Marilyn Campos –  Legal Bureau Blog Reporter

The head of their legal department, of course, Joshua A. Mills

In the legal battle of Paul Somers v. Digital Realty & Ellen Jacobs, news of crimes by the unholy alliance between Digital Realty, their Chubb Insurance Group and Chubbs appointed law firm, Seyfarth Shaw, are fast becoming a public relations nightmare. Now, this!?

Joshua Mills, is Senior Vice President, General Counsel of Digital Realty and is responsible for overseeing all legal matters for the Digital Realty. Publicly available information reveals that the man behind Digital’s legal strategy has a history of criminal behavior.  His criminal mind has been working overtime in the case of Somers v. Digital Realty and Ellen Jacobs.  Based upon the defense strategy Mills settled upon including bribery/public corruption, perjury, hiding evidence.

Mills and Ashe decided to publish the details of a private letter they intercepted which was meant for a former good friend.   no less than four times in the public domain before she passed away in November 2017.  It would seem that Mills learned not only how to break the law but how to be as mean-spirited as they come while pulling down $2M a year for doing it.

Those who engage in crime can reform their lives and move on.  Mr. Mills has not made that transition.  The details of what Mills was convicted of is under wraps, for now.  What is known is that Mr. Mills was arrested, incarcerated, arraigned, prosecuted and convicted over the course of nearly one year. Given that period of time, Mills’ crime appears to be serious in nature. The problem isn’t his past, it is how his criminal mind is still at work for Digital Realty.

MILLS HASN’T LEARNED FROM HIS MISTAKES. Earlier this year, Josh Mills engaged in new crimes.  He joined Brian Ashe of Seyfarth Shaw in an attempt to create a false record of criminal behavior against the Plaintiff, Paul Somers.   Mills, Ashe and Justin Chang, a junior lawyer at Digital, set their sites getting Somers arrested and charged with crimes which never occurred.  The three acted in conspiracy to commit fraud, fabricate evidence and file false documents with a government office.

THEY BRAINSTORMED FOR WAYS TO DAMAGE SOMERS.  The end product of their collusion was a motion for sanctions against Somers supported by four separate declarations.  Mills, Ashe and Justin Chang (junior lawyer at Digital) all swore to the same set of false accusations. They accused the Plaintiff of being a stalker, a hacker (breaking into Digital Realty’s computer systems to attain, what else, “travel schedules”).  They even made very troubling and thinly veiled accusations that the Plaintiff is a threat to Mr. Mills wife and kids.  It was as low as Mills could go in this lawsuit.  Mills knew none of it was true yet he directed his attorneys to proceed.

For almost a year, Mills has been falsely attacking Mr. Somers and his partner.  Mills fabricating false criminal charges he filed under oath.  Mills is trying to get Somers arrested as part of his vendetta against those in the anti-lgbt community.  Bother karma or irony involved in this situation where the only convicted criminal involved in this matter is Mills himself.  It appears to be both:  Karmirony. 

MILLS AND ASHE ATTACKED SOMERS PERSONALLY rather than the merits of the lawsuit. It’s called an “Ad Hominem” attack.  All three lawyers acted with malice and damaged the former VP’s reputation forever in the public domain using the judicial system to commit their crime.  All three lied under oath which is the criminal offense of perjury.   Some criminals never learn from their mistakes.  Ideally, they wanted Somers to have an angry outburst or cause a physical action to justify an arrest.  It’s part of a toolkit of sleazy methods of winning in court accomplished by staying away from the real issues and creating a sideshow.

SOMERS DIDN’T TAKE THE BAIT. The former VP calmly brought evidence to the court proving Mills and Ashe lied in their declarations, which they swore under oath.  Liar Liar,  and At Digital Realty, Josh Mills and Justin Chang Prove it’s Not Too Late…. to Hate   Somers was able to prove, with direct evidence,  that every statement made by the Mills, Chang, and Ashe are false and the kind of nonsense created over a bottle of scotch one night at Mills’ new $15 million weekend home on Lake Tahoe.

Mills plan was foiled.  Google location services provided Somers a detailed map showing exactly where Somers was at every moment of his stay in Washington D.C.  It proved all three attorneys lied under oath. Witnesses, airline, train tickets, meal receipts all proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Josh Mills made statements under oath to try and get a former employee convicted of crimes which never occurred.  Facing the evidence that proved they engaged in a criminal act, Mills, Ashe, and Chang went silent and refuse to fess up to their crimes.  Somers could file for sanctions but it would likely be a waste of time because the Court has secretly been allowing Ashe and his cronies to rule on all motions as part of the bribery scheme, see Ghostwriting: Seyfarth Shaw’s Shape-Shifting Ashe.  Somers will file complaints with the Bar and file new claims against Digital and its officers in addition to Seyfarth Shaw and several of its partners in the coming weeks.

Digital’s Board must investigate why its general counsel, a senior vice president making $2,000,000 a year, would commit perjury and fabricate evidence in an employment lawsuit.  Both are federal crimes. One thing is sure, Mills and Chang should have been fired 9 months ago. Mr. Mills is in breach of his employment agreement, the NYSE member Rules and has run afoul of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.  It’s another example of disparate treatment. 

If Digital is unable to defend itself against claims without resorting to criminal acts, what does that tell you about the merits of Somers’ claims?   Why isn’t Digital enforcing its Code of Business Ethics and Conduct?  As well, There are dozens more examples of illegal actions by Digital Realty during litigation. The Board needs to investigate why, as a publicly traded company, Digital is pursuing a vendetta against Somers and determine which US laws and aspects of Digital Code of Business Ethics and Conduct have been violated. The general consensus is that Digital’s Board is weak and afraid to speak up about any matters, even crimes by their trusted general counsel.

More to come on this story as it develops.