Bill Gross and his partner claimed that it was only their love for “Gilligan’s Island” that led them to play the show’s theme song in repetition, but an Orange County judge had another opinion on Wednesday, determining that playing the song in repetition constituted a form of harassment.
Closing a high-profile trial that resulted from complaints about an ornate lawn sculpture, High Court judge Kimberly Knill ordered billionaire bond investor and partner Amy Schwartz not to violate the noise provisions of the Laguna Beach municipal code. music on external speakers when not in the backyard or pool area of your beachfront property.
“People have a good expectation that their home will be their oasis and safe place,” said Knill, who cited several examples of music being played so loudly that it could be heard inside neighbor Mark Towfiq’s house, despite the construction. concrete and half an inch thick double pane windows.
She also determined that Gross, Pimco’s retired co-founder, failed to prove that Towfiq had invaded his privacy – denying Gross’s competing request for a civil harassment order.
Even in Southern California, where feuds between wealthy and famous neighbors are common, the fight that broke out between the wealthy tech entrepreneur and the even richer securities investor attracted attention. It featured the type of legal firepower more typical of high-risk litigation than a dispute between neighbors, with each party employing a battery of lawyers, including fast-track litigants who questioned 11 witnesses.
The decision followed a trial for dueling civil harassment orders that began on November 9 and ended last week after nine days of testimony and closing arguments, including a pause when Gross, 76, and Schwartz, 51, were potentially exposed to coronavirus.
One side claimed to be harassed by loud music after complaining about nets placed to protect the sculpture; the other side claimed an invasion of privacy by a neighbor they accused of being a spy.
Chase Scolnick, the lawyer for Towfiq’s court and his wife, said he was satisfied with the decision. “No amount of money or public relations disclosure can hide the truth here. Our customers have been having a nightmare, ”he said.
Jill Basinger, Gross and Schwartz’s lawyer, said she was disappointed by the judge’s decision, but said “it was not some kind of censorship from Bill Gross or Amy Schwartz”, who worked with the Laguna Beach planning department to ensure permits for sculpture.
“This order only directs them to continue doing what they already do: follow the law,” she said in her e-mailed statement.
Gross also issued a statement that, although “disappointed with the outcome”, he would abide by the terms of the decision, although he complained that “the case should never have reached this point” – saying he made offers for a deal. He said he “would continue to dance all night, ‘Gilligan Island’ forever”.
The view from Mark Towfiq’s pool deck includes the glass sculpture Dale Chilhuly on the lawn with a hammock.
(Mark Towfiq)
The blue blown glass lawn sculpture by artist Dale Chihuly, whose work adorns the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, was installed by Gross and Schwartz last year near the property they share with Towfiq and his wife on a stretch of the South Coast Highway.
Towfiq testified that while the 22-foot-long installation featuring a swimming marlin, fishing globes and cobalt-colored reeds “was not necessarily our style,” he and his wife, Carol Nakahara, were not bothered by it. However, he said they were much less satisfied when their neighbors erected a 3.6-meter-high network structure in April to protect the sculpture during logging and stormy weather – although it rarely fell. Nakahara, in the stands, called it “legitimately like a big football network”.
Towfiq said he tried several times to resolve the problem, sending text messages to Schwartz, contacting the couple’s property manager and even sending a letter. He said he ultimately felt “helpless” and decided to complain to the city, which issued Gross a violation notice on July 28 stating that the sculpture and the network structure were not allowed. Over the next weekend, Towfiq testified, the sound harassment began. “I immediately connected the two,” he said.
Part of the trial was spent on noise complaints, including the allegation that Gross and Schwartz played the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song in a loop at any time. Towfiq testified that it was “almost like PTSD”.
In support of the charges, Towfiq’s lawyer called the Laguna Beach police officers to the stand, who testified that they heard loud music from the property while responding to noise complaints. One of the policemen and a city law official also testified that Gross and Schwartz said they would cut down on music if Towfiq dropped his complaint about the sculpture.
Towfiq’s lawyers highlighted a text by Gross responding to his client’s request to lower the song: “Peace on all fronts or well, just have big boy night shows.” Gross testified that the text referred to the act of taking pictures of Towfiq, behavior that the bond investor described as “spying”. Knill decided that the explanation was not “plausible”.
Gross’s legal team tried to dig holes in the noise harassment allegations, calling an audio expert to raise doubts about the accuracy of Towfiq’s iPhone recordings, since the volume controls can be manipulated. “Yes. It’s true. Mr. Gross and Ms. Schwartz play music. They play music at night. They like music,” argued Basinger.
She said the only recording evidence presented at the trial of the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song and the loud music that was being played after 9 pm occurred over the weekend after receiving the city’s notice. She argued that it was only because the couple had recently discovered that the TV show was special to them. Schwartz testified that the couple discovered that the opening credits for “Gilligan’s Island” featured a scene shot in Newport Beach that was identical to a view from another house they had there.
In her decision, however, Knill cited repeated examples of loud music being played that she found disturbing, even when played during the day. She disregarded the expert’s testimony about the accuracy of the iPhone, looking at recordings that captured music that could be heard on Towfiq’s property.
In an attempt to prove that Towfiq had an obsession with Gross and Schwartz, Basinger cited questions that Towfiq had asked the neighbor who sells the house and a real estate agent about the couple before they moved out. But when she questioned Towfiq about these questions, she got a response repeated in news as far away as Britain. Towfiq testified that he was warned by his neighbor that “I would not like a furious billionaire with a short fuse to live near me”. Towfiq said he was aware of media coverage of the billionaire’s unpleasant divorce and an unpleasant departure from Pimco.
Before Gross took a stand, he published an open letter calling for an end to the trial and all other legal procedures between the two sides, saying that both should donate their expected fees to the COVID-19 relief organizations in the area. “In the midst of this terrible global tragedy, part of the media is paralyzed by … a man who plays the theme song of a 1960s sitcom and another who records him doing it,” the letter states.
Towfiq’s chief lawyer, Jennifer Keller, rejected it, claiming that Gross was “seriously losing his judgment” and wanted to “stem the tide of negative press”. She added that if Gross really wanted to end this, he should pay Towfiq’s legal fees and apologize for the “horrible lies” spread over him. But when the trial resumed, the opposite side doubled over, with Gross testifying that he and Schwartz had dubbed their neighbor “Peeping Mark”.
Schwartz, a former professional tennis player, testified that she witnessed Towfiq invading her privacy several times, recording it when she was swimming. “I’m scared. I feel violated. I’m scared. I’m in a bikini or less,” she said.
There was no photographic evidence sent to support his claim, and Knill found that the recordings were made to document the noise violations. However, her decision does not technically apply to Schwartz’s allegations, since she never filed her own civil harassment order.
Still, the judge said she considered Schwartz’s behavior on the witness stand in relation to the “evasive and defensive” noise dispute and gave “little or no weight to the testimony”.
She, however, warned Towfiq for an incident that occurred on August 15, when he recorded Gross near his property, while his neighbor was dressed in minimal clothing. She said the video may have constituted an invasion of privacy, but it was not enough to support a civil harassment order.
After Knill’s decision, Towfiq’s legal team sought to have the judge order Gross to pay his client’s legal fees, but the judge asked for a separate motion on the request.
Although his attempt to resolve the case failed, Gross announced on December 10 that he had donated $ 500,000 to Orange County aid organizations. A spokesman said the figure is equivalent to what the billionaire spent on the dispute, including separate lawsuits that the two sides have started and have not yet been tried.