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A “Bible scholar”-cum-conspiracy theorist, father of 11 and onetime rock-n-roll frontman claims his total world has been turned upside-down by a deviant villain from wildly common comedian e book, TV and online game sequence The Strolling Lifeless.
In a newly filed federal lawsuit, born-again messianic blogger Thomas Richards, who claims to have twice seen Jesus in waking visions, seeks to pressure a public clarification by Strolling Lifeless creator Robert Kirkman that the fictional character of “Thomas Richards” is just not meant to be him.
The 55-year-old U.S. Navy veteran argues in his criticism that the “excessive reputation of the franchise, mixed with its graphic depiction of dismemberment, torture, cannibalism and sexual violence, has exponentially amplified the hurt to Mr. Richards’ fame by associating his precise identify with a psychopathic character in some of the broadly consumed media franchises of the twenty first century.”
When folks search on-line for the real-life “Thomas Richards,” they’re “involuntarily uncovered to mentions and probably graphic descriptions of a… serial killer who brutally murders a number of folks – together with minors – and displays sadistic and wicked habits,” the criticism states.
Contending moreover that Google’s outcomes have been gamed to his detriment, Richards’s criticism claims that many by no means get to view his posts and movies, reminiscent of, “Nazi Germany – A Creation of the Vatican and Jesuits,” The Pope is the Antichrist,” and “Is Alex Jones Protecting for the Jesuits? You resolve.”
Worse but, in line with Richards’s criticism, massively common line extensions have “actively expanded the dangerous portrayal” of his namesake character.
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Richards, a Virginia resident, stated {that a} fixed stream of faulty Google alerts have additionally had a deleterious impact on his private well-being.
“I seen I wasn’t getting Google alerts for my work, ever, however I used to be getting Google alerts for this horrible fictional Thomas Richards on a regular basis,” Richards instructed The Impartial. “Right here I am considering, possibly, lastly, it will be my work or one thing. However no, it is simply an terrible character this man created.”
Richards conceded that he is aware of his work will be “controversial.”
The case follows two others Richards has filed lately: one in opposition to Elon Musk’s X, accusing the social community of “shadowbanning” Richards’s posts, and one in opposition to Google, for supposedly suppressing Richards in search outcomes and on YouTube. This, he alleges in courtroom papers, “successfully silenc[ed] his biblical voice whereas amplifying competing Catholic views.”
An evaluation of the X submitting by Techdirt founder Mike Masnick, an knowledgeable on authorized points surrounding know-how and the First Modification, stated the situation introduced within the swimsuit was “really attention-grabbing,” given Musk’s quick however disastrous foray into authorities, however that the authorized concept behind it was insufficient, that the core declare was “weak on its face” and that the criticism itself was “a large number… bloated with irrelevant particulars and conspiracy theories masquerading as supposed “non secular expression.”
Within the swimsuit in opposition to Kirkman, his firms and a slew of ancillary gamers, Richards asserts that the fictional Richards “creates an unconscious affiliation between [his own] identify and violent, disturbing imagery by repeated publicity,” claiming, “Even people who rationally perceive the fictional nature of the character expertise this involuntary affiliation once they see or hear Mr. Richards’ identify.” And though it’s potential to sue for “unintentional defamation,” Richards’s criticism accuses Kirkman of intentionally naming his character after him.
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Lawyer Lisa Weingarten Richards, who occurs to be Richards’s spouse, instructed The Impartial that Kirkman was served along with her husband’s swimsuit on Thursday, by way of a member of the family.
By means of a consultant, Kirkman declined to remark.
Richards describes himself as a “non secular commentator, Bible scholar, artist and content material creator” who “skilled a strong, surprising, religious transformation” at his then-home in Lengthy Island, New York.
His curiosity in faith took maintain on the age of three, when Richards says he had a imaginative and prescient of Jesus whereas his mom was out at a nightclub on Fireplace Island. Richards claims to have one other imaginative and prescient of “Jesus the Messiah” some 17 years later, whereas he was in boot camp, after which he misplaced his method for a number of years throughout a stint with a neighborhood laborious rock band. He later returned to faith and on the flip of the twenty first century, Richards launched his web ministry throughout a number of net domains, in line with his criticism.
Richards’s writings are primarily targeted on “critiquing the Vatican, significantly its [alleged] sexual abuse of youngsters, false doctrine and in addition its involvement in different atrocities with hyperlinks to authorities and different entities,” in line with the criticism. It says Richards has “completely used his actual identify” for the reason that starting and that the connection between his identify and his non secular ministry is “inseparable.”
