Brian Weymouth, a Paradise Valley businessman now facing major felony charges, has filed a civil lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court against several county officials and a former business partner.
| Brian Weymouth, who definitely prefers this photo better to his mugshot. |
The suit, which was preceded months ago by a Notice of Claim to the county, comes on the heels of our story about Weymouth's myriad legal woes published a week ago and called "Risky Business."
In case you missed it, here it is.
You may want to check the feature out before reading this blog post any further, but whatever.
Weymouth has pleaded not guilty to charges of theft, trafficking in stolen property and other major felonies connected with a November 2009 incident at a closed Mesa restaurant that he owned with a Wisconsin businessman and Brian Day O'Connor--a son of retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
The restaurant was named after Mexican boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez, who Weymouth represented as an agent for a time before their relationship soured.
Weymouth and his wife Renee filed the lawsuit without official legal representation, though the 53-year-old onetime ASU baseball pitcher told us at one point that former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods was "advising" him.
The 31-page complaint lists O'Connor as the only "civilian" defendant. Also named are Sheriff Joe Arpaio's chief deputy Gerald Sheridan, deputy county attorney Maryann McKessy (who is prosecuting Weymouth), County Attorney Bill Montgomery, and sheriff's detective Brian Mackiewicz.
Weymouth claims "malicious prosecution," "false/wrongful arrest-imprisonment," "defamation," "pattern of unlawful activity," "gross negligence," and other reasons for filing his lawsuit.
"This case is about a systematic--indeed, systemic--corruption and abuse of power and authority by [the defendants] and those acting in concert with them," Weymouth writes, sounding suspiously lawyerly in his prose. "That abuse was directed at Weymouth as well [as] all members of his immediate family.
"In addition, they targeted [Weymouth's] friend(s), former employees, colleagues, employers and business associates past, present and future. Defendants intentionally targeted Brian Weymouth and others to unleash the full intimidating force of their offices."Weymouth is a litigious sort, having other civil cases currently pending against rocker Alice Cooper and Cooper's longtime manager Shep Gordon. (Weymouth once ran and was a part-owner of Coopers'town in downtown Phoenix.) In a separate tort, Weymouth already has sued and was countersued by O'Connor.
He also is the defendant in cases (and has at least one pending judgment against him) claiming that he owes people and financial institutions thousands of dollars.
"Defendants' vindictive personal attacks have taken a devastating toll," Weymouth alleges in his latest suit. "Brian Weymouth's reputation has and continues to be severely damaged. Brian Weymouth has been informed by reliable sources that, as a result of Defendants' actions, a local news media outlet newspaper will be running a story and casting a negative article that is based on false and misrepresented facts and subject to multiple instances of defamation."
One of those "reliable sources" was us--though only the part about doing the story, not the "false and misrepresented facts" clause.
One thing is for certain: Brian Weymouth will be spending a lot of time at the Superior Court complex in downtown Phoenix in the months and even years to come.
