Jackson Jambalaya

Lindsey Miller compared Rebel Rags to Josef Stalin and Evel Knievel in a motion to strike filed yesterday in Lafayette County Circuit Court.  Mr. Miller is the step-father of former Ole Miss football star Laremy Tunsil. Rebel Rags sued Mississippi State football players Leo Lewis and Kobe Jones for defamation in Lafayette County Circuit Court on June 9.  The complaint also named Lindsey Miller and several John Does as defendants.   A NCAA Notice of Allegations charged that Rebel Rags gave free merchandise to two unnamed players in violation of NCAA guidelines.

Mr. Miller filed a motion to dismiss on July 6, while the two players filed motions to sever each one from the other defendants.  Rebel Rags responded with a massive 389-page gulag of arguments and exhibits on July 21.   However, a section of the response drew the ire of Mr. Miller.  The offending passage stated:

Even without discovery, it is readily apparent in this case that the three named Defendants were located, coached, and guided into the hands of the NCAA's enforcement staff to give significantly similar false accounts of the same prohibited activity - the alleged direction by UM coaches of prospective student athletes to Rebel Rags to obtain free merchandise. The narratives as delivered are strikingly similar. The limited evidence available at this point,  including the MSU fan­-based media's "second letter"and "Chicago Trifecta" predictions and the responses filed by UM and its coaches to the NCAA Allegations, supports the conclusion that MSU athletic department members, a fan-based MSU media site, and at least one NCAA official joined with Defendants Miller,Jones, and Lewis to defame and disparage Rebel Rags.

Miller's  prior involvement  with the MSU  media site is conclusively  demonstrated  by the site's assertions on February 13, 2016, of anticipated troubles for Ole Miss in Chicago, followed on NFL Draft Night by the disclosures of text messages from Laremy Tunsil's cell phone appearing to request rent money from a UM staff member. This was all "predicted" by Robertson. Further, Plaintiff has reason to believe that Jones met and conferred with members of the MSU Athletics Department prior to his being delivered to the NCAA for questioning, only ten days after signing with MSU. This occurred when Jones was still a high school student and not even enrolled at MSU. Lewis' own admission of being instructed by MSU staff as to how to deflect blame from himself and MSU to another university is revealed in the NCAA's interview of another student athlete with whom Lewis had confided.  All of this evidence supports the allegations of a conspiracy involving the three named defendants and others.

Thus Rebel Rags accuses Lindsey Miller of participating in The Great Maroon Conspiracy.  However,  Mr. Miller jumps right back at Rebel Rags with this demand:

3. The Response to Jones makes scandalous statements about Mr. Miller for which no basis in fact exists. Therefore, Mr. Miller seeks an order striking these statements, which are listed below (Motion then quotes the language highlighted in bold letters above). 

Mr. Miller was just getting warmed up in his response:

5. Not even the  late, great, Evel  Knievel  would  have  attempted  the spectacular jump across the prodigious chasm of fantasy that Rebel Rags creates with this flawed specimen of non-sequitur reasoning. Indeed, the anemic causal nexus that Rebel Rags uses to support its claim for civil conspiracy would have made Josef Stalin proud. Stalin's chief of staff, Lavrentia Beria, once advised  the Soviet leader, "You  bring me the man; I'll find  you the crime."   Allegation  No. 9 has brought  the man, i.e.,  Lindsey Miller. Now, Rebel Rags has found the crime, i.e., a civil conspiracy claim that insidiously advances the defamatory connotation that Mr. Miller had known  that someone would leak Mr. Tunsil's text messages on the night of the 2016 NFL Draft.

6.  There is an old adage among  trial lawyers:  "If  the facts are against  you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If they are both against you, destroy the witnesses." Three witnesses (i.e., Messrs. Miller, Lewis, and Jones) have alleged to the NCAA on separate occasions that they had obtained free merchandise from Rebel Rags (whether directly or indirectly). With multiple witnesses saying essentially the same thing, Rebel Rags is in no position to argue the facts. Moreover, since NCAA rules clearly prohibit such gifts from boosters, Rebel Rags cannot argue the law, either. This leaves Rebel Rags with one alternative, viz.: it must destroy the witnesses by dismissing their stories as part of some overarching conspiracy.

7. Rebel Rags would lead the Court  to believe it  has  done  so.  By  using baseless innuendo and mere conjecture to connect Mr. Miller to the 2016 NFL Draft Night fiasco, Rebel Rags believes that it has "conclusively demonstrated" why the testimony of Mr. Miller, who has no reported connection with Messrs. Lewis or Jones, accords with their statements to the NCAA Mr. Miller begs to differ.

Mr. Miller then calls Rebel Rags' bluff in its own Carbomite Maneuver.

8. Mr. Miller respectfully submits  that  if  Rebel  Rags  has  substantial justification to make such a vile and reprehensible insinuation - one that Mr. Miller vehemently denies - then Rebel Rags should be compelled to present the same, post haste,  before  discovery  even  begins.  Otherwise,  if Rebel Rags cannot present substantial justification for such a defamatory allegation, then Mr. Miller respectfully moves this Honorable Court to strike all the pleadings of any reference thereto.

A notice of hearing for August 17 at 9:30 AM in the Marshall County Courthouse  is attached to the motion. Will Mr. Miller's motion crash and burn? Stay tuned.

Earlier posts
Lindsey Miller rips Rebel Rags 
Rebel Rags sues Tunsil's stepdad, MSU players over NCAA allegations.