CoJ Case 054

From Wikipedia of the Dark Brotherhood, an online Star Wars Club
This article is part of the series:
Chamber of Justice
Cases


DB vs JCT was the fifty-fourth case tried by the Chamber of Justice. The sitting Justicar was Jac Cotelin, the Left Hand of Justice was Sith Bloodfyre, and the Right Hand of Justice was Montresor.

Basic Case Information

Defendants Name

  • JCT

Charges

  • Count 1 - Disreputable Behaviour - Plea of guilty

Verdict

  • GUILTY

Sentence

  • Letter of Reprimand
  • General Probation

Related News Posts

Chamber of Justice - Verdicts for Cases 52-54 - Tyron Kesh, Corell Fedt, JCT

Posted in DJB News by Grand Master Jac Cotelin on 1/29/2016 @ 4:12am

Members of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood -

The Chamber of Justice has convened in three pending matters:

Case #0052 - DB vs. Tyron Kesh & Jedd Kunar (cloning & plagiarism);

Case #0053 - DB vs. Corell Fedt (disreputable behavior);

Case #0054 - DB vs. JCT (disreputable behavior)

The Chamber has issued a detailed verdict and Justicar Opinion for the cases which can be found in the PDF files linked below. Please note that the written opinion is generally found on the second page of the following documents, after announcement of the verdict.

The verdicts were as follows:

Case #0054 - DB v. JCT - [PDF]

  • Count 1 - Disreputable Behavior - Plea of guilty
  • Punishment - Letter of Reprimand and General Probation

Justicar's Opinion

Facts:

The facts of this case are identical to the facts of Case No. 053, DB v. Corell Fedt. The only difference between the facts is that this member’s actions took place over the Odan-Urr mailing list. As such, the opinion from that case is incorporated, and is included below for convenience. For purposes of precedent and future citations, all references to the Justicar’s Opinion should point to Case No. 053.


The Dark Council took steps ahead of The Force Awakens to ensure that the movie would not be spoiled for members who could not see it immediately. News postings were prohibited from containing spoilers, a separate Telegram channel was made to discuss the movie, and the Grand Master sent an email to all members over the unit mailing lists indicating the policies of the Dark Council. The Grand Master warned members not to spoil the movie for others.

The Defendant here responded directly to the Grand Master’s e-mail warning and leaked a significant plot point about the death of a character. The action forced the unit leaders to take immediate action to try and remove the post and warn other members to avoid their emails if they hadn’t seen the movie.

There was no question in the eyes of the Chamber of Justice that the Defendant had acted with malice towards others, bringing disrepute to himself and the club. The question primarily before the Chamber of Justice was whether the Covenant was violated through the member deliberately acting counter to the commands of the Grand Master. In other words, was the e-mail a sufficient policy statement that members would need to expect to follow it and be punished if they did not?

I hold that yes, taken in context of the actions of the Dark Council, the secrecy of the movie, and social importance of not ruining the movie for others, the e-mail from the Grand Master was a sufficient decree that was meant to be followed and from which punishment could come. In particular, there are three elements that should be looked to in determining if a “short term policy” such as the one at issue here must be followed or the threat of punishment could follow:

1. Is the statement an official DB policy (as opposed to a single leader simply telling someone what to do)?

2. Was the policy statement sufficiently transmitted to members so that it could be expected to be seen and followed?

3. Is the policy related to a matter of importance such that punishment would be implied from not following the policy?

All three elements are met in this case. The Grand Master stated that the policy was the DB policy, the policy was posted to the site and transmitted to all members on email lists, and the policy was related to an important event that had been anticipated for years. As such, the members were reasonably expected--and in fact were required--to follow the command.

Based on the foregoing, I find the Defendant GUILTY. The Right Hand of Justice and Master at Arms are directed to carry out the punishment as described above.

Signed and sealed in Justice,
Jac Ae-Sequiera Cotelin
Justicar and High Protector of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood

Points of Interest

  • Along with Case 053, this would be the first time a defendant was prosecuted for revealing spoilers to a newly released Star Wars film