So, this week has been a ride.
Timeline of the Contempt Hearing week
- Monday: Pat files his delusional 27-page pro se manifesto, insisting he needs a 2-month delay to find lawyers.
- Tuesday: Quasi's lawyer files a motion objecting to the delay.
- Tuesday (just before 5 pm): Pat hires the lawyers James Dickerson and Meghan McCabe of O'Flaherty Law.
- Wednesday: Pat's lawyers file a motion asking for a 1-month delay to familiarize themselves with the case.
- Thursday (before 10 am): Both sides' lawyers reach an agreement that Pat will pay.
- Thursday (10 am): The Contempt Hearing takes place, but is short because the judge simply approves the agreement.
Why did Pat change course?
So, what got Pat to change course from "I'll never pay" boasts and loony-manifesto on Monday, to meekly consenting to pay via lawyers on Thursday?
THEORIES:
1) He came to his senses by himself.
2) Niki talked him down.
3) His mother-in-law, Lynne Robinson, intervened.
4) The SFWA intervened.
With SFWA involvement?
Option (4) has already been discussed here and on the other forum. The theory is that if it becomes public record exactly how much, and with what conditions, the SFWA funded Pat's lolsuit, this could lead to them losing their status as a charity.
So maybe they intervened and got Pat to quit his debt-evasion circus to ensure he doesn't end up in a debtor's exam. Maybe they even covered the whole debt for him to get him to agree.
I think that's far-fetched, though, as it would involve new risks, and new hard-to-explain costs, for the SFWA. Smarter for them to just stay out of it at this point.
Without SFWA involvement?
I think options (1) to (3) should not be discounted.
There are many reasons why Pat and Niki themselves would absolutely want to avoid opening their finances to a judge and to the public:
- Confirming Pat's low book sales income would humiliate him. The Pests would never let him live it down. It might even be the end of him getting book signing slots at conventions.
- If Pat still earns his living as a predatory insurance salesman targeting old people, that would not go over well with his holier-than-thou Twitter following and victimhood-focused media-tour connections.
- Niki's defunct "SEO business" was likely a sham. (If so, then Lynne must have been involved.)
- Pat and Niki both likely committed PPP fraud.
- If the SFWA funding for Pat's lolsuit was a gift (rather than a loan), then he owes taxes on it and the pests would be eager to inform the IRS.
- If Pat ever paid a swatting service, then unmasking his crypto account(s) might lead to that being exposed.
- Probably lots more embarassing or incriminating stuff we don't even suspect.
As much as Pat wanted to prevent a Quasi win, he must have wanted to prevent a debtor's exam even more.
So all it would have taken for him to give up his previous course of action (uncooperativeness and delays), is the realization that this course was close to putting him in a spot where exposing his finances could no longer be avoided.
Such as being held in jail for contempt, and then being transported directly from jail to a forced debtor's exam where Niki (who would crack more easily than him) would bring all his documents.
He could have realized that by himself, or Niki/Lynne/etc. could have explained it to him.
I don't think any conspiratorial SWFA involvment was necessary for that.