Troy Worden—the former president of the Berkeley College Republicans—has filed a motion against Yvette Felarca, well-known instigator and anarchist, who filed a frivolous civil restraining order complaint against Worden. His motion claims damages worth more than $100,000, including Worden’s attorney fees and sanctions against Felarca and her lawyers. Dhillon Law Group represented Worden in his legal defense and now in this motion, and in his broader quest to see his civil rights protected from false, speech-suppressing claims.
Frivolous Restraining Order Against Worden Dropped
Some important background: Felarca is a national organizer for the group The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary, commonly shortened to By Any Means Necessary (BAMN).
Felarca is also the regional leader of the group’s Berkeley unit. Essentially, this is a far-left group of rabble-rousers who position themselves alongside AntiFa—but, true to their name, they’ll go to great lengths – “any means” – to advance their political agenda. Too often, this involves breaking laws, suppressing the First Amendment rights of others, and even resorting to violence. Felarca herself has been arrested twice in the second half of 2017 in connection with two separate violent incidents.
Felarca filed a restraining order against Worden on completely fabricated and frivolous grounds—restricting his civil rights and making it difficult for him to navigate the campus where he is a student. Felarca, it should be noted, is not an enrolled student at Berkeley—yet she has taken a radical and vitriolic stance against the basic rights of the campus’s College Republicans, of which her vendetta against Worden is emblematic.
Read more on Felarca’s frivolous TRO against Worden.
Worden Fights Back for His First Amendment Rights
Felarca’s restraining order was dismissed in late October after several court appearances by Worden and his lawyers at Dhillon Law Group. Since then, Worden has sought to reclaim his liberties. In addition to his motion for $100,000 in damages, he has also asked the court to sanction Felarca’s lawyers, Shanta Driver (who is a national leader of BAMN) and Ronald Cruz, also affiliated with BAMN. Driver is an attorney licensed to practice in Michigan, but who frequently makes appearances in California lawsuits relating to BAMN despite not being admitted to practice law in California. Driver and Cruz are accused in the motions of offering perjured testimony from their witnesses, given that extensive video and documentary evidence disprove their case. The only possible purpose of the frivolous motion and false testimony was to interfere with Worden’s extensive First Amendment speech and right of association activities.
The only person against whom there is evidence of harassing or threatening behavior in this matter is Felarca, who is twice-over out on bail, having been arrested for charges of assault, resisting arrest, and even inciting a riot. She continues to advocate for achieving her political goals “by any means necessary.”
Read more on the early stages of this fight.
Going After BAMN
Says Worden, “I am glad that we are no longer playing defense and that we are finally going after BAMN for filing this frivolous action.”
His attorney agrees. “Felarca and her attorney attempted to make free speech expensive and it is time that they pay for their misuse of the court system,” notes the Dhillon Law Group’s Mark Meuser.
“This case represented a striking imbalance in power in that we had a poor college student about to lose his constitutional rights because a massive organization had the resources to try to crush him in court,” adds Dhillon Law Group managing partner Harmeet K. Dhillon. “The Dhillon Law Group is proud that we could help level the playing field and turn the tables.”
And make no mistake about it: The actions of BAMN constitute bullying, plain and simple—their restraining order a transparent attempt at harassment against someone whose only offense is holding different political beliefs – and firmly articulating them. These are the kinds of civil rights cases Dhillon Law Group is proud to support. We will continue to fight for Worden and those like him whose rights are threatened through political persecution, in some cases, like this one, using the courts as a weapon.
