ATLANTA (CN) - A man who rose to internet fame as the "Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker" cannot pursue claims of defamation, copyright infringement, trademark infringement and racketeering against YouTubers who analyzed his body language in a viral news clip, a Georgia federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
Caleb "Kai" McGillvary sued YouTubers Greg Hartley, Chase Hughes and Scott Rouse as well as two of their companies in 2023. He claimed they defamed him in a January 2023 video assessing his body language and behavior on their YouTube channel, "The Behavior Panel."
The defendants analyzed a 2013 clip of McGillvary telling a TV reporter in Fresno, California, that he "smash, smash, suh-mash[ed]" a man three times over the head with a hatchet to fend off an attack on a woman. The attacker, Jett Simmons McBride, intentionally crashed his car into a group of power line workers while McGillvary, who was hitchhiking, was his passenger.
Police found that McGillvary used justifiable force to protect bystanders attacked by McBride and cleared him of any wrongdoing. The news video went viral, has more than 4 million views on YouTube and led McGillvary to appear for an interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
Senior U.S. District Judge C. Ashley Royal dismissed the case, ruling Tuesday that statements made by the defendants about McGillvary's behavior, body language and background are "opinions, subjective assessments of plaintiff, and rhetorical hyperbole for which they cannot be held liable."
Attorney Pamela Grimes, who represents the defendants from the firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, declined to comment on the decision Tuesday afternoon.
McGillvary filed the lawsuit from behind bars in New Jersey state prison, where he is currently serving a 57-year sentence for murdering a New Jersey attorney in an unrelated incident - a wild turn of events chronicled in the Netflix documentary, "The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker." He objected to 28 statements in the defendants' video, including statements questioning whether McGillvary has a "personality disorder," analyzing his body language to determine if he is a "sociopath" or "psychopath," and calling him a "vigilante" and "a bit of a mongrel from the backstreets."
McGillvary claimed the analysis falsely implied he killed someone within three hours before the news interview and was a sex worker who engaged in a "prostitution situation" with McBride.
"Here, given the context of the entire video, defendants' statements are clearly opinions based on their subjective assessments of plaintiff's body language and behavior in the news clip. None of defendants' allegedly defamatory comments could be proved false," Royal, an appointee of George W. Bush, wrote in the 29-page opinion.
McGillvary claims he trademarked the phrase "Smash, smash, suh-mash!" and the moniker "Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker."
But Royal tossed out McGillvary's infringement claims and rejected his claims for misappropriation of his likeness, finding that he did not have a copyright in the news clip.
"The YouTube video did not intrude on plaintiff's private affairs; plaintiff voluntarily placed himself in the position of public notoriety; and the information is a matter of public record," Royal wrote.
Source: Courthouse News Service
