A California judge has dismissed a verbal assault case against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, finding that a woman initiated a confrontation with him during the filming of a scene for the movie “Brüno” and “not vice versa.”

The scene featured Cohen, in the guise of the film's flamboyantly gay title character, discussing his love life while calling a bingo game that Richelle Olson, the executive director of Desert Valley Charities, ran for the elderly in Palmdale, a desert community near Los Angeles. The film, Cohen's follow-up to “Borat,” is a send-up of homophobia.

Olson, who wasn't in on the joke, alleged in a lawsuit filed with her husband in May 2009 that she tried to stop Cohen from calling the game because he was using “vulgar and offensive language.” In response, he called her, among other things, a “faggot,” allegedly causing her to become so flustered that she collapsed off stage and hit her head on the floor.

In throwing the suit out, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Randolph A. Rogers said video footage provided by the defense proved that Cohen did not subject her to “vulgar and offensive verbal assaults ... in order to elicit and capture on camera a humiliating emotional reaction.”

The video “establishes that it was Richelle Olson who initiated the controversy with Cohen and not vice versa,” he concluded in a ruling obtained by On Point. At one point, he said, she calls him an “it” and then, after proceeding to the top of the stage, “tries to pull out a chair from under Cohen/Bruno while he is still seated.”

By contrast, Rogers gave a bad review to the brief video clip provided by Olson, which only shows her walking toward a side room and then lying face down on the floor.

“While jump cuts are a fun and interesting stylistic technique when used in dramatizations ... Plaintiffs' video is a prime example of why jump cuts in amateur videos purporting to substantiate a litigant's 'side of the story' are generally unhelpful,” the judge said.

Cohen and Universal Studios, the distributor of “Bruno,” requested dismissal of the case under California's anti-SLAPP law, which broadly protects speech “in connection with a public issue.” The “Brüno” mockumentary, Rogers observed, raises “issues of homosexuality, gay culture and same-sex partnerships in an attempt to craft a sly commentary on the state of homophobia in our society.”

Olson said her participation in “Brüno” was obtained by fraud since the filmmakers did not reveal their true purpose to her but Rogers said she “knowingly and freely appeared in public with Cohen  as Cohen was being filmed for the movie.” The bingo scene was not included in the final cut of the film.

Olson's lawyer, Kyle K. Madison (Madison Law Group, Los Angeles), says she has been confined to a wheelchair and a walker since the confrontation with Cohen. The dismissal of her case could prove expensive for her since the anti-SLAPP law allows a prevailing defendant to recover attorney fees from the plaintiff.

Cohen and Universal have asked Rogers for an award of $17,052 in fees. “We are seriously considering an appeal,” Madison says.

He argues that the anti-SLAPP law does not protect Cohen because he was filming in the bingo hall under false pretenses and “illegal activity cannot be protected by free speech.” The bingo hall, he notes, is private property and Cohen was committing a trespass when he did not leave the stage after Olson asked him to.

“Once you're ordered to leave, you absolutely have no rights to free speech,” Madison insists.

The “Borat” movie also attracted controversy, with a total of 16 people filing suits in which they said they were duped into appearing in the film and suffered humiliation as a result. Only one of those cases survived a motion to dismiss.

Olson originally alleged that Cohen physically assaulted her but she dropped that allegation from an amended complaint. “In [the 'Borat'] cases, there was embarrassment,” Madison says. “In our case, there was an injury.”

By Matthew Heller
1/20/10