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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO

PORTIA A. BOULGER
22822 State Route 104
Chillicothe, Ohio 45601,
Plaintiff
v.
JAMES H. WOODS
c/o Michael E. Weinsten, Esq.
Lavely & Singer, P.C.
2049 Century Park East
Suite 2400
Los Angeles, CA 90067-2906

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: Case No: 2:17-cv-186
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: Judge: ________________________
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: Magistrate Judge: _________________
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COMPLAINT FOR MONEY DAMAGES
WITH JURY DEMAND ENDORSED HEREON
Plaintiff Portia A. Boulger, by and through counsel, states the following as her Complaint
against Defendant James H. Woods:
PARTIES
1. Plaintiff is an individual residing in Chillicothe, Ohio and is a citizen of the State of Ohio.
Plaintiff is a 64--year old female who has lived in Ohio for 63 years; worked as a
secretary, factory worker, carpenter, vocational instructor, teacher; and currently works
part time as a volunteer tutor for K&C Learning Associates; and has for several decades
been an activist for progressive causes and for the Democratic Party.
2. Defendant is a 69-year old male, and a resident and citizen of the State of California.
Defendant is a well-known movie actor and producer who has appeared in a number of
films including The Way We Were, The Onion Field, and Once Upon a Time in America.

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JURISDICTION AND VENUE

3. This Court has subject matter jurisdiction of this action under 28 U.S.C. §1332(a)
because the plaintiff and defendant are citizens of different states and the amount in
controversy exclusive of interest and costs, exceeds $75,000.
4. This Court has personal jurisdiction over the Defendant James Woods under the Ohio
long-arm statute, O.R.C. §2307.382(6) because the injury caused by Defendant James
Woods—damage to Plaintiff’s reputation and emotional distress—occurred in the State
of Ohio; Mr. Woods’ actions of defamation and false light invasion of privacy were
committed with the purpose of injuring Ms. Boulger; and Mr. Woods might reasonably
have expected that Ms. Boulger would be injured, in the State of Ohio, by his actions.
5. Venue is proper in the Southern District of Ohio pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1391(b)(2)
because a substantial part of the events and omissions giving rise to the claims occurred
in Ross County, Ohio.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
6. During the contest for the nomination of the Democratic Party for President in 2016, Ms.
Boulger was a very active volunteer and pledged convention delegate for U.S. Senator
Bernie Sanders (D-Vt), one of the candidates for the nomination.
7. On Friday March 11, 2016, the campaign of Donald J. Trump, then a candidate for the
Republican nomination for President, held a rally in Chicago, Illinois.
8. That evening, the Chicago Tribune newspaper posted on its Twitter account a photograph
of a woman at the rally, wearing a Trump T-shirt, and giving a Nazi salute—the wellknown “Heil Hitler” salute with her right hand raised straight up.

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9. Later that evening, several Twitter users posted the photograph and mis-identified the
woman in the photograph as Ms. Boulger.
10. At 10:12 a.m. on Saturday, March 12, the Twitter user @voxday posted the photograph
of the woman giving the Nazi salute, together with a photograph and caption relating to
Ms. Boulger, and tweeted, “The “trump Nazi’ is Portia Boulger, who runs the Women for
Bernie.’”.
11. Defendant James Woods maintains a Twitter account that featues a blue verified badge.
When verifying an account, Twitter will take steps to ensure that the Twitter account is
actually controlled by the person whose account it purports to be. According to Twitter,
“a blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is
authentic.”
12. At about 10:12 a.m. on Saturday March 12, 2016, Mr. Woods’ verified Twitter account
tweeted the same picture of the woman giving the Nazi salute at the rally; with a picture
of and caption relating to Ms. Boulger, identifying her as a leader of “women for Bernie”
and Ohio grassroots organizer. Mr. Woods’ tweet read: “So-called #Trump ‘Nazi’ is a
#BernieSanders agitator/operative?”
13. At about 10:12 a.m. on March 12, Mr. Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., re-tweeted the
@voxday tweet with the comment, “Big surprise. However, the media will never run
with this.”
14. At about 10:14 a.m. on March 12, 2016, Mr. Trump Jr. re-tweeted Mr. Woods’ tweet
with the comment, “@Namaste_zen apparently you don’t read the news. She runs Bernie
Sander’s women for Bernie site. It’s all staged.”

