IN THE CIRCUIT ETTE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI REBEL RAGS, LLC. PLAINTIFF VERSUS iig are CIVIL ACTION NO: Serena ease JURY DEMAND mag; 1 . LINDSEY MILLER, LEO LMIS KOBE JONES, MIKE SHERIDAN, NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, DAN MULLEN, SCOTT STRICKLIN, AND JOHN DOES 1 11 DEFENDANTS COMPLAINT COMES NOW the Plaintiff, Rebel Rags, LLC, by and through its attorneys, Merkel Cocke, P.A., and in compliance with the Court?s Order, ?les this New Complaint against Defendants to be consolidated With pending Civil Action No. L17-244, and in support thereof alleges as follows: PARTIES 1. Plaintiff Rebel Rags, LLC, (hereinafter ?Rebel Rags?), is a Mississippi Limited . Liability Company with members residing only in the State of Mississippi and no other states. Its principal place of business is located at 2302 West Jackson Avenue, Oxford, MS 38655. 2. Defendant Lindsey Miller, (hereinafter ?Miller? is a resident citizen of the State of Georgia and may be served with process at this residential address of 149 Annaberg Place, MCDonough, Georgia 30253, or Wherever he may be found. 3. Defendant Leo Lewis, (hereinafter ?Lewis?), is a resident citizen of the State of Mississippi and a current student enrolled at Mississippi State University. Service may be perfected by process being served upon Leo Lewis and one of his parents, Wherever they may be found. 4. Defendant Kobe Jones, (hereinafter ones?), is a resident citizen of the State of Mississippi and a current student enrolled at Mississippi State University. Service may be perfected by process being?served upon Kobe Jones and one of his parents, wherever they may be found. 5. Defendant Mike Sheridan, (hereinafter ?Sheridan?), is an employee of the Defendant National Collegiate Athletic Association (hereinafter ?the and a non- resident of the State of Mississippi who committed tortuous acts within the State of Mississippi, more precisely in Lafayette County, Mississippi, and who may be served with process wherever he may be found. 6. Defendant the NCAA is a non?pro?t organization with principal of?ces located in Indianapolis, Indiana, which exercises unfettered dominion over its member institutions. The NCAA employed Defendant Sheridan, and is vicariously libel for his tortuous acts, some of which were committed in Lafayette County, Mississippi, while he was on and about the course and scope of his employment with the NCAA. The NCAA 18 further independently liable for decisions and tortuous actions committed by Defendant Sheridan and other employees, agents, and committees operating under its auspices and for actions taken by itself as an entity. 7. Defendants John Does 1?5 are employees and/or agents of the Defendant NCAA, who were involved in a conspiracy to manufacture a basis for a false allegation of wrong doing by The University of Mississippi and Rebel Rags, whose true names are at this time, in the absence of discovery, unknown to Plaintiff, but are all believed to be non-residents of the state of Mississippi. 8. Defendant Dan Mullen, (hereinafter ?Mullen?) was a resident of the State of Mississippi at the time of the actions complained of which were not committed by him within the course and scope of his employment, but were motivated by his malice and hatred for The University of Mississippi and its then coach, Hugh Freeze. He committed acts to aid and abet libel, slander, and defamation, all as a co~conspirator with other Defendants. Defendant Mullen is now a non?resident of the State of Mississippi, who may be served with process wherever he may be found. 9. Defendant Scott Stricklin, (hereinafter ?Stricklin?), was a resident of the State of Mississippi at the time of the actions complained of which were not committed by him within the course and scope of his employment, but were motivated by his malice and hatred for The University of Mississippi and its then coach, Hugh Freeze. He committed acts to aid and abet libel, slander, and defamation, all as a co~conspirator with other Defendants. Defendant Stricklin is now a non-resident of the State of Mississippi, who may be served with process wherever he may be found. 10. John Does 6-8 are additional co-conspirators whose names are presently unknown, but who aided and abetted Defendants Sheridan, Mullen, Stricklin, and the NCAA in: obtaining and communicating the details of the false narrative told to the NCAA by Defendant Miller; in recruiting Defendants Jones and Lewis to tell similar falsehoods; in informing the Defendant representatives of the availability of the false narratives of Jones and Lewis; and in abetting the creation of the NFL draft night disclosures surrounding ?Laremy Tunsil which were designed for the purpose and ultimately served as the pretext for the NCAA to reopen its purportedly closed investigation of The University of Mississippi which was already surreptitiously proceeding in furtherance of the conspiracy and in violation of the NCAA enforcement procedures and by?laws. 11. John Does 9?11 were other individuals who