The Snitch packs his things and leaves the courthouse.
By Andy Van De Voorde
It was a packed house Wednesday at Superior Court when the jury announced its verdict in the Bay Guardian’s predatory-pricing lawsuit against the Weekly.
The Snitch had been lurking around the courthouse for the past four days when word came down from an informant there would be a jury verdict at noon.
That was actually delayed slightly when the court reporter, whose inability to keep up with witnesses as they testified had become legendary, decided she needed a break after working on another trial during the morning.
As a result, there were 15 minutes during which the owners of both the Weekly and the Guardian waited together in the courtroom, sitting in the gallery.
The minutes passed painfully as the second hand on the courtroom clock plodded its way around the orb.
As time slowly dragged on, increasing numbers of Guardian employees and hangers-on filed in.
The Snitch had anticipated more of the snickering and chortling that he had heard so much of during the trial.
Instead, Bruce Brugmann, Tim Redmond, Guardian co-publisher Jean Dibble, and controller Sandy Lange, among assorted other hangers-on, watched quietly as the jury foreman handed them their early Christmas gift: damages in the amount of more than $15 million.
According to evidence presented at trial, that figure is far more than the Guardian has earned throughout its history.
The panel voted 11 to 1 that the Weekly, its former sister paper the East Bay Express, and their parent company, New Times (now Village Voice Media) intended to injure the Guardian and had done so.
When The Snitch heard the verdict, he was disappointed but not surprised.