Medina vs. Wright - My side of the story

Here is my answer to Luis Medina's ridiculous lawsuit he has filed against me. 

 

COUNT ONE:  FRAUD

 

1)  True.  I purchased a 12volt model and he sent a 24volt as he does not manufacture 12 volt mowers but sells them on his site.

2)  I purchased with intentions of becoming an authorized dealer for Evatech, Inc.  See "Friendly Discount"  In Exhibit A

3) "As his own"??   No, but as an authorized dealer for Evatech, inc.  Having different model numbers made it difficult for Luis to steal sales from which I spent time and money to generate. 

4) Charles Blackwell - After the first 5 sales of 2010 ended with the customer waiting 3 months for a mower that did not work (which leads to negative feedback for Evatech and the dealers) I decided to build Charles a mower as he demanded it to be on time for Father's Day.  He paid a 50% deposit of $1175.00 on Father's Day after I told him I would rush his build and discount to meet his budget in an attempt to get positive feedback for Evatech and the dealers.  Charles wanted brochures to hand out to friends he said would be likely to place an order as well.  But, not if he waited 3 months for a mower that didn't work.   After waiting for the electronics to ship I discovered the engine I had on the shelf didn't work.  I had to order another engine and UPS sent it to the West Coast by mistake.  And, just like that, Charles was an angry customer wanting his money back.  I talked him into letting me finish the mower and with a video demonstration and his approval, we would meet up in Birmingham, Alabama for a live demonstration where he paid the remaining balance of $1175.00.  The next day he called and said the battery would not stay charged.  I advised him to tighten the belt and charger the batteries overnight as we drove it a lot during the demonstration without the engine running.   Turns out, another customer at the same time was having the same issue with the problem being the new pulley/ blade adapter combination was too small to turn the alternator fast enough.  I sent the other customer a larger pulley and he wrote back and said, "it works like a charm!"   Charles, however, refused the replacement pulley and demanded a refund in which I did not have.   He said he was going to call Luis and tell him I tricked him using Evatech's photos.  The video and pictures Luis has as Exhibit F,G,H,I, & J are the ones I sent to Charles Blackwell prior to the live demonstration in Birmingham where he paid the balance due in cash.

5) Jason Jaarsveld - Works for ISCO procurement in Angola,  South Africa where he ordered two special order mowers for Chevron Oil Company.  Chevron wanted the mowers and parts to last two years in the extreme conditions of the jungle located on the equator.  I wanted them happy in hopes of Chevron ordering Evatech mowers for all of their oil plants around the world.  Based on Luis's track record,  I had to build them if that was going to happen.

6)  Thomas and Ricardo demanded their mowers be on time.  So, again I did not submit those to Evatech, Inc.  After about two weeks after they placed their order, I noticed I wasn't going to have time to build them as I was busy on the Africa order.  They contacted Evatech for a status report not knowing I had planned to build their mowers.  Both customers got their money back and Ricardo never returned $200 I mailed to him as he paid shipping twice by mistake.

 

Fraud?  NO there was never any deception what so ever.

 

COUNT TWO - INFRINGEMENT ON A U.S. PATENT

 

The mowers I built do not make and store electricity when going down a hill.  They can not go down a hill without using electricity.  I did not build hybrid lawn mowers.  Luis's Patent should be found invalid as the mower is not a hybrid that saves fuel and generates electricity going down a hill.  Both of his patents are as deceptive as he is.  Yes.  I built remote control lawn mowers for customers to give positive feedback about Evatech and his number one dealer, Southern RobotX.  I did this while I was listed as an authorized dealer for Evatech, Inc. at Evatech.net.  It was not a hybrid remote control lawn mower as his patent describes nor was it in competition with Evatech as in Hanxing does.  I built those mowers to generate positive feedback for Evatech, Inc. and the dealers to increase sales which has yet to happen. 

