I’m currently involved in a legal dispute with San Marcos Toyota, part of the Keating Auto Group, regarding serious issues surrounding a service mishandling and breach of agreement. Their legal representative, Brandon Starling of White, Starling & Osterman, has been handling the case on their behalf, and what has unfolded is nothing short of bizarre.
This blog post is the first of several. I’ll be sharing a timeline of events, including key filings and correspondence. But for now, I’m starting with a screenshot of an email Mr. Starling sent me, because it speaks volumes all on its own.
After he filed a motion asking the court to dismiss my small claims case with prejudice and to sanction me $5,000, the judge briefly granted it, despite the fact that such sanctions aren’t even applicable under small claims rules. Fortunately, within an hour, the court reversed course. A revised certificate was issued by the clerk: the case was now dismissed without prejudice, and on grounds of lack of subject matter jurisdiction, not harassment, which, for the record, was a baseless smear tactic in the first place.
But it appears Mr. Starling never saw that final certificate. He seemed to operate under the impression that the case had been permanently closed, and that I no longer had the right to speak publicly about it. He promptly sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding I remove public posts, and implied that if I didn’t, they might enforce that $5,000 sanction, again, something that wasn’t valid to begin with.
I responded, rejecting the cease and desist and asserting my First Amendment rights. I also reminded him that the case had not been dismissed with prejudice, and that I fully intended to refile on Monday.
Rather than wait until Monday to discuss the situation with his client like a professional, Mr. Starling sent back what can only be described as a highly emotional email, embedded not in a legal document, but in the body of a personal message.
In it, he mocked me, insulted my work, and bizarrely referenced having looked up my books on Amazon. He ended his rant with the classic internet kiss-off: “Have a nice life.”
This wasn’t a legal reply. It wasn’t even about his client. It was personal. And frankly, unprofessional. At this point, it appears he was no longer acting as a representative of the dealership, but as someone emotionally entangled in a case that had not gone his way.
The story doesn’t end here. I’ll be publishing follow-up posts detailing:
How my case was mishandled
Why Brandon Starling’s filings are deeply flawed
And how I plan to refile and pursue justice, this time with even stronger documentation
Stay tuned.
