Celebrated anti-war “whistleblower” thrown out of court as a fraud

Posted on October 30, 2008

Rory Mayberry is famous with the anti-Iraq War left. He’s given testimony to Congress; he’s told Stephen Glass-worthy tales of Filipinos being kidnapped and forced to work on the US Embassy construction in Baghdad. He’s told all sorts of tales. The left loves Rory Mayberry. The Democrats on the Senate committees that have heard his testimony love him. But the federal courts aren’t crazy about him as a plaintiff. In the link below, you’ll see that his own lawyer went on record to say that “The client lied to us.”

The Orlando Sentinel reports today that:

Congressional candidate Alan Grayson, an attorney who has built his Central Florida campaign on his fight against Iraq War contractors, has been sanctioned by a federal judge and had one of his cases thrown out. Judge Liam O’Grady of the federal court covering Eastern Virginia chided Grayson for pursuing a case against an Iraq contractor even when it became clear that the plaintiff, his client [Rory Mayberry], “is a pathological liar.” “I have never seen a case with abuses like this go to a stage where we are today,” O’Grady said in a recent hearing. “I think Mr. Grayson and Mr. Kubli have completely abrogated their positions as officers of this court.” O’Grady dismissed the case of Rory Mayberry v. Custer Battles, saying Mayberry had repeatedly lied in the case against the security contractor. The judge also ordered Grayson’s Virginia firm, Grayson & Kubli, to pay a $6,150 sanction.

[incidentally, the attorney Alan Grayson mentioned in the story is running against my congressman, Ric Keller, and looks ahead in the polls. I am not a big fan of Keller, and had at one time considered abstaining in the election as one of those "teach the party a lesson" sort of things, but after watching Grayson's over-the-top crazy ads, I know that Grayson has to be stopped in his tracks and given a timeout]

And hey, here’s another account of another lawsuit with Mayberry as plaintiff:

BUCHAREST, Romania, Oct 20, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Danubia Global Inc, SRL, announced that on October 10, 2008, the US District Court in Virginia (USA) dismissed the entire lawsuit and all claims by plaintiffs Rory Mayberry…[snip]… At the same time, the Court ordered the US Attorney to conduct a full investigation and prosecution against Mayberry for perjury, deception and illegal behavior in the lawsuit and also when Mayberry testified before the US Congress about Iraq in June 2005 and July 2007. The Court determined that there was no factual basis for the lawsuit and that Mayberry had persistently told “astonishing” lies to the Court about the events and facts of the case. Danubia Global, Richard Levinson, and Amy Clark were the subject of several news articles by The Wall Street Journal in 2005-06 based upon Mayberry’s claims. All of the allegations have now been disproved and dismissed by the Court. Plaintiffs Mayberry and Isakson were represented by lawyers Alan Grayson and Victor Kubli, neither of whom appeared in Court to explain themselves or the false statements and reckless actions of the lawsuit. The US District Court stated, “I find also that the sanction imposed against Mr. Mayberry and Grayson & Kubli jointly and severally is totally appropriate. As I said, I find that this case should have been voluntarily dismissed a long time ago, if it should have been brought at all.”

If any of STACLU’s readers has access to PACER (if you don’t know what that it is, don’t worry about it) and can get me a copy of the Mayberry v. Custer Battles, in the Federal Eastern District Court for Virginia, send me something at ArrMatey at CourtZero dot org so I can post source material.

Lastly, since people sadly have to ask this question in this day and age, the judge is a Bush appointee. I note, however, that he had enthusiastic bipartisan support for his confirmation.