Peters enraged: With his lawsuit stalled, and his lawyer refusing to respondto correspondence from a defense lawyer, Axanar producer Alec Peters flew into a rage Monday when Robert Meyer Burnett’s attorney took an unusual tack to push for a settlement in the case.

• CC’ing AxaMonitor: California attorney Torin Dorros wrote Peters’ Georgia lawyer H. Michael Deaver a third time seeking settlement negotiations. This time, however, he’s officially included AxaMonitor and blogger/Axanar surrogate Jonathan Lane as addressees:

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“I recognize copying some of the other parties copied on this email is unusual, however … given Mr. Peters has seemingly decided to include or pull in these other parties into the settlement process, if such will assist in moving the ‘settlement ball’ forward all the better.”

• A flurry of emails: Dorros’ letter yesterday set off a flurry of emails between the parties involved.
• ‘Serious concerns’: Dorros says this third effort to resolve the legal dispute was prompted by an April 27 email from Peters to his disaffected former PR director, Mike Bawden, raising “serious concerns” about the “poorly drafted settlement” proposal Peters sent to former Axanar director Burnett with the supposed imprimatur of Bawden.
• Fan Film Factor go-between: FFF blogger Lane played some role that led to the angry email in which Peters claimed his settlement offer resulted from Bawden’s intercession: “I gave you [Bawden] the settlement offer you asked for. Exactly. You either failed to read it, or you are lying to Jonathan.”
• Bawden disputed Peters’ account in an email yesterday: “Alec’s intentional (and persistent) misrepresentation of his settlement offer to Rob as something that he and I negotiated is very misleading. As I have said on dozens of occasions to both Alec and Jonathan Lane … I made it crystal clear that I could not represent or negotiate on Rob’s behalf.”
• Lane: Staying out of it (sort of): Despite his attorney wife’s advice to leave well enough alone, Lane instead intercedes on Peters’ behalf by responding to Dorros’ letter and trying to facilitate an agreement about how Burnett might hand over Axanar's digital assets Peters says he’s owed: “To this end, I’ve also been in contact with Mr. Bawden, who like me, had been ‘caught in the middle’ of this conflict without being able to keep it from exploding into a full-on lawsuit.”
• Dorros trying to involve AxaMonitor in this effort, however, did nothing but outrage Peters, who insisted continuing to do so would only further hurt Burnett’s defense.
• ‘Involving my stalker’: Peters criticizes Bawden and Burnett for “involving my stalker [AxaMonitor] on their email thread,” calling it “unethical [and] unprofessional,” opening both up to legal liability.
• ‘Amateur attempt’: Peters calls it “an amateur attempt to defame me. … There will be no settlement if this is part of your legal strategy.”
• Raising the stakes: As a result of what Peters calls “involving [AxaMonitor editor] Carlos Pedraza in these negotiations,” Peters now insists he will accept “nothing short of the return of all Axanar Productions equipment,” which he earlier had been willing to concede.
• Peters really doesn’t like AxaMonitor: “One more email that Carlos is copied on and all settlement talks are off.”

[Editor’s note: Despite yesterday’s email exchange and last week’s litigation hold, AxaMonitor has neither sought nor is willing to become involved in this litigation other than in covering it as a news story.]

Bottom line: Despite Peters’ repeated claim that he will undoubtedly win his case against Burnett, his failure to file the required basic paperwork in court has only stalled his litigation.

• How is the truth defamatory? Despite his claim that AxaMonitor publishing his emails constitutes defamation, that can only be true if the emails are phony and we published them knowing so.
• Peters says he isn’t defaming Burnett: “I have zero concern about
  calling Rob a thief. It is a fact. Can’t wait for that to start showing up in the Google results for people searching for info on Rob. I am sick of this bullshit, and sick of you [Bawden] enabling Rob. His info dump to Carlos shows what a child he is.”
• Why won’t his lawyer respond? Despite repeated attempts to negotiate, Peters’ attorney continues to avoid replying to defense counsel.
• What’s Peters’ real priority? If what he really wants are the digital assets he says he needs to produce the Axanar short films, why is Peters doing everything he can to impede his own legal action?
• Personal animosity toward Burnett appears to be fueling Peters’ actions. He says, “I have an iron clad case. … I am happy to spend whatever to teach Rob a lesson. All you non-lawyers have your collective heads up your butts if you think Rob has any chance in court.”

The full text of Dorros’, Peters’, Lane’s and Bawden’s emails will be published on the AxaMonitor website.