Probably the biggest obstacle to The Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin’s conduct of the trial in his Kimberlin v. Walker, et al. lawsuit was that he didn’t understand that he had to prove that what we has said and written was false. We did not have to offer a defense of truth, although what we said and wrote was true; the entire burden of proof was on him.

THE COURT: But what evidence is there that any of these — that first of all, in terms of false light, tell me how you can make that argument when you yourself were questioning the witness, and you said it — you said it at least two or three times. You said “nobody has ever bought into that, nobody has ever bought into it.” So you’re saying that they said bad things about you, but nobody believed them.

MR. KIMBERLIN: No, I said no judge, no State’s attorney bought into it.

THE COURT: Who did buy into it?

MR. KIMBERLIN: Obviously their readers.

THE COURT: How do you know? You can’t just say — you just can’t come in – there are very few things in court that are obvious. Now you’re saying the readers bought into it. What evidence is there of that? See, we use evidence in court.

MR. KIMBERLIN: I understand that, but under Shapiro, the defamatory statement of crime is automatically damaging. I don’t have to prove that there’s damage, you know. I wanted to prove that —

THE COURT: I’m talking about the defendants.

MR. KIMBERLIN: Okay, the defendants. Mr. Walker called me a pedophile hundreds of times, if not thousands, created the — used the Pedobear graphic to superimpose my photo on.

<fisking>TDPK never offered any evidence that Aaron Walker or any other defendant created the PedoBrett image.</fisking>

THE COURT: Are you suggesting that a person could file a lawsuit, just go into a court and say that “the defendant called me a pedophile” and rest?

MR. KIMBERLIN: I’m not saying that.

THE COURT: Well, then —

MR. KIMBERLIN: I’m saying that they called me a pedophile, it was false, that they did it maliciously, and once it was —

THE COURT: Well what evidence is there that it was false?

MR. KIMBERLIN: What evidence that it’s false? It’s — when you ask what evidence that it’s false, it’s a crime. They said I committed a crime —

<fisking>As Judge Johnson pointed out along the way, pedophilia is not a crime. We never said that TDPK had committed a crime. We reported that he had been charged with third degree sexual offense (aka statutory rape).</fisking>

THE COURT: You just said that — hold on a sec — you just said “they called me a pedophile, and it was false.” My question to you — well, let me ask you another way — why did you say that it was false? I understand that you’re saying you’re not a pedophile, but you’ve only argued that. Who has testified to that?

TDPK could not tell the judge who had testified that what we said and wrote was false because there was no such testimony. After a brief recess, the judge gave his ruling.

THE COURT: … [T]here was absolutely no scintilla of evidence in this case of exactly to wit what the defendant is alleged to have done. And so I think the case falls short of rising to the level that it should go to the jury. And for those reasons, the court makes a judgment in favor of the defendants.

Game over.