Posted on
October 16, 2014 in
On April 5th TSU law student Amir Tavakkoli sent me this message via my website:
Your name: Amir Tavakkoli
Your E-mail Address: [redacted] Your Phone Number: [redacted] The defendant’s Name: Amir Tavakkoli
The defendant’s date of birth: [redacted] The court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals/Appeal from 9th COA
The case number: 09-13-00082-CR
Your message to Bennett & Bennett:
Dear Mr. Bennett:I hope this email finds you well. My name is Amir Tavakkoli and I am graduating from law school in May. You may know me from my days working at the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. I have a request.
I filed a writ of habeas corpus last year for a 2006 misdemeanor conviction that I have which is giving me immigration issues. This is the only thing on my record. When I google my name, there is a link to your cite that takes it straight to the opinion for my writ. As a lawyer, you know the importance of reputation and the use of google by perspective employers. While I know that I must disclose my misdemeanor to employer, I do not necessarily want to let everyone know about the immigration issue and hope to put it in the past. I am requesting that you remove this case from your list. The case number is 09-13-00082-CR from the Ninth Court of Appeals and discretionary review denied by TX Court of Criminal Appeals.
Thank you for your understanding.
The page Tavakkoli was asking that I remove is on a site I created to automatically republish in HTML format the opinions of Texas’s appellate courts in criminal cases. ((The courts publish their opinions in PDF format, so the site does some data extraction, which isn’t quite ready for prime time.))
As a matter of principle I won’t remove a blog post unless I got the facts objectively wrong. The opinion in question is public information and always will be. It’s available directly from the court. There are other public records—on the Ninth Court of Appeals site, on the Montgomery County Clerk’s site, on Publicdata.com, and on the Harris County District Clerk’s website—about Tavakkoli’s criminal history. But knowing the importance of reputation, not wanting to contribute to Tavakkoli’s issues, and being a nice guy (at least until I get poked with a stick) I changed all occurrences of Tavakkoli’s name to “A.T.” ((I have since restored the page to its original condition.))
A month later Tavakkoli emailed me again (poke!):
Hi Mr Bennett
I hope this email finds you well. Sorry for the inconvenience, however, it seems that the content is still active on your site. Below is a message I receive from google when I request to remove the URL.
Analyzing URL
https://texascriminalslipopinions.bennettandbennett.com/?p=38752
The content is still live on the web.
Before Google can remove it from our search results, the site owner needs to take down or update the content.
Thank you!—
Amir Tavakkoli
Research Editor, Thurgood Marshall Law Review
Vice President, Thurgood Marshall School of Law Class of 2014
I had already updated the content. I responded:
Your name is not on that page.
He replied (poke!):
Thanks!
May we please remove the whole link? Although the name does not show on the page, when my name is searched “Amir Tavakkoli Houston”, the link is still at the top and a quick reading of it shows enough identifying information, such as born and raised in Iran, that the reader would know it is me.
Thank you for your attention.
I wrote back:
In short, no. Your problem is with Google. Stop bugging me.
To which Tavakkoli responded:
If you were in my situation, what would you have done? I am in no way trying to bug you or disrespect you. Like you, I have other things to focus on as well, like preparing for the bar. A removal of the link from your site would solve this issue.
I have just graduated from law school and looking for a job, and you know that this information can be very hurtful.
You will not receive any more emails from me.
That was May 31st. I thought that was the last of it: I had done Amir Tavakkoli the entirely unnecessary favor of redacting his name, and his beef was with the search engines for continuing to index the site as though it contained his name.
Then today this came in the mail:
https://blog.bennettandbennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/20141015114317.pdf
Oddly, and perhaps ironically, when I search for Amir Tavakkoli on Google, I only see one result that looks like a Texas court decision in the first 100 responses, and it’s not your site. I wonder if maybe he wasn’t running the search from an incognito browser, so Google was personalizing his results in some way that made that page more relevant. (E.g. Every time this user searches for that name, he clicks on this link, so let’s put this link near the top, even if it isn’t in the index anymore, because he likes it so much.)
On the other hand, this page is now the 25th result. And it’s the 5th result if I search for “Amir Tavakkoli Houston”.