acted as conduits between Defendants Miller, Sheridan, the NCAA, Mullen, Stricklin, and John Does 6?8 with respect to procuring, coaching, and delivering Mississippi State University recruits Jones and Lewis to the NCAA for purposes of falsely bolstering the independently incredible and otherwise unsupported falsi?cations of Miller about Plaintiff JURISDICTION AND VENUE 12. Jurisdiction and venue are appropriate in this Court inasmuch as Plaintiff and at I least one of the named Defendants are residents of Mississippi and the unlawful actions and the tortuous conduct of multiple Defendants occurred in Lafayette County, Mississippi where the cause of action accrued. COUNT I DEFAMATION l3. Defendants Miller, Jones, and Lewis intentionally, maliciously and/or with reckless disregard for the consequences of their actions, reSpectively made false statements to development and enforcement'staff members of the Defendant NCAA which statements the NCAA knew or in exercise of reasonable care and judgment should have known were false. The NCAA incorporated the false statements into a formal allegation of wrong doing which it published, proximately causing economic and reputational damage to Plaintiff. 14. On more than one occasion, beginning in July 2015, Defendant Miller met with Defendant NCAA Development Staff and/or Enforcement Staff member(s) in Lafayette County, Mississippi following an altercation between Defendant Miller'and Laremy Tonsil, a football player for The University of Mississippi. 15. Defendant Miller, with a personal vendetta and a score he hoped to settle with Tunsil and others, intentionally, maliciously and/or with reckless disregard for the impact upon Plaintiff, provided a ?con?dential statement? to Defendant Enforcement Staff member, Defendant Sheridan, and John Does 1-5, which was known by Defendant Miller to be false. Defendant Miller untruthfully alleged that he (Miller) had previously received free merchandise from Plaintiff through a scheme to circumvent NCAA regulations prohibiting such actions involving prospective student athletes. 16. Defendants Mullen, Stricklin, Sheridan, and John Doe Defendants l-ll arranged multiple meetings and interviews with DefendantLewis. These interviews were scheduled by Defendant Sheridan and other NCAA employees, (hereinafter John Does 1-5), at the suggestion and urging of Defendants Mullen, Stricklin, and other members of his coaching staff, boosters, and supporters of Mississippi State University football, acting under his direction. Defendant Lewis intentionally, maliciously and/or with reckless disregard for the impact upon Plaintiff provided ?confidential statements? to Defendant Sheridan and John Does 1?5 which were known by Defendant Lewis, and by other named Defendants, and ohn. Doe Defendants 6?8, to be false. Defendant Lewis untruthfully alleged that he had previously obtained free merchandise from Rebel Rags through a scheme to circumvent NCAA regulations prohibiting such action involving prospective student athletes. 17. Defendant Jones also met with Defendant NCAA employees and staff members (John Does 1?5) at the suggestion and urging of Defendants Stricklin, Mullen, Sheridan, and John Does 6-8, and intentionally, maliciously and/or with reckless disregard for the impact upon Plaintiff provided a ?confidential statement? to Defendant NCAA Enforcement Staff member(s) which were known by Defendants Jones, Stricklin, Mullen, Sheridan, and John Doe Defendants 5?11, to be false. Defendant Jones untruthfully alleged that he had on at least four occasions obtained free merchandise through a scheme to circumvent Defendant NCAA regulations prohibiting such action involving prospective student athletes. COUNT II - COMMERCIAL DISPARAGEMENT 18. Plaintiff incorporates by reference all allegations of paragraphs 13?17. 19. At the urging of Defendants Sheridan, Mullen, Stricklin, and John Doe Defendants 1?1 1, Defendants Miller, Lewis and Jones made deliberately false and malicious statements to Sheridan and John Doe Defendants 1-6 with the intent to advance the agenda of Defendants Mullen, Stricklin, Sheridan and his employer, the Defendant NCAA, and with knowledge that the false statement(s) would foreseeably cause ?nancial loss to Plaintiff As a result of Defendants? false statements Plaintiff has in fact suffered financial losses and will continue to suffer ?nancial losses in the future. Multiple customers have informed Plaintiff 3 agents that they will no longer do business with Plaintiff because of the perceived untoward actions of Plaintiff in bringing harm to the athletic programs of The University of Mississippi, as falsely alleged by Defendants. Further, as a result of the tortuous conduct of Defendants, and the exercise of the dominion over The University of Mississippi, the University was compelled to disassociate Plaintiff from the University and bar it from advertising its merchandise through its media outlets and at sporting events. COUNT - CIVIL CONSPIRACY 20. Plaintiff incorporates by reference all allegations of paragraphs 13?19. 