Richards says in his criticism that his web site spirituallysmart.com achieved “important visibility” between 2003 and 2005, which was “exactly when Kirkman would have been creating characters” for The Strolling Lifeless sequence on AMC. (The present premiered in 2010.) In keeping with the criticism, Kirkman was energetic in on-line communities throughout that interval, and it claims that it’s “fairly doubtless” Kirkman encountered Richards’s work.
Additional, the criticism states, Kirkman, a self-described atheist, has instructed interviewers that he likes to call his characters after actual folks, such because the “a**holes” he calls Phillip, after a classmate from grammar college who used to torment him.
“Upon data and perception, Kirkman harbored animus towards Mr. Richards – as a consequence of Mr. Richards’ biblical content material, sturdy stance on scriptural reality, and his bible-based testimony together with that Mr. Richards states he noticed Jesus twice – which motivated Kirkman to focus on Mr. Richards by the Thomas Richards character,” in line with the criticism, which doesn’t present any concrete examples of Kirkman being conscious of Richards or his work.
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The criticism makes an attempt to bolster its argument by highlighting what it says had been “deliberate efforts” by AMC in its TV adaptation of the Strolling Lifeless comedian books to keep away from utilizing the identify “Thomas Richards.” It speculates that the community was conscious of the “problematic nature” of the identify, and theorizes that because of this AMC dropped the character’s final identify and rechristened him, merely, “Tomas.”
Past the identify, Richards says there are features of his eponymous Strolling Lifeless character that recommend it’s actually meant to be him. The Strolling Lifeless’s Thomas Richards was incarcerated for a violent crime, however falsely claimed he had been imprisoned for tax fraud, so as to gloss over his precise previous. In keeping with Richards’s criticism, this element “maliciously dredges up” his previous help for a disgraced preacher he as soon as adopted named Tony Alamo, née Bernie Lazar Hoffman, who did six years within the Nineteen Nineties for tax fraud and in 2009 was sentenced to 175 years after being discovered responsible of sexually abusing younger ladies. (Alamo, who infamously took an 8-year-girl as a spouse when he was in his 50s, died in jail in 2017, on the age of 82.)
Richards insisted to The Impartial that whereas he caught by Alamo by his tax conviction, he stated he instantly reversed course on him as soon as he discovered of the brand new prices and claimed he turned so soured on Alamo that he stopped bodily going to church altogether. Nonetheless, his criticism says the portrayal “creates the figuring out traits that enable readers to moderately join the fictional character to Plaintiff.” (The criticism, once more, comprises no concrete proof of this.)
“I do not know what was in [Kirkman’s] head, nevertheless it looks like an awfully unusual coincidence,” stated Weingarten Richards. “… So there is a unusual parallel there. And it simply appeared to me like, it would not look like a coincidence.”
If Kirkman had been to come back out and say he modeled the character after one other Thomas Richards, which is admittedly not the world’s most uncommon identify, Weingarten Richards conceded that “would positively weaken the case.”
On the identical time, she stated, “I imply, I can solely go on what I do know, proper? Even when he says it was a distinct Thomas Richards, OK, good. Then clear his identify and say, ‘You understand what, we by no means meant this Thomas Richards. We meant that Thomas Richards.”
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Within the meantime, Richards’s criticism maintains he has suffered psychological anguish from being “systematically related” along with his unsavory, but fictitious, counterpart.
The lawsuit gives Kirkman and the associated entities two choices to make issues proper, in line with Richards.
The primary, underneath the heading “CHARACTER REDEMPTION,” would have Kirkman and his companions situation a public apology to Richards, then “publish storylines inside three months displaying the Thomas Richards character’s full ethical transformation, redemption and evolution right into a heroic determine who actively works to guard others and demonstrates real regret for previous actions, thereby actively counteracting the unfavourable associations created with Plaintiff’s identify.”
The second, underneath the heading “CHARACTER RENAMING,” would instantly change the “villainous” character’s identify “in all future publications, digital editions, reprints and spinoff works, AND situation a public apology inside 30 days of this Court docket’s order.”
For both choice, the criticism says the general public apology “shall acknowledge the hurt brought on to Plaintiff’s fame and ministry, [and] specific remorse for any unfavourable associations created along with his identify.”
It additionally seeks the “[i]mplementation of technical measures to disassociate the evil fictional character from search engine outcomes for ‘Thomas Richards,’” to incorporate revised metadata, disclaimer pages and the de-indexing of all URLs in query, plus “quarterly studies for 2 years documenting compliance with these measures.”
Thomas is demanding, amongst different issues, compensatory damages of not lower than $25 million, punitive and exemplary damages between $350,000 and $10 million, and particular damages to be decided by a jury, plus courtroom prices and authorized charges.
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