NoFap founder Alexander Rhodes defamation lawsuit against Nicole Prause / Liberos

On October 23, 2019 Alexander Rhodes (founder of reddit/nofap and NoFap.com) filed a defamation lawsuit against Nicole R Prause and Liberos LLC. See the court docket here. Downloadable PDFs of the three primary court documents filed by Rhodes (screenshots below):

  1. Alex Rhodes defamation suit against Nicole Prause: The initial complaint – 15 pages. (screenshots of complaint below)
  2. Alex Rhodes defamation suit against Nicole Prause: Exhibit #1 – 21 pages. (screenshots of exhibit 1 below)
  3. Alex Rhodes defamation suit against Nicole Prause Exhibit #2 – 15 pages. (screenshots exhibit 2 below)

UPDATE #1: On January 24, 2020 Alex Rhodes filed his amended complaint against Nicole Prause. The new court filings contain several recent incidents of defamation (including alleged collaboration with the porn industry to defame Alex), and sworn affidavits from other Prause victims. Downloadable PDFs of the court documents filed in the amended complaint:

  1. First Amended Complaint: 1-24-20 – Alex Rhodes v. Nicole Prause (20 pages)
  2. Exhibit #1: Prause affiliations with the University of Pittsburgh (1 page)
  3. Exhibit #2: Prause affiliations with the University of Pittsburgh (5 pages)
  4. Exhibit #3: Screenshots of Nicole Prause and @BrainOnPorn defaming Alex Rhodes (61 pages)
  5. Exhibit #4: NoFap’s Posting Rules and Etiquette Guidelines (15 pages)
  6. Exhibit #5: John Adler, MD affidavit (2 pages)
  7. Exhibit #6: D.J. Burr, LHMC affidavit (2 pages)
  8. Exhibit #7: Stefanie Carnes, PhD affidavit (2 pages)
  9. Exhibit #8: Geoff Goodman, PhD affidavit (3 pages)
  10. Exhibit #9: Laila Mickelwait/Exodus Cry affidavit (6 pages)
  11. Exhibit #10: Staci Sprout, LCSW affidavit (15 pages)
  12. Exhibit #11: Gary Wilson affidavit (123 pages)
  13. Exhibit #12: Prause defames Alex Rhodes in her denied motion to dismiss filed in the Hilton lawsuit (3 pages)
  14. Exhibit #13: Factually-inaccurate, defamatory VICE hit-piece, allegedly placed by Prause (6 pages)
  15. Exhibit #14: Factually-inaccurate, defamatory SCRAM hit-piece, allegedly placed by Prause (3 pages)

UPDATE #2: March 23, 2020 Alex Rhodes filed his opposition to Prause’s motion to dismiss. PDF’s of the 3 court filings:

  1. Alex Rhodes’ Brief in Opposition To Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss (March 23, 2020) – 26 pages.
  2. Alex Rhodes’ Declaration (March 23, 2020) – 64 pages.
  3. Alex Rhodes’ Exhibits (March 23, 2020) – 57 pages.

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This is the second defamation lawsuit filed against Nicole Prause in 2019! The first was filed by Donald Hilton, MD, and it contains sworn affidavits from 9 other victims of Prause.

On October 23, 2019 Alexander Rhodes (founder of reddit/nofap and NoFap.com) filed a defamation lawsuit against Nicole R Prause and Liberos LLC. See the court docket here.

Dr. Prause is closely aligned with the pornography industry, as can be seen from this image of her (far right) on the red carpet of the 2016 X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) awards ceremony. (According to Wikipedia, “the XRCO Awards are given by the American X-Rated Critics Organization annually to people working in adult entertainment and it is the only adult industry awards show reserved exclusively for industry members.[1]“

JUNE-2016-NICOLE-PRAUSE-XRCO-AWARDS

As documented on these extensive pages – page 1, page 2, page 3 – the Rhodes and Hilton lawsuits expose just the tip of the Prause iceberg. A partial list of her victims includes researchers, medical doctors, therapists, psychologists, a former UCLA colleague, a UK charity, men in recovery, a TIME magazine editor, several professors, IITAP, SASH, Fight The New Drug, Exodus Cry, NoFap.com, RebootNation, YourBrainRebalanced, the academic journal Behavioral Sciences, its parent company MDPI, US Navy medical doctors, the head of the academic journal CUREUS, and the journal Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity. Check out this PDF Documenting Prause’s Malicious Reporting Pattern (see below for What’s going on here?).

