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A man who says his eyes were injured when a group of YouTubers pepper-sprayed him at a Mountain View Costco has filed a lawsuit seeking millions of dollars in damages, as well as a court order forcing them to end their channels.
Paul Rubino, a maintenance worker in Milpitas, alleges his eyesight was damaged after he was attacked by a group of four “First Amendment auditors” on March 28 while shopping at the Costco on North Rengstorff Avenue.
According to Mountain View police and Rubino, as he was leaving the store, Rubino asked the group why they were filming shoppers. After a brief verbal confrontation, the group allegedly followed Rubino to his car and pepper-sprayed him.
A police report alleges that Northridge resident Richard Maza, 51, deliberately provoked the encounter in order to claim self-defense in pepper-spraying Rubino and attract views for his channel to monetize the interaction.
“They were terrorizing people that were just trying to do their shopping,” Rubino said in an interview with this news organization. “It was one of those things that I felt the need to step in to protect people. And it quickly turned into a threatening situation where these guys followed me.”
Rubino said that when he tried to leave, the group followed him to his car and tried to get his address from a package in his car. Maza put his camera through Rubino’s open car window as he was trying to leave and when he pushed it away, Maza pepper-sprayed Rubino.
“It was a shock,” Rubino said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before and the next thing I know, these guys are taping me and they’re enjoying what’s going on.”
The group that was at the Costco included Maza, who posts on the channel “Freedom of the Press,” Richard Troyan of Canada, who is behind a channel titled “True North Transparency,” and father and son duo Conrad and Nick Rankin who run iiMPACT Media. They refer to their videos as “First Amendment audits,” because there’s a constitutional right to film in most public places. Then the “auditors” upload their videos of people’s reactions to sites like YouTube.
Maza was arrested by Mountain View police and charged with two felonies stemming from the incident. Police claimed that Maza mocked the people he pepper-sprayed on social media which is “not typical of victims who are truly defending themselves,” officers said in a police report.
Police stated that videos on Maza’s channel where he uses pepper spray have three times the views of his other videos.
Rubino and his attorney say that while YouTube may not be legally responsible for the content, the company has an ethical obligation to stop profiting from the videos. Mountain View-based Google, which owns YouTube, did not respond to requests for comment. YouTube and Google are not named as parties to the suit.
In Rubino’s lawsuit against all four YouTubers, he is being represented by Redwood City attorney Andrew Watters.
Watters is pursuing his own separate lawsuit against the group after encountering them at Draeger’s Market in Menlo Park and posting his own video of the interaction.
“I think they’re profiting from these violent incidents, and that’s something we’re going to explore,” Watters said.
As of April 22, it does not appear that video of the Mountain View incident has been posted on any channel and videos from the Menlo Park incident, which were viewed by this news organization, have been taken down.
Rubino said that he has suffered vision loss, pain and trouble sleeping after being pepper-sprayed. Doctors told Rubino that he sustained an 80% corneal abrasion for 10 days. While his vision has improved since the March 28 incident, Rubino said in an interview that it continues to be impacted.
Rubino described the pepper spray as causing excruciating pain and said it’s like he’s looking through frosted glass. He said that he has been on modified assignment for his job because of his injury.
In both lawsuits, Watters said that the group’s actions amount to racketeering by using threats or actual violence to extort people. Watters alleges that the group is intentionally causing confrontations so they can film what comes next.
“It’s like an arsonist who is also a firefighter. The firefighter goes and sets a fire and then he becomes a hero when he extinguishes it,” Watters said. “They’re profiting from it, and they do it intentionally to provoke a reaction.”
In Watters’ personal lawsuit, he is appealing the denial of his initial request for an order preventing the group from interacting with him as the lawsuit works its way through the court system
On March 29, the day after the Mountain View incident, and while Maza was still in jail, Troyan and Conrad and Nick Rankin were seen in downtown Menlo Park, where Troyan was filmed pepper-spraying a man in front of the Ace Hardware.
The Menlo Park Police Department said that, with the help of Mountain View police, they have sent a case to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, which was still deciding whether to pursue charges against one or more of the YouTubers at the time of this story’s publication.
For the Mountain View incident, Rubino is seeking attorney’s fees and $3 million in damages: $1 million for his injury, medical costs and pain and suffering, multiplied by three as allowed under the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. He is also asking that the group be forced to divest from their channels and any related companies, along with being referred to the FBI for criminal charges.
“This has been a very traumatizing thing, not just the pain but also the emotional impact. I haven’t been the same dude,” Rubino told this news organization. “Someone needs to answer for that.”
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