BB-31-b-117
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 STEVEN A. KATSARIS OPPOSING APPLICATION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION
I, Steven A. Katsaris, declare:
1. I am the plaintiff in a lawsuit entitled KATSARIS v. PEOPLES TEMPLE, JONES, et al., filed on May 16, 1978, and the Superior Court for the County of Mendocino, Civil Case No. 39911. A copy of the amended complaint (filed Maty 22, 1978) 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 to remain as my attorney of record on my behalf and to
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prosecute my lawsuit through to its conclusion.
3. I have known Timothy Oliver Stoen since 1972, when he was an assistant district attorney in Mendocino County, where I work and reside. As the Director of Trinity School for Children in the small community of Ukiah, California, I am regularly brought into contact with attorneys, law enforcement officials, and others in civic leadership capacities. Even before I met Mr. Stoen, I had heard of him and knew he enjoyed the respect and esteem of the community leaders as a very capable, effective, and decisive attorney.
4. On April 11, 1978, I was the spokesman for a group of “Concerned Relatives” and delivered to PEOPLES TEMPLE representatives in San Francisco a document entitled, “Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones Against Our Children and Relatives at the Peoples Temple Jungle Encampment in Guyana, South America.” On the following day an article appeared in the “Santa Rosa Press Democrat” newspaper quoting a representative of PEOPLES TEMPLE, Sandra Ingram, as stating that I was a child molester. This was the second instance where PEOPLES TEMPLE representatives had publicly defamed me with this totally false charge. I was determined to expose their vicious and unfounded attacks, which in my opinion were designed to intimidate me into silence concerning the true nature of their organization.
5. The expenses of maintaining two of my children in college, Elaine at Stanford and Anthony at the University of California, Chico, along with the large sums of money I had already spent on two trips
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to Guyana attempted to help my daughter, Maria, made me apprehensive about the legal costs involved in seeking legal recourse against the attacks on my reputation. I was then, and am now, worried about the irreparable damage such charges could do to a man whose life is devoted to helping children.
6. I decided to approach Tim Stoen with my dilemma and ask him to represent me. I explained to him my plans to voluntarily submit to a lie detector test so that he and others would have no doubt concerning the truth of my innocence. I asked him to represent me on a contingency basis, explaining that I had few funds left for legal costs. I also told him I had confidence he was an aggressive and extremely capable attorney who would act with dispatch. I also explained to him that I had seen his professional resume (attached as Exhibit A), his character references (attached as Exhibit B) and the Board of Supervisors resolution commending him (attached as Exhibit C).
7. When I met with Mr. Stoen at his office in San Francisco on April 21, 1978, I told him I wanted to proceed immediately. Many of the people I work with professionally had read the “Press Democrat” article, and I told Mr. Stoen I needed to respond without delay with a lawsuit to bring PEOPLES TEMPLE to justice. We looked in the telephone book Yellow Pages for the most reputable appearing polygraph firm. We set up an appointment with George Harmon, and I followed up with a letter written on my initiative to Mr. Harmon, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit D and made a part hereof. I took the lie detector test on May 2, 1978.
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On May 3, 1978, Mr. Harmon issued his report saying I was “telling the truth”. That report is part of my lawsuit attached hereto.
8. On April 25, 1978, ex-members of PEOPLES TEMPLE held a “Concerted Relatives” meeting in Los Angeles at the Saint James Missionary Baptist Church. At the meeting were Wade and Mabel Medlock, who told us that PEOPLES TEMPLE had taken all of their property from them by means of threats made by Jim Jones personally that they would be killed. I was so upset after hearing their story that I went up to them at the end of the meeting and asked them to consider filing a suit, suggesting they talk to Tim Stoen. It was after this that they first contacted him about their case. I did, however, asked Mr. Stoen to put my case first because of the urgency of the situation regarding my reputation.
9. The purpose of this declaration is to state categorically that Mr. Stoen’s involvement in my lawsuit originated with me, and that I am represented by Mr. Stoen at my request. He never solicited my case in any way. I believe my interests would be greatly comprised [compromised] if he were not my attorney.
10. I hereby consent to Mr. Stoen disclosing all of the circumstances whereby he became by [my] attorney and all of the information I have given him.
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VERIFICATION
I, the undersigned, say:
I am a declarant in this action; the above document is true of my own knowledge, except as to the matters that are stated in it is on my information and belief, as [and] as to those matters, I believe them to be true.
Executed on July 29, 1978, at San Francisco, California.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the above is true and correct.
/s/ Steven A. Katsaris