The court documents provide a partial account of what Alex has suffered at Prause’s hands. They are reproduced in full beneath the next paragraph. For more detail, see this list of links from this page: Nicole Prause, RealYBOP, & David Ley’s long history of harassing & defaming Alexander Rhodes of NoFap. Each link goes to a more complete description of several known occurrences of harassment and/or defamation by Nicole Prause, David Ley, and “RealYourBrainOnPorn” Twitter:

  1. December 2013: Prause alias posts on YourBrainRebalanced & asks Gary Wilson about the size of his penis: kicking off  Prause’s campaign of calling Wilson, his wife, Alex Rhodes, Donald Hilton, and most everyone she disagrees with a misogynist.
  2. July, 2016: Prause & David Ley attack NoFap founder Alexander Rhodes.
  3. July, 2016: Prause & her alias “PornHelps” attack Alexander Rhodes, falsely claiming he faked porn-induced sexual problems
  4. October, 2016: Prause commits perjury attempting to silence Alexander Rhodes of NoFap
  5. December 12, 2016: Prause falsely claims that @Nofap drove gay teen to suicidal feelings (also calls Alexander Rhodes an “anti-porn profiteer”)
  6. May 24-27, 2018: Prause creates multiple sock-puppets to edit the Nofap Wikipedia page
  7. October, 2018: Ley & Prause devise an article purporting to connect Gary Wilson, Alexander Rhodes, Gabe Deem to white supremacists/fascists (Prause attacks & libels Alexander Rhodes & Nofap in the comments section).
  8. October, 2018: Prause follows-up the “fascist” article by attacking & libeling Alexander Rhodes and Nofap.com on Twitter
  9. Ongoing – David Ley & Nicole Prause’s ongoing attempts to smear YBOP/Gary Wilson & Nofap/Alexander Rhodes by claiming links with neo-Nazi sympathizers
  10. October, 2018: Prause tweets that she has reported “serial misogynist harasser” Alexander Rhodes to the FBI
  11. December, 2018: FBI confirms that Nicole Prause lied about filing a report on Alexander Rhodes
  12. November, 2018: Prause resumes her unprovoked, libelous attacks on NoFap.com & Alexander Rhodes
  13. December, 2018: Prause joins Xhamster to smear NoFap & Alexander Rhodes; induces Fatherly.com to publish a hit-piece where Prause is the “expert”
  14. July, 2019: Alexander Rhodes affidavit in Donald Hilton’s defamation lawsuit against Nicole R Prause & Liberos LLC.
  15. September, 2019: Nicole Prause & David Ley commit perjury in Don Hilton defamation lawsuit.
  16. September, 2019: In response to a CNN special involving NoFap, the RealYBOP twitter (run by Prause & Burgess) defames and harasses Alex Rhodes of Nofap (over 30 tweets)
  17. October, 2019: RealYBOP twitter (Prause & Daniel Burgess) defame Alex Rhodes & Gabe Deem, falsely claiming both tried to “take down” realyourbrainonporn.
  18. October, 2019: In response to “The Doctors” featuring Alex Rhodes RealYBOP twitter (Prause & Daniel Burgess) cyberstalks, defames & harasses Rhodes with numerous tweets (even asks Twitter to de-platform NoFap)
  19. Ongoing: In response to Alex Rhodes’s defamation lawsuit, Nicole Prause and @BrainOnPorn twitter relentlessly defame & harass Rhodes (adding to Prause’s counts of defamation).
  20. January-March, 2020: Prause incites defamatory UK article in an effort to have Alex Rhodes’s “Donor Box” fundraising campaign removed
  21. February/March 2020: Prause (apparently) reports Alex Rhodes to the Pennsylvania Board of Psychology for practicing psychology without a license because CNN filmed him in a group with other young men, all talking about porn’s effects.

