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PATRICK SARSFIELD HALLINAN
Hallinan & Blum
345 Franklin Street
San Francisco, California 94102
Telephone: (415) 861-1151
Attorney for Defendant
IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
IN AND FOR THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO
PEOPLES TEMPLE OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, a nonprofit corporation, JEAN BROWN, and JAMES MCELVANE, Plaintiffs,
v.
TIMOTHY OLIVER STOEN, Defendant.
No. 740531
DECLARATION BY JAMES COBB, JR. OPPOSING APPLICATION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION
I, James Cobb, Jr., declare:
1. I am the plaintiff in a lawsuit entitled COBB v. PEOPLES TEMPLE, JAMES WARREN JONES, JEAN F. BROWN, et al., filed on June 22, 1978, and the Superior Court for the City and County of San Francisco, Civil Case No. 739907. A copy of the complaint is attached and made a part hereof. My attorney is Timothy Oliver Stoen.
2. This declaration is made in opposition to plaintiff’s application for a preliminary injunction. I am requesting that Timothy Oliver Stoen, the defendant in this action, be allowed
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to remain as my attorney and push my lawsuit.
3. On May 11, 1978, Mr. Stoen and I were attending a dinner at a friend’s house in San Francisco. At the dinner I brought up the subject of an open letter on PEOPLES TEMPLE stationary that had come to my attention. It was dated March 14, 1978 and was addressed to “All US Senators and Members of Congress”. It falsely accused me of being a “radical Trotskyite” who recommended a “violent course.” (A copy of this letter is an exhibit in the attached complaint.) I told Mr. Stoen that this ridiculous letter was the last straw, and ask him if he would file a lawsuit against PEOPLES TEMPLE and Jim Jones.
4. Shortly after quitting PEOPLES TEMPLE in 1973, I began being harassed by them. Ever since, I thought it only a matter of time (maybe tomorrow) that I would be killed by them. When the situation presented itself last summer, I engaged in exposing Jim Jones and his evil practices in PEOPLES TEMPLE. I have considered taking legal action against Jones many times before, but it was not until March of 1977 that I felt to seek an attorney.
5. A few days after our dinner conversation of May 11, 1978, I visited Mr. Stoen at his office on Montgomery Street and brought with me a list of things that PEOPLES TEMPLE and Jim Jones had done to me since 1973. Mr. Stoen agreed to be my attorney.
6. During all this time from 1973 until now, I have been having trouble concentrating in dental school because of the threats
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which are mentioned in my lawsuit. The thing that has bothered me the most was the threat that my son would be harmed if I didn’t stop “badmouthing” PEOPLES TEMPLE.
7. Mr. Stoen never approached me at any time to be my attorney. He did not in any way solicit my case. I felt much better now that I am exposing Jim Jones and PEOPLES TEMPLE in the courts. I think one reason Jones has gotten away with so much is that people abused by him, did not sue him earlier. No further libels on me by PEOPLES TEMPLE have come to my attention since I filed my lawsuit.
8. I consent to Mr. Stoen disclosing to anyone all of the circumstances by which I asked him to be my attorney. I consent to his disclosing any and all of the information about my lawsuit that has come to his attention from anyone, including me.
It would be difficult for me to find another trial attorney as competent as Tim Stoen, particularly with experience equivalent to his as special prosecutor in San Francisco.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.
Executed on July 30, 1978, at Berkeley, California.
s/s James Cobb Jr.
JAMES COBB JR.
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Also attached to declaration of james cobb, as exhibits, which I didn’t copy because too bulky and we already have them anyway:
1. the full complaint of James Cobb and all of his exhibits that he originally had on his complaint
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[First page of complaint in Cobb v. Peoples Temple et al]
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Exhibit A
Jim,
If you think that you are working only to destroy our friend, you’re badly underestimating the course you are on. This is going down on the record as a deliberate attempt to starve out hundreds of good people. You will be remembered for much more than just a personal vendetta.
Even though what you’re trying to do is impossible, you’re going to earn for yourself the bitterest of enemies. We have solid evidence that one of your crowd participated in Chris’ [Lewis] death. A whole lot of people not even associated with us can back that up. Whether or not you decide to respond to this hardly matters now. Since you are no doubt fully aware of who you’re in with and what you are working for, I count this communication probably as a waste of my time. We have real class enemies to deal with, and really aren’t worrying about your clumsey efforts. But in the future, don’t try to say you didn’t know. It won’t wash. If you had cared anything about what was right, you would have checked with the officials that lived there and have seen the work, and ask them about the kind of society we’re building there. But like I said, in the future, don’t plead ignorance.
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Exhibit A1
[photocopy of envelope of letter sent to Jim Cobb]