The Mike Postle court saga entered a new phase, after Mac VerStandig, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, nearly 90 at the moment, surprisingly filed a motion for sanctions against the defendant.
Defendants Filed Motions to Dismiss
After the other two defendants in the case, King’s Casino and former Tournament Director Justin Kuraitis, filed two separate motions to dismiss the amended by the plaintiffs complaint, Mike Postle also had to file his motion.
As per expectations, the player with an exorbitant win ratio, albeit only during televised games in the Stones Gambling Hall in Citrus Hill, filed a motion to dismiss, “for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted and failure to allege claims of fraud and misrepresentation”.
Postle Now in Violation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
MacVerStandig’s next move, however, surprised all who follow the case of the poker scandal of 2019, as he filed a motion for sanctions against Postle, claiming his motion had been written by actual attorneys. Earlier, Mike Postle refused to hire a lawyer, claiming he would represent himself, but having his documents ghostwritten in this case is in violation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
VerStandig goes even further, looking for similarities between Mike Postle cheating on the poker table and now trying to treat the court the same way.
“Unfortunately, it now appears his approach to this litigation is identical, as he purports to be a pro se litigant but is, in fact, having his court papers ghostwritten by one or more unidentified attorneys.”
Plaintiff’s lawyer firmly believes Mike Postle has not graduated law school and the documents filed by him are obviously written by lawyers. This is important because the defendant’s choice to represent himself eliminates the opportunity for meaningful interaction concerning the arguments being made.
Court Asked to Strike Down Postle’s Papers
In other words, VerStandig claims Postle deliberately chose a tactic that would not allow him to offer oral arguments or defend his filing in court. Hence, he asks the judge to strike down the court papers filed so far by Postle and require him to file his own, or otherwise officially hire a lawyer to represent him in court.
Plaintiffs even have a name of a lawyer that is possibly behind Postle’s court papers, William Portanova, as the wording in Postle’s motion resembles a lot a dismissal filed by Portanova in an unrelated case.
Besides the motion for sanctions, VerStandig filed a lengthy opposition to the motion to dismiss Postle filed against the complaint, stating it is no more than a desperate effort to mislead others into believing he is a good poker player, especially when hours of video recording proves otherwise.
“Mr. Postle stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in the largest known cheating scandal in the history of broadcast poker. The evidence of his cheating is quite literally on tape, with hundreds of hours of footage showing him gawking at a phone screen concealed in his lap so as to learn the card holdings of his fellow players.”