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15. On Saturday, March 12, 2016, @voxday tweeted out a correction, stating, “New reports
are that the ‘Trump Nazi’ is not pro-Sanders Portia Boulger, but ‘Birgitt Peterson of
Yorkville’” Illinois.
16. Mr. Trump Jr. then quickly removed from his Twitter account the tweets referencing Ms.
Boulger.
17. On Saturday afternoon, March 12, 2016, the Chicago Tribune identified the woman in the
Nazi-salute photograph as Birgitt Peterson, a Trump supporter residing in Yorkville,
Illinois. The Tribune story included an interview with Ms. Peterson who explained in
detail why she gave the salute at the rally. “Trump supporter explains what led to ‘Heil
Hitler’ salute at canceled Chicago rally,” http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-birgittpterson-trump-rally=met-0313-20160312-story.html
18. On Saturday afternoon, March 12, 2016, the New York Times posted a story also
identifying Ms. Peterson as the woman who made the Nazi salute at the Trump rally, and
setting out its own interview with Ms. Peterson in which she explained her actions.
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/12/trump-supporter-who-made-nazisalute-explains-why-she-made-the gesture/?_r=0
19. Mr. Woods did not remove his tweet identifying Ms. Boulger as the woman who made
the Nazi salute. Mr. Woods’ tweet was re-tweeted more than 5,000 times; his account
has more than 350,000 followers.
20. Later on Saturday, March 12, Mr. Woods posted a tweet stating that some unnamed
followers thought that the person in the picture might be a different person than Ms.
Boulger.

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21. On March 22, 2016, counsel for Ms. Boulger wrote to counsel for Mr. Woods, calling
attention to the fact that Mr. Woods’ tweet remained on his account as of that date and
demanding that Mr. Woods delete the tweet and issue, through Twitter, a retraction of
and apology for his false and defamatory assertion that Ms. Boulger was the woman
pictured as giving the Nazi salute.
22. Later on March 22, Mr. Woods’ lawyer responded by e-mail, denying that the tweet was
defamatory and indicating that he had asked Mr. Woods to delete his tweet, which he did.
23. On March 23, 2016, Ms. Boulger’s counsel again contacted Mr. Woods’ counsel
requesting a public retraction and apology.
24. On March 23, 2016, between about 12:29 p.m. and 12:32 p.m., Mr. Woods posted three
new tweets:
(i)

“I have an opportunity to clarify something I challenged immediately when it hit
Twitter. Portia A. Boulger was NOT the ‘Nazi salute lady.” “

(ii)

“Ms. Boulder [sic] has reached out to me and asked me to use my many followers
to stop people from harassing her. I am more than happy to do so.”

(iii)

“Though she supports @BernieSanders, I am happy to defend her from abuse. I
only wish his supporters would do the same for other candidates.”

25. The second and third of these tweets were false, insulting and demeaning as Ms. Boulger
never asked Mr. Woods to “reach out to my many followers to stop people from harassing
her.” Rather, Ms. Boulger, through counsel, had demanded a retraction and apology.
26. During the period from March 12, 2016 through March 23, 2016, while Mr. Woods’ tweet
remained posted on his Twitter account, Ms. Boulger received hundreds of obscene and
threatening messages, including death threats. A representative sample of these messages

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posted on Twitter and Facebook, a number of which were posted after Mr. Trump Jr. had
removed his tweet while Mr. Woods’ remained posted, and/or retweeted Woods’ tweet.
includes the following:
“Hi Cunt. Just wanted to let you know the internet knows you’re the ‘fucking bleeding
cum oozing twat that was found giving a hitler salute and pretending to be a trump
supporter”
“Go fuck yourself you ignorant liberal sack of shit, then you can go suck Bernie Sander
cock!!!”
“”Hope you get cunt cancer and die. What’s wrong? Can’t you win, honestly? You fucking
coward! I hope you go to one of your fucking rallies and get raped by a gaggle of thugs
with AIDS!”
“Off to buy me an evil gun with a couple of 15-round mags.”
27. In addition, immediately after Mr. Woods’ tweet was posted on March 12, 2016, Ms.
Boulger began receiving calls at her residence from callers who hung up when the phone
was answered. Those calls have continued to this day. One caller who called Ms.
Boulger in January 2017 stayed on the phone without talking, while Ms. Boulger heard
what sounded like someone walking up the gravel lane leading to her house.
COUNT ONE--DEFAMATION
28. Plaintiff incorporates the preceding paragraphs of this Complaint as if fully restated herein.
29. Defendant Woods’ statement on his Twitter account that Ms. Boulger gave a Nazi salute
at the Trump rally on March 11, 2016, was false.
30. Mr. Woods’ statement on his Twitter account that Ms. Boulger gave a Nazi salute at the
Trump rally on March 11, 2016 was an unprivileged publication to third parties, including

