the determining factor, and I’d say 100 harassing and intimidating (especially the creepy silence ones) would count as MEGA THREATENING, like on a whole new level. 100 calls takes dedication.

                Look it’s clear that we’re on the same(ish) side on this, so I don’t get why you’re being so insouciant about how the police have dealt with this, it’s a complete travesty and farce, the guy deserves justice and everyone is shrugging their shoulders. Even the link I gave earlier would seem to indicate that at least cali has the same notions about threats/intimidation/harassment. It’s not about us feeling strongly about this, it’s clear as day and over here at least gabe would face the legal consequences and ramifications of what he’s done to this family.

                Ultimately it comes down to one thing: apparently your police sucks. Maybe you guys should harass _them_ until they do something about the harassment done to _him_.

             2. I used to have a good friend who was a police officer (he’s still alive; we’ve just grown apart) and another who worked closely with the L.A.P.D. for nearly five years (he was a psychologist with P.M.R.T.). To simply say “your police sucks” is painting with a very broad brush and is very insulting to people who put their lives on the line every day to serve and protect total strangers. Are there some bad apples in the bunch who are a disgrace and make the rest look bad? For sure. The same can be said of teachers, doctors, builders, and a whole bunch of other occupations.

                As I explained early on, there are some crimes that simply don’t merit the resources to investigate and prosecute. Most times when I J-walk, I’m not stopped and given a ticket (although my brother David got one once!). The reason is that so many people do it that the cops would run out of paper writing citations…and have almost no time left for anything else. It’s a similar case for crank calling, even when it’s excessive, compulsive, and happens for an extended period. The cops simply have to draw a line and decide what constitutes enough to take their resources away from major crimes like assault, battery, theft, murder, etc. And that line happens to be a solid and credible threat made during the call. No actual threat (and Gabe never spoke an actual threat), then no resources taken away from hunts for rapists, robbers, kidnappers, drug dealers, etc. You might think Gabe’s calls were threatening, but the cops did not agree after listening to the calls. That’s not because they’re lazy. It’s because they have to prioritize.

                I know you want the cops to do everything. But that’s not an option in any country…especially not America. So given the reality of the limited resources of law enforcement, just how high on the priority list of items I included in my last paragraph do you believe non-threatening crank calls should be placed?

Comments are closed.