October 12, 2017; 2 9:30 A.M
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1 1 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA; THURSDAY; OCTOBER 12, 2017; 2 9:30 A.M. 3 4 ---oOo--- 5 THE COURT: Good morning again, everybody. 6 MULTIPLE SPEAKERS IN UNISON: Good morning, 7 Your Honor. 8 THE COURT: Well, I've been handed this large 9 package of objections to video clips. How would you 10 like to deal with that? 11 MR. COUGHLIN: Well -- 12 MR. LiMANDRI: I -- go ahead. Go ahead. 13 MR. COUGHLIN: Your Honor, there was some meet 14 and confer efforts last night per Your Honor's 15 instructions. It's hard because we're here all day. 16 Hence we have our associates doing it while we're here. 17 I don't know if there was an official resolution on it. 18 Our position is that I know Your Honor's been fairly 19 liberal in letting testimony in. Your Honor can 20 probably just weigh -- can just weigh the evidence as 21 you see it or we can make objections per clip and Your 22 Honor can weigh on those objections if necessary. 23 THE COURT: Well, a lot of -- I just sort of 24 leafed through it because it's probably a hundred pages 25 here,R but aO lot ofU the Gobjections H seem D to Rbe 352 A, undue F T 26 consumption of time. I don't know. By the time I read 27 through all this, it will take as much time. It might 28 be easier just to see the clips. Are there any hard Christina Lother, CSR #8624 2 1 objections based on anything? 2 MR. JONNA: A lot of it really is, Your Honor, 3 just a waste of time. You know, there are some a good 4 amount of clips that have nothing to do with the issues 5 in the case that we just thought, you know, like related 6 to the gay pride parade and that sort of thing, but if 7 you want us to narrow down the list of objections, we 8 could do that, but there are some that I just think it's 9 going to waste everyone's time but -- 10 THE COURT: Well, maybe the easiest thing to 11 do is -- I mean, I'll be able to figure out what's 12 relevant and what isn't. We could just play the videos 13 and then we can talk about -- if you don't have any real 14 strong objections, like protecting a privilege or 15 something like that -- 16 MR. MARR: What if reran them, Your Honor, and 17 then I know this is kind of as they say bass awkward, 18 but what if we ran them and then if anybody had a strong 19 objection to exclude it from evidence and wanted to make 20 an argument, you could hear it after the clip. 21 MR. LiMANDRI: That's fine. I think and I 22 haven't reviewed them all but talking to Mr. Jonna, the 23 main concern is that our clients are being like depicted 24 as big got because of their Catholic religious beliefs, 25 they Rdon' t Osubscribe U toG the gayH pride D parade R but A it' s F T 26 our position it's got nothing to do with the issues in 27 this case and it's a diversion, but having heard that 28 and realizing that's what apparently they have on the Christina Lother, CSR #8624 3 1 video asking these bishops about what the Catholic 2 teaching is on home sexuality and the grade pride parade 3 which I think raises First Amendment concerns, I suppose 4 that's a legitimate -- 5 THE COURT: Okay. Where does all that go. 6 MR. COUGHLIN: Your Honor, that's the genesis 7 of Danny Shaba basically. He left immediately after the 8 gay pride parade, and he believed that Mr. Arabo was 9 responsible for it. We understand that there's going to 10 be testimony that he found Mr. Arabo to be the devil and 11 that he deemed being gay and participating in anything 12 gay was unnatural, against God's law. And so we think 13 that there is an inherent bias by Mr. Shaba against 14 Mr. Arabo, and that is playing into some of the 15 credibility problems that Your Honor will also see. 16 MR. LiMANDRI: That's not what I understand 17 the witness is going to say at all. And I just think 18 it's more prejudicial than probative to be injecting a 19 sense of bigotry and, quite frankly, we find it as 20 devout Catholics offensive and a violation of religious 21 liberty and freedom of expression and I found it a 22 religious nonprofits largely deal with those issues. 