Mr. Mark Draughn
Thank you for your input. My issue was always with the second term phrase search that included Houston than the first.
Mark, when I started writing this post the TCSOß page was at the top of page 2 for “Amir Tavakkoli Houston”. Had he not kept poking, his marijuana conviction and reckless-driving charge would have receded into history. And really, who the hell cares about marijuana and reckless driving? I’d hire a kid with criminal history; I wouldn’t hire a kid with a hyperinflated and misdirected sense of honor.
Now a search for “Amir Tavakkoli Houston” (no quote marks) doesn’t turn up the TCSOß page before the Court of Appeals opinion, which would have been the best Tavakkoli could have hoped for, if only he could have held out for a few more days.
[Update: at the moment a Google search for “amir tavakkoli site:texascriminalslipopinions.bennettandbennett.com” (no quotes) turns up no results, which means that Google finally did its job and dropped the connection between Tavakkoli’s name and the page. Unfortunately, Tavakkoli couldn’t bring himself to put away the shovel and stop digging.]
Hmm. Doesn’t know you very well does he?
Also, to feed the spiders: Amir Tavakkoli Houston.
And here is the follow up apology I sent and Mark’s response for people to see the whole story if Mark allows it to be posted and does not edit the comment. You make the judgment (and Mark, thanks for giving me more reason to sue you. I really feel sorry for you. I see it as you are trying to get publicity which I really don’t think you need. I also feel sorry for you because by the time I am your age, I will have accomplished more than you ever will in your life. What a great battle you have picked, I call you a true warrior. If only people saw your true colors). Here is the follow up apology and Mark’s response:
My Apology on 10/15/2014:
And here is Mark’s Response a few hour later:
Amir, good luck with those great accomplishments you’re dreaming of. Drop back by when you’ve gotten a couple of statutes held unconstitutional and freed a bunch of people from prison.
Until then, as far as I’m concerned (though I’ve kept the opinion to myself till now) you’re just another no-account dumbass wannabe with shitty judgment, lousy writing skills, and an inflated view of yourself.
And remember (though I suspect Rule 7 governs): you picked the fight when you threatened to sue me.
Amir, it’s not possible you are this stupid, but if you are, let me try and help: You’ve already lost.
Hey Amir Tavakkoli from Houston,
I don’t really have much of an opinion about any of this either way. Although, If your threats to sue people help them “get publicity” could you threaten to sue me, too?
Step 1: have Amir Tavakkoli threaten to sue you.
Step 2:
Step 3: Profit!
Didn’t they write a Southpark episode about that?
Amir, I hope Mark tearing you a new one finds you well.
Wow
Amir, you stupid fuck. I actually spent a while trying to convince Mark to take it easy on you.
Now you go and do this to yourself.
You might want to go join Prenda. Or start Rakofsky, Carreon, and Tavakkoli.
How do you say “Rakofsky” in Farsi? Tavakkoli!
I’m reminded of popehat’s Ken White and his rules regarding abusive lawsuits and speech. This is going to be interesting.
I want to apologize to everyone on this board and especially Mr. Bennett for my actions. I realize that I was mistaken in this case and can totally see how if I was in Mr. Bennett’s position, I would be very upset that a young lawyer would make such statements towards me. The truth is I can only strive to someday even come close to achieving what Mr. Bennett has accomplished in his career (although he is definitely not finished). My action were due to being young, and only looking for my own best interests. I have a lot of growing up to do and hope to only get better as my career moves forward. I genuinely ask for everyone’s forgiveness.
Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Bennett
I think Mr. Amir should be barred he left me in the middle of an appeal with a jury trial. I got to court and was expected to pick the jury. I asked amir for my folder and he does not reply.yesterday I saw for the first time my case was dismissed in my favor. The other side motioned for reinststment and amir filrd a motion to up hold. But what I read was unbelievable his statements showed how out of touch he was. He stated untrue facts that were so outrageous. His stupidity and selfish greed sealed my fate. The price I paid was being thrown out of my own home which i
There’s a court order stating I own 75% of at sell . and I’m homeless now. And Mr amir has the balls to bill me. He needs to get over himself and leave this country. He does not respect females by no means I paid a high price for his ignorance.