<\/p>\n
Former San Antonio lawyer Phil Ross is one of the defendants who is on trial for allegedly defaming the guardian of a one-time San Antonio businessman in a Netflix documentary. He told jurors free speech is more important than a person’s reputation. He is shown in 2019.<\/p>\n
San Antonio Express-News file photo<\/p>\n
Laura Martinez and her children Brittany Martinez and Joe Martinez are also defendants in the trial. Laura and her son have not appeared in court, while Brittany is following the proceedings via Zoom. They are shown in 2019<\/p>\n
San Antonio Express-News file photo<\/p>\n
Charlie Thrash, shown in 2018, was the subject of a Netflix documentary that sparked a defamation lawsuit. Thrash is now 88.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
A defamation trial over a Netflix documentary began Wednesday, with a court-appointed guardian alleging she was falsely portrayed as exploiting an elderly man.<\/p>\n
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Tonya Barina of Seguin says Phil Ross<\/a>, Jo Ann Rivera and another defendant interviewed for \u201cGuardianship Inc.,\u201d a 2020 episode of\u00a0Netflix\u2019s \u201cDirty Money\u201d documentary series<\/a>, made false statements that portrayed her as financially exploiting Charles Thrash, whose guardianship became the subject of years of litigation.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Netflix and the documentary\u2019s producers settled with Barina, Thrash\u2019s grand-niece, in October, leaving Ross, Rivera and several others to defend the remaining claims. Ross, a former attorney who surrendered his law license<\/a> in lieu of discipline stemming from his role in the Thrash guardianship, and Rivera are representing themselves at trial.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Risk-taking attorney Phil Ross resigns from practice rather than face discipline for misconduct<\/a><\/p>\n Barina\u2019s attorney, Carl Kolb<\/a>, told jurors the evidence would show the remaining defendants intentionally damaged his client\u2019s reputation, destroying her banking career and causing severe emotional distress. He said Barina would seek more than $2 million in lost earning capacity, along with damages for mental anguish and reputational harm.<\/p>\n Opening arguments<\/p>\n Kolb told jurors the remaining defendants knowingly made false statements about Barina and promised the evidence would prove they intended to damage her reputation.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n San Antonio Express News Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cEvery single one of them knew when they got on Netflix that they were lying about Tonya Barina,\u201d Kolb said during opening statements. \u201cWe\u2019re going to show you the Netflix episode. You\u2019re going to see the lies.\u201d<\/p>\n Kolb said Netflix removed the episode because \u201ceven Netflix knows it\u2019s garbage,\u201d but Ross and Rivera have continued to criticize\u00a0Barina. She received \u201chundreds and hundreds of despicable messages\u201d from people who viewed the documentary, Kolb added.<\/p>\n Ross told jurors the case is about the constitutional right to speak on matters of public concern, arguing that he and Rivera had no control over how their interviews were edited or used in the finished documentary.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, reputation is not as important as freedom of speech,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n SA INC.: Get the week\u2019s top local business stories in your inbox <\/a><\/p>\n Ross also defended his involvement in the underlying guardianship dispute, accusing the court-appointed guardians and their lawyers of depleting Thrash\u2019s estate by about $2 million.<\/p>\n Rivera, who said she previously had a relationship with Ross and worked with him on matters involving the Thrash guardianship, told jurors she created a Facebook page called \u201cThe Journey of Charlie Thrash\u201d that linked to the Netflix documentary. She denied defaming Barina.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThis whole case, it\u2019s emotional,\u201d Rivera said during her opening statement. \u201cI really think all this is about emotion. Guardianships are hard. They\u2019re like divorce, child custody cases. Everybody is fighting for what they think is the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n The guardianship dispute<\/p>\n The case stems from a yearslong legal battle over the guardianship of Thrash, now 88, who owned a San Antonio automotive shop and amassed an estate of about $6 million.<\/p>\n The lawsuit also names Laura Martinez and her children, Joe, Michelle and Brittany, as defendants. Laura Martinez married Thrash in 2015, but a probate judge later\u00a0annulled the marriage<\/a>. Ross represented the Martinez family<\/a> during the guardianship litigation.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Laura Martinez, who also was interviewed for the documentary, and her son did not appear for trial Wednesday. Michelle and Brittany Martinez observed the proceedings by Zoom but did not make opening statements. Barina alleges members of the Martinez family republished the documentary as part of the ongoing defamation campaign.<\/p>\n READ MORE: San Antonio millionaire marriage annulled after abuse, exploitation and \u2018abduction\u2019 claims<\/a><\/p>\n As the first part of Barina\u2019s case, jurors watched the 54-minute documentary.<\/p>\n Barina alleges the documentary portrays guardianship abuse as \u201cthe crime of the 21st century\u201d and falsely implies she committed it.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n About 10 months before the documentary aired, a probate judge sanctioned Ross and Laura and Brittany Martinez in connection with the guardianship litigation.\u00a0Barina contends the documentary omitted those findings, making it misleading.<\/p>\n Testimony is expected to continue through next week. The trial is being held in state\u00a0District Judge Nadine <\/a>Nieto<\/a>\u2019s court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former San Antonio lawyer Phil Ross is one of the defendants who is on trial for allegedly defaming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-382908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}