Screenshots of The initial complaint – 15 pages:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Screenshots of Exhibit #1 – 21 pages:

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Screenshots of  Exhibit #2- 15 pages:

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What’s going on here?

For years both Prause and Ley have teamed up to defame, harass and cyber-stalk individuals and organizations that have warned of porn’s harms or published research reporting porn’s harms. Recently, Prause and Ley escalated their unethical and often illegal activities in support of a porn industry agenda. For example, 0n January 29, 2019, Prause filed a trademark application to obtain YOURBRAINONPORN and YOURBRAINONPORN.COM. In April 2019, a group headed by Prause and Ley engaged in unlawful trademark infringement of YourBrainOnPorn.com by creating “RealYourBrainOnPorn.com.

To advertise their illegitimate site, the self-proclaimed “experts” created a Twitter account (https://twitter.com/BrainOnPorn), YouTube channel, Facebook page, and published a press release. In a further attempt to confuse the public, the press release falsely claims to originate from Gary Wilson’s home town – Ashland, Oregon (none of the “experts” live in Oregon, let alone Ashland). Judge for yourself whether the “experts” further the interests of the porn industry or the authentic search scientific truth by perusing this collection of RealYBOP tweets. Written in Dr. Prause’s distinctive misleading style, the tweets extol the benefits of porn, misrepresent the current state of the research, and troll individuals and organizations Prause has previously harassed.

In addition, the “experts” created a Reddit account (user/sciencearousal) to spam porn recovery forums reddit/pornfree and reddit/NoFap with promotional drivel, claiming porn use is harmless and disparaging YourBrainOnPorn.com and Gary Wilson. It’s important to note that Prause, a former academic, has a long documented history of employing numerous aliases to post on porn recovery forums. (YBOP is now engaged in legal action with Prause and her pro-porn allies).

In July of 2019, David Ley and two of the better known RealYBOP “experts” (Justin Lehmiller and Chris Donaghue) began openly collaborating with the porn industry. All 3 are on the advisory board of the fledgling Sexual Health Alliance (SHA). In a blatant financial conflict of interest, David Ley and the SHA are being compensated by porn industry giant xHamster to promote its websites (i.e. StripChat) and to convince users that porn addiction and sex addiction are myths!

More on Nicole Prause

In 2013 former UCLA researcher Nicole Prause began openly harassing, libeling and cyberstalking Gary Wilson. (Prause has not been employed by an academic institution since January, 2015.) Within a short time she also began targeting others, including researchers, medical doctors, therapists, psychologists, a former UCLA colleague, a UK charity, men in recovery, a TIME magazine editor, several professors, IITAP, SASH, Fight The New Drug, Exodus Cry, NoFap.com, RebootNation, YourBrainRebalanced, the academic journal Behavioral Sciences, its parent company MDPI, US Navy medical doctors, the head of the academic journal CUREUS, and the journal Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity.

While spending her waking hours harassing others, Prause cleverly cultivated – with zero verifiable evidence – a myth that she was “the victim” of most anyone who dared to disagree with her irresponsible assertions surrounding porn’s effects or the current state of porn research. To counter the ongoing harassment, cyberstalking and false claims, YBOP was compelled to document some of Prause’s activities. Consider the following pages. (Additional incidents have occurred that we are not at liberty to divulge – as Prause’s victims fear further retribution.)

In the beginning Prause employed dozens of fake usernames to post on porn recovery forums, Quora, Wikipedia, and in the comment sections under articles. Prause rarely used her real name or her own social media accounts. That all changed after UCLA chose not to renew Prause’s contract (around January, 2015).