5)  The tracked model was for a customer wanting my design and can not be revealed in this case as Luis is likely steal the design from me.  I was working on his patented design back in 1993 before he did, but I do not have proof except for testimony from parents.  I was using 12volt power wheels electronics where Luis uses 24 volt Power Chair electronics, both of which are DC Electric motors.  I used the deck as a frame where he uses a deck separated from the frame.  Both my design and his utilizes an alternator to keep the battery charged but it does not save fuel.  It takes more energy to cut grass and spin the alternator that it does to just cut grass.  The tracked model I have should be dismissed as it is no where close to his patent.  i will show my drafted drawings but not to Luis.

6 & 7)  The brochures luis has as Exhibit L & M claim abilities to climb steep hills and 40% & 25% fuel savings which are false.  There is no video in existence with uninterpreted footage of his mowers on slopes.  He deceives people into thinking they are practical on slopes.  Than can be if his design worked but I am now convinced he has no intentions of making them work.

11 & 12)  The Chinese company, Hanxin, LTD does compete with Evatech, inc.  A letter of apology and them stopping their marketing here in the U.S. is hard to believe with the e-Mails I have from Tammy Medina to Jack An of hanxing.

 

COUNT THREE - SLANDER

 

Everything I have said is true.  i told Luis in several text messages to give me the $600 he was trying to steal or I would expose him and did so.  (More on this in COUNT SIX - EXTORTION)  I talked about his 12 volt vs 24 volt scam in my blogs.  Would be customers should know these things.  I talked of him not including batteries and not letting you know until you get the mower home.  It is not a battery you can just go out to Wal-Mart and pick up.  I started sending customers batteries to minimize negative feedback.  Him telling people three weeks and taking three months and then it doesn't work?  Did he not think to test the mowers before shipping?  No.  He knew it didn't work when he shipped them.  I didn't say that because I can't prove it.  Everything I have said is true and can be proven.  Crooked wheels that the customer has to fix and massive grass build up on the passenger side rear sprocket of the tracked models that prevents uninterrupted mowing can all be proven as well.

 

COUNT FOUR - THEFT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND TRADE SECRETS

 

I have e-mail after e-mail that proves I had permission to use marketing materials as an authorized dealer of Evatech, Inc.  I had permission to advertise my company, which sold Evatech products, using his pictures and videos.  I have email setting up a conference call between me, Frank Kolrich (another dealer that was done wrong by Luis)  Brian Nagamatsu (shareholder/ patent engineer), Drew Barry (didn't attend as Luis had just stole from him) and , of coarse, Luis Medina.  In the conference call Luis wanted me to share my secrets for internet marketing and Frank to share his secrets for "brick & mortar" marketing.

 

Theft of Intellectual Property and Trade Secrets?  -  NO

 

COUNT FIVE - HARASSMENT

 

2) I attempted to let him know I was not going to just let him walk away with money not his.  The $600 brain was mailed at the time he filed this lawsuit.  A good 5 months late.  He had no intentions of refunding the money nor giving the man a working motor controller.  So, yea, I had harsh words for Luis Medina. 

 

COUNT SIX - EXTORTION

 

1)  The complaint reads, "...if he did not give him money...."  The money in question was for a customer that was told two weeks to fix a motor controller issue with an Evatech mower.  Luis had no intentions of refunding the money he paid nor sending the man a working motor controller, or brain as referred to by Luis.  He mailed it to the guy at the same time he filed this lawsuit.  As in Count Five, yea, I had a few choice words for Mr. Medina.  But, Extorsion?  NO that is ridiculous.

 

COUNT SEVEN - LOSS OF INCOME

 

1)  The week of August 23rd 2009 was not much better than 2010 as lawn mowers do not sell very well (if at all) at the end of August.  And now that Evatech's number one dealer no longer has a web site or a You Tube channel with over a million views because Luis told them I didn't have permission to use his pictures (which I have proof I did) I wouldn't think his sales would be anything at all.  His sales are down.  Good.

2)  I agree that the time and energy spent should have been spent on his company.

