This is an appeal from a three-year workplace violence restraining order (WVRO) issued pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 527.8 that protects nonparty Samuel S. from defendant and appellant Neill Francis Niblett. Prior to the issuance of the WVRO, both individuals were employed by plaintiff and respondent County of Los Angeles’s (the County’s) fire department; Samuel was an assistant chief and Niblett was a senior mechanic. During the WVRO proceedings, the County offered evidence showing Niblett had often raised his voice to Samuel to complain about work-related decisions, Niblett on one occasion shouted profanities at Samuel and got so close to Samuel’s face that Niblett was spitting on him while shouting, and, several days after that profanity-laden encounter, Niblett had a conversation with a secretary in which Niblett (a) expressed his frustration that one of his mechanics had been transferred without his knowledge and (b) alluded to an incident in which a firefighter fatally shot another firefighter. The trial court found clear and convincing evidence that Niblett’s reference to the prior shooting constituted a credible threat of violence warranting issuance of the WVRO.
On appeal, Niblett’s challenge to the evidentiary sufficiency of the order fails because the trial court could rationally have concluded it was highly probable that a reasonable person would construe Niblett’s statement mentioning the shooting as an implied threat to commit an act of violence against fire department management if it continued to make decisions with which he disagreed. Further, although Niblett did not expressly threaten to harm Samuel, he was a logical target of Niblett’s implied threat who may be named as a protected party pursuant to section 527.8. Our rejection of Niblett’s evidentiary challenge is fatal to his claim the WVRO violates his First Amendment rights. Niblett’s claim the firearm restriction in the restraining order violates his Second Amendment rights is also unpersuasive. Niblett has forfeited the remainder of his claims of error by either failing to raise them adequately or asserting them for the first time in his reply brief. For all these reasons, we affirm the WVRO.
Additionally, this case illustrates that misuse of artificial intelligence threatens the integrity of the appellate process. It appears that Niblett’s appellate counsel misused artificial intelligence in preparing his opening brief by misciting the holdings of numerous cases, even those from the principal cases on which he relies, and by citing at least one case that does not even exist. Further, Niblett’s counsel failed to correct those erroneous citations even after the County identified many of them in its appellate brief. Accordingly, in a separate ruling issued concurrently with this opinion, we order Niblett’s appellate counsel to show cause why he should not be sanctioned for misusing artificial intelligence.
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