Bungie Gets Default Judgment against Harasser
Bungie obtains restraining order and civil judgment against a West Virginia man who terrorized a Bungie community manager and his wife.
Big Picture
Bungie obtains restraining order and civil judgment against a West Virginia man who terrorized a Bungie community manager and his wife.
Judgment Summary
Judgment Creditor: Bungie, Inc.
Judgment Debtor: Jesse James Comer
Principal Judgment Amount: $405,189.22
Attorney Fees: $83,806.30
Costs: $240
RCW 4.84.080 Fees: $200
Total Judgment: $489,435.52
Post-judgment Interest: 12% per annum until paid in full
Protecting your Employees from Harassers: Priceless
Default Judgment and Order
To promote Destiny 2, Bungie employs community managers to serve as a bridge between Bungie and its players. One of these community managers referred to as “D. Doe” (to preserve as much anonymity as possible to protect against further harassment) promoted the artwork of UhMaayyze, a talented Black fan and creator of Destiny 2 fan art. This irritated Comer, who started a “campaign of racist, stochastic terrorism against the Does and Bungie.”
The Campaign of Terror
Comer’s first act was to add a new phone number to his TextNow VOIP service, which allows anonymous calling. He then immediately proceeded to call D. Doe’s personal cell phone and left a “hideous, bigoted voicemail.” (Complaint) He then left several more voicemails and repeatedly asked the Does to convince Bungie to create options in Destiny 2 in which only persons of color would be killed. Mr. Comer next threatened D. Doe’s wife, K. Doe, by leaving even more racist voicemails and texts for her. In these messages, he referred to himself as “Clay Bramston.” Comer spent hours carpet bombing the Does with more racist voicemails and texts.
To rachet things up even further, Comer decided to show the Does that he knew where they lived and could assault them there. Using an anonymous number, he placed a cash-on-delivery order with Domino’s Pizza for a “virtually inedible odiferous pizza.” (Complaint) Comer instructed the pizza delivery driver to “knock at least five times” on the Does’ door because he would be “wearing headphones” and so would need loud, insistent banging on the door to hear anything. Comer used Domino’s online order tracking system to confirm that the Does had received his “pizza-shaped threat” then left K. Doe another voicemail telling her to “enjoy the pizza.”
Comer bragged about all of this terrorism to the “terr0rgang” group on Steam. This lovely group apparently maintains a set of sound files and noises labeled as “ear rape” for use in terror campaigns. Comer followed up with yet another voicemail with one of these “ear rape” sounds played at high volume.
Bungie’s Actions
Within one hour of the “pizza attack,” Bungie sent out executive protection to the Does and called the police. Bungie then engaged investigators and outside counsel to track Comer down. It then brought a legal action in West Virginia, Mr. Comer’s home state, to get a restraining order against him. Finally, Bungie retained round-the-clock security for the Does and commenced a civil action in Washington State to pursue damages against Mr. Comer.
In its Washington State court action, the court found that (1) Comer interfered with Bungie’s contractual relations, (2) his behavior constituted a nuisance, (3) he violated Washington’s Consumer Protection Act; (4) he invaded the Does’ privacy and intruded on their seclusion; and (5) Bungie was entitled to injunctive relief as well as money damages.
Enforcing the Judgment
It’s important to remember that just because Bungie won a default judgment doesn’t mean that Comer will actually pay anything. Bungie will now have the often unenviable task of trying to enforce this judgment. Bungie may well encounter difficulties in actually enforcing against Mr. Comer in West Virginia. For example, people like this are often judgment proof because of inability to pay, or they aren’t deterred by having arrest warrants issued against them, etc. Nevertheless, obtaining this civil judgment sends an important message to both Bungie employees and other, would-be harassers, that this kind of racist terrorism won’t be tolerated.