3)  I did not state that I attached harmful information to his website.  I told people that if they clicked his bogus "WIN ONE" link that their web browser would warn them he is setting them up for spam mail.  He made a fake You Tube video for a contest winner starring his relatives that is easy to prove.

 

As for the guys he had to lay off?  They were hired because of the mowers we sold at the Expo last year in October which he did not deliver until March.  I did not get a penny from those sales.

 

4) In Exhibit Z, Luis looses his temper says my internet movement increases his sales but yet, he is suing me for loss of income.  The email is full of lies and could be used against him.

 

The Plaintiff Prays For:

 

1) Stop disparaging acts... I will not stop telling the truth about what he has done to me.

2) Stop Contact...I Did

3) I have never infringed and have no intentions of doing so.  The mowers I built to help his company do not match his hybrid patents.

4) I will not remove what is mine.

5) I did not copy his patent.  Hybrid is his patent.  I did not build hybrids with gyros.  Nor does he.

6) Loss of income is not my fault

7) Loss of sales is his fault. 

8) Emotional distress is not my fault.  Seek therapy.

9) I will not pay your cost anymore.

10)  If the court deems proper, I will obied by the court.

 

Counter

 

Luis Medina has caused emotional distress, financial burdens, etc. by stealing sales.  My uncle loaned me over $40,000 in generating awareness and advertising Southern RobotX as an authorized dealer.  After no ROI (because of Luis stealing sales) he stopped investing.  I talked him into one more investment for the 2009 GIE + EXPO.  It paid off.  Only Luis did not share a dime of the profits.  My uncle will not help me anymore and not even for this lawsuit.  I have since sparked the interest of an investor group to fund the manufacture and distribution of my design.  If this ridiculous lawsuit turns them away, I will counter sue Evatech, Inc. (Luis Medina) for $5 million which is the probable profits for 2011 after the initial investment proposal pending as of October 10th,  2010.   In any direction the investors choose, I am seeking to have Luis Medina's two patents to be found invalid as they are deceptive in their descriptions.  The hybrid design described in the two patents can not save fuel nor build and store energy going down a hill as they both lead one to believe.  In fact, the way they are described, uses more energy as it has to cut grass and turn an alternator.  Not to mention, one can hold a straight line easier with a push mower eliminating the need to double cut sections missed by the first pass made which further uses more fuel.

My Life in a Nutshell...

I had the idea of a remote control lawn mower from back in the 90's when I was a spoiled teenager living at home with Moma.  That seed was planted after I saw the movie, "Honey, I Shrunk the kids" back in the 80's.  I was always into racing motocross, building and racing remote control cars, and taking things to the next level.   I took my niece's Power Wheel's Barbi Jeep and combined it with a remote control car and a lawn mower.  I never went too far with it before Jamie (my oldest son) came along and I started framing houses and growing up a bit. 

Back in the day, when I lived in Byhalia, life was good.  I just didn't know it.  I was a framing contractor for lots of local home builders building an average of 500 houses a year.  Money was good.  Racing motocross on a national level every weekend after practicing all week on my private practice track was my way of life.  I kept our race bikes in the living room.  My house was the garage.  Me and both of my kids qualified for the World Finals in Vegas 2 years in a row.  Jamie's best finish was 9th and I was running 5th before I landed on my head while still attached to the bike.  I got up and finished 12th that year.  Rene finished 17th on a small bike up against all big bikes and older girls in the women's division.  I can guarantee you we had more fun than anyone there.  And that was why we raced.  It sure as hell wasn't for the money. 

Between racing dirt bikes every weekend, casinos every rainy day, and a super-high maintenance girlfriend, I was never able to save a dime.  I was living paycheck to paycheck on a $360K a year income.  Boy, if I had it to do over again, I might not have dropped $10K at the casino like it wasn't nothing and saved a little money here and there.  The economy crashed right after our last trip to Vegas and people stopped buying houses.  I was pretty much out of a job.  While I was living it up, I acquired a $750K debt with the IRS by working over 100 Mexicans for 10 years and not paying my taxes.  I lost everything over a 2 year period except for my debt with ol' Uncle Sam.  I had to come up with a way to make money; and a lot of it.

