What ensues is a bunch of back-and-forth of “You have my sets/money” and “No”. B&M phone Mansell and, in no uncertain words, threaten him, stating that the cost of taking them to court over this would be prohibitively expensive and more than he’d ever have made off the sets, and that they intend to drag the case out if he tries. Law/Gorman later confirm that they said the exact same thing to the two of them, which is why they are currently crowdfunding the legal costs to take them to court.
After more nonsense with Mansell and Ben getting trespassed, they finally take B&M to small claims court for the $200k and win — only to find that B&M closed down the Salem branch so that they wouldn’t have to pay out, forcing the two to now attempt to privately sue both Johnson and Best.
Now, privately suing them requires that they be served papers in person; this has proven to be immensely difficult, in no small part because, somehow, Johnson and Best have the Utah police in their pockets, and they have made it their mission to fuck with Mansell and Ben as much as possible. Gems include:
A traffic stop alleging that they had heroin in the car. After a 2 hour search turns up nothing, they then switch tack and start saying that they’ve got “dilated pupils”. They finally give up after trying to force a false confession for ages, but not before issuing a thinly-veiled threat.
Multiple unfounded traffic stops during which the police officer immediately addressed Ben in the backseat of the car by his name, even though there is zero reason to do so.
Several police call-outs while trying to serve papers to Best, where the cops just keep coming back even though they have already confirmed the case is real and they aren’t breaking any laws.
Finally, Ben gets arrested on some bogus charges for putting a sign up advertising a GoFundMe (to crowdfund legal costs, since all else has failed), and the police interrogate him then decide to book him in the jail for a month. A judge decides to release him because the whole situation is ridiculous, but with the police on his ass, any indiscretion could get him locked up, so he (ostensibly) fled to Mexico for the time being.
