COURT IS HEREBY INFORMED that as of 00:45 EST on Wednesday, the fourteenth of March, in this the 2018'th year of the Lord, forumer
@Colonel Thunder was found
GUILTY, in Trial By Combat, of the Malicious Bamboozling of Moderator
@Jeroth. The Convicted will now be sentenced.
Under normal circumstances, the life of the Convicted could be rightfully claimed by the Prosecution, it having been knowingly and willingly wagered by, and fairly won from, the Accused. As such, the issue of sentencing would properly fall to the Prosecution, rather than to the presiding Justice as would be the case in a Trial By Jury. This principle will NOT apply here for the following reasons:
i) Because, due to the unprecedented logistical challenges inherent to organizing the first case of Trial By Combat in recorded Forum history, the Accused was not properly informed of such a condition when, or even at any time before, the challenge was issued and accepted.
ii) Because of the unusual mitigating circumstances that came into play during the execution of the duel, including multiple previously-unscheduled delays in favor of the Prosecution, as well as dishonorable (if not illicit) conduct on the Prosecution's part such as:
- Excessive and extreme vigor in attempting to stage the trial so as to deprive the Accused of any hope of victory, going to extraordinary lengths in this regard, and
- This failing, the deceptive and uncouth nature of the means through which the Prosecution extended the initial trial, in that: Finding himself cornered and all but certain to lose the duel, Champion
@Tirin then proceeded to throw down arms and exit the arena while verbally berating the Accused's Champion and the presiding Justice, knowingly and intentionally leading all present to assume he had forfeited the contest, only to return to the arena and resume his participation once the defending Champion had left, but before the match had been officially concluded by the rules established beforehand. While there were no grounds at the time under which this behavior could be held as illegal, it was certainly by no means
honorable, and the Court here makes note of its disinclination to leave justice in the hands of those who would pursue it with dishonor.
Thus, for the reasons given above, and especially due to the extraordinary zeal shown by the plaintiff in pursuing his grievance and the particularly highly-publicized nature of these proceedings, it is my view that to defer the Convict's sentencing to Prosecution would be to unfairly subject him to greater risk than we can reasonably claim he consented to, in first demanding to exercise his right to Trial By Combat. I will instead treat the outcome as if it were decided by Jury, except where noted.
The sentence is as follows:
First, if he has not already done so then
the Convicted, @Colonel Thunder, is hereby ordered to return any Danger he has acquired from any Mach Entertainment denizen (or non-denizen resident) through fraudulent means, including (but not limited to) any Danger fees charged to transactions
in excess of the respectively advertised amounts.
The Convicted is further ordered to cede an extra 50 Danger to Moderator @Jeroth, as compensation for any psychological trauma, loss of time, and other assorted damages incurred in pursuing this grievance. This amount is both separate from and additional to the refunding of Danger specified above. It has been enumerated based on a comparative estimate between the amount of time required to accumulate Danger points, and the amount of time expended by Prosecution over the course of these proceedings, from opening arguments to sentencing. It also reflects the practical, albeit intangible, inadvertent benefit of increased public exposure that the DangerVideoGames channel drew from the proceedings.
For the amount of administrative time and resources expended in holding the Trial By Combat,
The Convicted is further ordered to submit a donation of no less than $1.25 USD via the 'Donate' button. This cost is determined irrespective of the gravity of the Convicted's crimes or his attitude regarding, but rather, based on the length of the contest. In future, if and when any further Trials By Combat are held, the contest will be held for two hours free of charge as a public service, and $0.25 for the losing side for every two hours beyond that. (In the event of a draw, the Defense wins, and Prosecution pays the fine.)
Finally the Convicted is warned that his establishment's offer of "Bamboozle Insurance" marks no restrictions or limitations as to the extent of its coverage. This would imply that unless a customer is
fully refunded, the vendor will be liable for fully compensating him or her for any further losses incurred by future bamboozlement, whether or not vendor DangerVideoGames is the bamboozling party in each event.
...
This
CONCLUDES the case of Jeroth v. Thunder. Court will now adjourn, pending any future cases to be held.
Accusations may be submitted privately, through correspondence with the Justice, or publicly, in this thread.
(Given that the Court is a public institution, and does not operate in a secretive or exclusive manner, accusations may NOT be submitted anonymously.)
COURT IS ADJOURNED.