21. Defendants have acted 'in a concerted effort to bring harm and damage to the reputation of others and in so doing acted with malice and/or reckless disregard for the damage to 6 the reputation and business interests of Plaintiff. Defendants Jones, Lewis, Mullen, Stricklin, Sheridan, the NCAA, and ohn Does 1-11, all unlawfully agreed and conSpired to aid and abet the creation of a false narrative of Plaintiff providing free merchandise to prospective student athletes which would mirror the false narrative originally solicited ?om Miller by Sheridan and John Does 1-5. 22. Defendant Sheridan and John Doe DefendantsL-S in furtherance of the Defendant . predetermined objective of creating and issuing allegations of Level I violations against the University of Mississippi, joined with the co?conspirators to create and publish an allegation falsely accusing Plaintiff of involvement with University of Mississippi coaches in providing merchandise to recruits and their families in violation of NCAA rules and regulations. 23. The fabricated narratives were provided by Defendants Miller, Jones and Lewis to Defendants Sheridan and John Does 15 for the purpose Of creating and publishing the false Allegation No. 9 in a formal Notice of Allegations accusing The University of Mississippi and Rebel Rags of an NCAA Level I violation. The formation and publication of the defamatory lies contained in Allegation No. 9 constitute overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy, which have resulted in damages to Plaintiff as alleged herein. 24. In pursing the agenda, Sheridan, further motivated by personal animus, violated not only state law but also the own bylaws and enforcement rules, regulations, and protocols with the help of the NCAA and John Does 1?5, Sheridan surreptitiously conducted interviews of Jones and Lewis without giving notice of an ongoing investigation or its subject matter to the University of Mississippi or Plaintiff. These Defendants systematically excluded exculpatory evidence from his investigative ?le and redacted from Lewis? interview transcripts admissions which were devastating to'his credibility. Further, these Defendants mischaracterized the testimony of Lewis in brie?ngs to' the Committee on Infractions (hereinafter These Defendants disregarded the sworn testimony of ones? high school coach refuting Jones? allegations, and failed to pursue areas of inconsistency and contradictions in the testimonies of Jones and Lewis. These Defendants re?ised to accept and consider documentary evidence and other submissions tendered by Plaintiff, and incorporated the false accounts of Miller, Lewis, and Jones into Allegation No. 9, when no reasonably prudent, unbiased individual would have afforded any credibility to their accounts. 25. Defendants Miller, Jones, Lewis, Sheridan, Mullen, Stricklin, the NCAA, and John Does 1~ll all conspired and acted to see that the deliberately false and defamatory statements were disseminated and published by the Defendant NCAA and other media voices in such a way as to have maximum detrimental effects on the targets of the conspiracy, including Rebel Rags. This conspiratorial group of both specifically named and ?ctitiously named John Doe Defendants was successful in having these false allegations: issued in the form of an of?cial allegation of wrongdoing by the Defendant NCAA on February 22, 2017, ultimately disseminated in redacted form to the public at large on February 29, 2017, and at least as early as June 8, 2017, released. in unredacted form by the media. Defendants Miller, Jones, and Lewis knew that the narrative being espoused by them was false. Defendants Sheridan, the NCAA, Mullen, Stricklin, and John Does 1?11, who enlisted, aided, and abetted Miller, Jones, and Lewis in formulating the lies and delivering themso as to cause maximum damage to the targets of the conspiracy, including Rebel Rags, all knew the narrative to be false and defamatory, but they deliberately proceeded to issue and publish the lies with malice and speci?c intent to in?ict as much damage and harm as possible on the objects of the conspiracy, including Rebel Rags. 8 DAMAGES 26. Plaintiff?s business model depends entirely on the sale of licensed ?University of Mississippi? and ?Ole Miss? merchandise, and Defendants? actions have and will continue to cause Plaintiff ?nancial damage. Additionally, Plaintiff has incurred damage to its reputation on a local, regional, and national level. All damages were proximately caused by Defendants? false statements which were made intentionally, with actual malice, or with reckless disregard for the truth of the matters asserted. Defendants are jointly and severally liable for actual and punitive damages in an amount to be determined by a jury at trial. Respectfully submitted, this the 201;) day of February, 2018. MERKEL COCKE A Professional Association 30 Delta Avenue P.O. Box 1388 Clarksdale, Mississippi 38614 Telephone: 662-627?9641 Fax: 662627?3592 - CHARLES M. MERKEL, JR. (Mss#2ss4) CHARLES M. MERKEL, 1:11