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without limitation his 350,000 Twitter followers and more than 5,000 Twitter users who
re-tweeted Mr. Woods’ tweet, as well as an unknown number of followers of the Twitter
users who retweeted Mr. Woods’ tweet.
31. Mr. Woods made this false statement with the knowledge that the statement was false
and/or with reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the statement. Mr. Woods
maintained the tweet (statement) on his Twitter account for more than ten days after
numerous media outlets and Twitter users—including the Twitter user from which Mr.
Woods originally obtained the photograph of the woman giving the Nazi salute and the
separate photograph of Ms. Boulger—had reported that the woman giving the Nazi salute
was not Ms. Boulger, and after Mr. Woods acknowledged that Portia Boulger may not be
the woman giving the Nazi salute.
32. Mr. Woods made this false statement with the intention of harming Ms. Boulger.
33. The statement that Ms. Boulger was the woman giving the Nazi salute at the Trump rally
reflected upon Ms. Boulger’s character in a manner that caused her to be ridiculed, hated
and held in contempt and in a manner that injured her in her profession as a teacher and
tutor; and injured her reputation as a well-known progressive grassroots activist, a member
of the Ross County Democratic Party Executive Committee and as a person well known
local and nationally for her progressive activism though social media.
34. The statement that Ms. Boulger was the woman giving the Nazi salute at the Trump rally
constitutes defamation per se.
35. Mr. Woods’ false statement in fact harmed Ms. Boulger’s reputation, by creating the
understanding and impression among hundreds of thousands of people who saw Mr.
Woods’ tweet, that Ms. Boulger had associated herself with the Nazi movement and/or had

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dishonestly attempted to injure Mr. Trump and his followers by pretending to be a Trump
supporter while giving the salute.
36. As a direct cause of Mr. Woods’ defamatory statement, Ms. Boulger has suffered severe
emotional distress including sleeplessness, episodes of reasonable apprehension of
personal assault or attack, anxiety and depression.
COUNT TWO—FALSE LIGHT INVASION OF PRIVACY
37. Plaintiff incorporates the preceding paragraphs of this Complaint as if fully stated herein.
38. Mr. Woods’ statement that Ms. Boulger was the woman who gave the Nazi salute placed
Ms. Boulger before the public in a false light.
39. The false light in which Ms. Boulger was placed would be highly offensive to a reasonable
person, because Ms. Boulger was in fact an active volunteer for the Sanders campaign and
was falsely made to look irresponsible and reckless as a Sanders volunteer trying to pose
as a Trump supporter while making one of the most offensive gestures that could be made;
and because Ms. Boulger is a teacher and the perception that she would give a Nazi salute
either out of actual sympathy with the Nazi cause or in order to dishonestly disrupt a Trump
campaign event by giving the salute while posing as a Trump supporter, would be
extraordinarily offensive to anyone in her position.
40. As demonstrated by Mr. Woods’ March 12 tweet, Mr. Woods had knowledge of the falsity
of the statement that Ms. Boulger was the woman who gave the Nazi salute and/or acted in
reckless disregard as to the falsity of the matter and the false light in which Ms. Boulger
would be placed.
41. Mr. Woods’ publicity of his statement placing Ms. Boulger in a false light in fact harmed
Ms. Boulger’s reputation, by creating the understanding and impression among the

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hundreds of thousands of people who saw Mr. Woods’ tweet, that Ms. Boulger had
associated herself with the Nazi movement and/or had dishonestly attempted to injure Mr.
Trump and his followers by pretending to be a Trump supporter while giving the salute.
42. As a direct cause of Mr. Woods’ publicity placing Ms. Boulger in a false light, Ms. Boulger
has suffered severe emotional distress including sleeplessness, episodes of reasonable
apprehension of personal assault or attack, anxiety and depression.

WHEREFORE, the Plaintiff, Ms. Boulger, respectfully requests that this Court enter
judgment in favor of Ms. Boulger and against Defendant James Woods and that Ms. Boulger be
awarded damages to which she is entitled including:
A. Compensatory damages in an amount in excess of $1,000,000 to be determined at trial;
B. Punitive damages in an amount in excess of $2,000,000 to be determined at trial;
C. Attorneys’ fees and costs; and
D. Such other and additional relief to which Plaintiff may entitled.
JURY DEMAND

Plaintiff demands a trial by jury on all issues triable by a jury.

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Nathaniel Zachary West
Nathaniel Zachary West (0087805 )
511 West First Avenue, Unit 305
Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: (614) 208-0230
Email: zachwest1@gmail.com

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OF COUNSEL

Joseph E. Sandler
SANDLER REIFF LAMB ROSENSTEIN
& BIRKENSTOCK P.C.
1025 Vermont Avenue, N.W.
Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20007
Telephone (202) 479-1111
Fax: (202) 479-1115
Email: sandler@sandlerreiff.com

Pro hac vice pending

Attorneys for Plantiff
Portia Boulger

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