Living in a trailer park in New Albany, facing eviction and hiding from the repo man, I asked my uncle to invest in my idea to build and sell remote control lawn mowers.  Picking up where I left off from my teenage years, I went with 12VDC components thinking 12VDC would be cheaper.   Driving it around on concrete was okay.  However, about $3000 later I learned 24VDC power is needed to propel a 150 pound lawnmower across uneven terrain in lawn mowing applications.   To convert the 12VDC to 24VDC was going to cost more money and my Uncle pulled the plug.  He found this company on the Internet selling 12VDC mowers just like what I was working on.  He said I should learn how to sell these things and signed me up as a dealer for Evatech, Inc.  He said,  "What do you mean, it can't be done?  This guy sells 12VDC units!"

When the 12VDC demo unit finally arrived (2 months later), it was equipped with 24VDC components and not the 12VDC as advertised.  Evatech offers four different residential models with the only real difference being the price and electric start.  Every mower he sold used 24VDC components.  This should have been a red flag that Evatech is bad news.  So,  I was right.  It can't practically be done without spending a fortune on aluminum to make it light weight.  And even still, I don't think aluminum would make it light enough for the 12VDC motors to work efficiently.   And if it can be done, it doesn't make since when 24VDC is not that expensive.

Learning how to sell a concept idea product was a fun adventure.  I built a web site as a dealer for Evatech, Inc. and borrowed about $20K from my Uncle for advertising putting the site in front of thousands of people.  I generated a few sales here and there for my company but mostly all I accomplished was generating awareness and sales for Evatech.   He was not very good at paying commission.  If you learned about remote control lawn mowers from my advertising and then turned around and bought direct from Evatech, you would inquire about a mower referring to model numbers associated with my company.  Not once, over 1 1/2 years, did Evatech ever pay a dime of commission from a direct sale.  I had to sale the mower out right and have it dropped shipped if I was to profit any money what-so-ever.  But it was making a little money and if I wanted more, I needed to drive more traffic to my site.  I went back to the drawing board and learned more about advertising through press releases. 

Uncle loaned more money for a press release campaign and it took longer than expected to put it all together.  Lots of online journalists picked up the story but their audience was small and nothing ever came of it until a local News syndicate picked it up and offered, in a nutshell, to tell all of Memphis 3 times if I paid their costs.  If my story was non-profit, they would have not required me to pay their expenses.  It was a supper fair deal.   Once again, Uncle pulled the plug and that never happened.   He had began to lose interest in my ideas.  Close to a million local visitors would have made things happen for sure.  All the money spent on the press releases was for nothing because I didn't accept the only legitimate (once in a lifetime) offer that it triggered.  

By this time, my family was starting to think I was obsessed with lawn mowers.  My uncle told everybody he had loaned me $40K to help me out and I couldn't make it work.  He failed to mention he pulled the plug on the first prototype and the press release campaign.  So, yea, to everyone I looked like a complete nut.  Who are they going to believe?  Uncle has more money than anyone in our family and, in my family, your credibility is based on how much money you have.  I was still facing eviction and running from the repo man while raising two teenagers as a single father.  You can imagine my frustration.