23 That being said, now that the Court knows the nature of 24 our concerns, if you think it's more expedient to just 25 watchR the videosO Uand --G and takeH it Dfor what R it 'As worth F, T 26 then we don't have a problem with that. 27 THE COURT: I think so. I mean to the extent 28 that it shows a negative personal animas ^ by Mr. Shaba Christina Lother, CSR #8624 4 1 against Mr. Arabo it may have -- may have some use. If 2 it comes to he doesn't like the gay pride parade for 3 religious reasons -- 4 MR. MARR: That's -- 5 THE COURT: -- there's -- he's entitled to his 6 religious beliefs. 7 MR. LiMANDRI: Exactly. And yet this isn't, 8 these are Chaldean bishops for Pete's sake. I think you 9 understand the nature of our concerns so if you want to 10 play the videos then -- 11 THE COURT: I do. I don't think that his 12 religious beliefs, which are apparently the same as held 13 by millions of other Catholics around the world, are 14 really any part of this other than maybe he has personal 15 negative feelings against Mr. Arabo and we'll see if 16 that happens or not. That might affect his credibility. 17 But the fact that he has religious beliefs, so do a lot 18 of people. 19 MR. LiMANDRI: Fair enough, Your Honor. Thank 20 you. 21 THE COURT: Okay. Let's just play it. 22 MR. LiMANDRI: Okay. 23 THE COURT: Who are -- this video clip is who? 24 MR. LiMANDRI: We're not going to do that now, 25 Your RHonor .O U G H D R A F T 26 THE COURT: Oh, okay. 27 MR. LiMANDRI: If it's okay we have a witness 28 here. Christina Lother, CSR #8624 5 1 THE COURT: All right. Fine. 2 MR. LiMANDRI: Thank you. 3 THE COURT: Let's take the next witness. 4 MR. JONNA: Plaintiffs call Mark Kassab, 5 Your Honor. 6 7 MUAYAD (MARK) KASSAB, 8 called as a witness on behalf of the 9 Plaintiffs, having been first duly sworn, 10 testified as follows: 11 12 THE WITNESS: Yes. 13 THE CLERK: Please take a seat at the witness 14 chair. 15 THE WITNESS: Good morning, Your Honor. 16 THE CLERK: May you please state your name and 17 spell it for the record. 18 THE WITNESS: Muayad Kassab, M-u-a-y-a-d, 19 K-a-s-s-a-d. 20 THE CLERK: I'm sorry, sir. Slowly, please. 21 THE WITNESS: Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. 22 M-u-a-y-a-d, K-a-s-s-a-d, a/k/a Mark Kassab. 23 THE CLERK: Thank you. 24 THE WITNESS: Yes, Your Honor. 25 R O UDIRECT G EXAMINATION H D R A F T 26 BY MR. JONNA: 27 Q. Good morning, Mr. Kassab. 28 A. Good morning. Christina Lother, CSR #8624 6 1 Q. I'm going to start off with a few background 2 questions, sir. Can you please state your occupation? 3 A. I'm a grocery store owner plus gas station 4 owner, sport bar, biotech companies, research and 5 development, and innovation center. 6 Q. Okay. And how many employees do you have, 7 sir? 8 A. In my grocery store and the gas station we 9 have about 150 employees. In the biotech companies, we 10 have about 60MD, Ph.D. engineer and scientists. 11 Q. And where -- go ahead. I'm sorry? 12 A. And in the sport bar we have about 60 13 employees. 14 Q. And where were you born, sir? 15 A. I was born in Iraq. 16 Q. And when did you immigrate to the United 17 States? 18 A. 1977. 19 Q. Are you involved in any volunteer work with 20 nonprofits? 21 A. Yes, I was part of mid city area planning 22 committee for 16 years, advisory board to the City of 23 San Diego. I am on the board of mid city captain 24 advisory board. I am a trustee for a museum of man in 25 the BalboaR Opark andU a fewG other H organization D R. IA also F T 26 sat on elementary school site council for 7 or 8 27 elementary school in the mid city area. 28 Q. Thank you. And you're not a party to this Christina Lother, CSR #8624 7 1 lawsuit, right? 2 A. No, sir, and I was also a board member with 3 NMA. 4 Q. Okay. We'll get to that. And you are here 5 because you were served with a subpoena, isn't that 6 right? 7 A.