The GIE+EXPO was coming up.  It is the world's largest lawn & garden show held every year in Louisville.  All of the big name distributors from all over the globe show up to see what's new in the lawn & garden industry.   I needed to be there in the worst kind of way imaginable.  Uncle was fed up and had told me on several different occasions he didn't want to hear the word lawn mower ever again.  I asked him for one last shot.  I needed money to get to the Expo.  Red-faced, steam boiling out of his ears,  talking about red nickles, while referring me to some goose and gander storybook, he agreed.  Now, I had to get convince Luis to loan me a mower to take up there because I had sold my demo unit (that sale is a story in itself) to pay rent.  Talk about a long shot.  After all of the dust settled, me and Luis were at the Expo sharing a space with one of his suppliers.  Not with a nice display area indoors and a demo area out doors like everybody else.  No, it was me, Luis, the mower and a pallet set up way out back in the mud.  I brought along my computer and printed out 1000 or so cards and brochures to hand out.  We handed out only 100 or so before the mower blew the controller board Friday morning cutting our weekend short.  We missed the weekend crowd of 12,500 containing distributors from all over the world looking for the latest and greatest in the lawn & garden industry.  However, with the 100 or so cards and brochures we did hand out, two were distributors from Ireland and Italy.  Both ordered 10 units each of the 44T that listed for $18,899.  Imagine what would have happened if we had a nice display indoors and a nice set-up out doors all weekend long.    Did Luis share a dime of the profits?  Hell naw!  He bought a damn sailboat!  When I got back, Uncle said, "See.  I told you no one would buy a lawn mower right before winter!"  He even told me right before I left to go up there, "you'd be lucky to get a couple hundred people to show up this time of year."   Imagine my frustration now as I am getting evicted and moving in with my sister were my truck finally got repossessed by the repo man.

Determined to make money to raise two kids, I bit my tongue and remained a dealer for Evatech.  Spring 2010 rolled around and sales started coming in again.  Only this time, all of my customers were getting mowers that did not work as advertised if they even worked at all.  He kept telling me to tell the customers that the mower was damaged during shipping. Boy!  The hits just kept on coming.  Refusing to throw in the towel and determined to get customers saying positive things about Evatech and their number one dealer, I started building the mowers myself until Luis figured out what the problem was.  All that did was open up a can of worms and get me sued for patent infringement.  I did make some (instead of none) customers happy. 

After my truck was repossessed, my uncle loaned me $2K for a junker to get me to and from.  I asked him for $4K to get a dependable truck.  And because of my credibility, I had to take the junker or leave it.  I have had to barrow thousands for repairs ever since.  As of today, you have to crank it three times to get it started, it still misses and gets about 8 miles to the gallon.  If it is cold out, it will not start.  Both door handles fell off on the inside so you have to reach out the window to let yourself out. The front brakes are gone and using the back brakes gets tricky at times especially when it's raining.  You are not going to get out of the way nor stop in an emergency.  I pulled out in front of a police officer who had his signal on and merging to turn right.  At the last minute, he changed his mind and proceeded to go straight.  I attempted to get out of the way and he about T-boned me.  My truck stalled.  While his face was pressed against his windshield, he noticed I wasn't wearing a seat belt and pulled me over for it where he found out my license was suspended over a failure to appear charge for a speeding ticket.  He took me to jail.  Since that day, I have racked up several other visits to jail and failure to appear charges because I have not the thousands of dollars it is going to take to clear all this up over a dad gummed speeding ticket.  And the speeding ticket was 75 in a 60 on the only part of Hwy 78 with a 60 MPH speed limit!

anyway...

As a competitor of Evatech, I have successfully built and sold 24VDC wheeled models.  I have built and sold a tracked model that works as advertised.  I have a distributor awaiting my line-up and ready to order 20 units.  I have a group of investors interested in putting the hammer down for the 2010 GIE+EXPO and funding development of my line-up of remote control lawn mowers.  On my way to the meeting where they were planning on finally funding the project, my junker runs out of gas.  It used to take 15 dollars to get to Memphis but that day the truck started drinking 25 dollars one way.  I went all-in the night before the meeting with 18 bucks in gas and didn't make it.  At the same time, Luis from Evatech filed the lawsuit for patent infringement.  By the time the meeting finally got rescheduled, the investors changed their minds because of the lawsuit.  They we're talking  6 months shop expenses for development along with funding the Expo.  They even put up a costly retainer to a respectable patent attorney to make sure my line-up wouldn't infringe any one's patents. 

I met with a new prospective investor yesterday and showed him the tracked model.  He is very interested and likes the idea...wish me luck.