Freed from any oversight and now self-employed, Prause added two media managers/promoters from Media 2×3 to her company’s tiny stable of “Collaborators.” (erstwhile Media 2×3 president Jess Ponce describes himself as a Hollywood media coach and personal branding expert.) Their job is to place articles in the press featuring Prause, and find her speaking engagements in pro-porn and mainstream venues. Odd tactics for a supposedly impartial scientist.

Prause began to put her name to falsehoods, openly cyber-harassing multiple individuals and organizations on social media and elsewhere. Since Prause’s primary target was Gary Wilson (hundreds of social media comments along with behind the scenes email campaigns), it became necessary to monitor and document Prause’s tweets and posts. This was done for her victims’ protection, and crucial for any future legal actions.

It soon became apparent that Prause’s tweets and comments were rarely about sex research, neuroscience, or any other subject related to her claimed expertise. In fact, the vast majority of Prause’s posts could be divided into two overlapping categories:

  1. Indirect support of the porn industry: Defamatory & ad hominem comments targeting individuals and organizations that she labeled as “anti-porn activists” (often claiming to be a victim of these individuals and organizations). Documented here: page 1, page 2.
  2. Direct support of the porn industry:
    • especially the FSC (Free Speech Coalition), AVN (Adult Video News), porn producers, performers, and their agendas
    • countless misrepresentations of the state of pornography research and attacks on porn studies or porn researchers.

The following pages contain a sampling of tweets and comments related to #2 – her vigorous support of the porn industry and its chosen positions. YBOP is of the view that Prause’s unilateral aggression has escalated to such frequent and reckless defamation (falsely accusing her many victims of “physically stalking her,” “misogyny,” “encouraging others to rape her,” and “being neo-Nazis”), that we are compelled to examine her possible motives. This material is divided into 4 main sections:

  1. SECTION 1: Nicole Prause & the porn industry:
  2. SECTION 2: Was Nicole Prause “PornHelps”? (PornHelps website, @pornhelps on Twitter, comments under articles). All accounts deleted once Prause was outed as “PornHelps.”
  3. SECTION 3: Examples of Nicole Prause supporting porn industry interests via misrepresentation of the research & attacking studies/researchers.
  4. SECTION 4: “RealYBOP”: Prause and associates create a biased website and social media accounts that support a pro-porn industry agenda.

Please note: There is unequivocal evidence that the porn industry funded the sexology profession for decades. Sexology’s agenda still appears to serve the porn industry. Thus, the evidence on this page should be viewed in a larger context. See Hugh Hefner, the International Academy of Sex Research, and Its Founding President to understand how porn-industry friendly sexologists influenced the Kinsey Institute. Prause is a Kinsey grad.

More on David Ley

David Ley’s financial conflicts of interest (COI) seem evident.

COI #1: In a blatant financial conflict of interest, David Ley is being compensated by porn industry giant X-hamster to promote their websites and to convince users that porn addiction and sex addiction are myths!  Specifically, David Ley and the newly formed Sexual Health Alliance (SHA) have partnered with a X-Hamster website (Strip-Chat). See “Stripchat aligns with Sexual Health Alliance to stroke your anxious porn-centric brain“:

The fledgling Sexual health Alliance (SHA) advisory board includes David Ley and two other RealYourBrainOnPorn.com “experts” (Justin Lehmiller & Chris Donahue). RealYBOP is a group of openly pro-porn, self-proclaimed “experts” headed by Nicole Prause. This is also the group currently engaged in illegal trademark infringement and squatting directed toward the legitimate YBOP. Put simply, those trying to silence YBOP are also being paid by the porn industry to promote its/their businesses, and assure users that porn and cam sites cause no problems (note: Nicole Prause has close, public ties to the porn industry as documented on this page).

In this article, Ley dismisses his compensated promotion of the porn industry:

Granted, sexual health professionals partnering directly with commercial porn platforms face some potential downsides, particularly for those who’d like to present themselves as completely unbiased. “I fully anticipate [anti-porn advocates] to all scream, ‘Oh, look, see, David Ley is working for porn,’” says Ley, whose name is routinely mentioned with disdain in anti-masturbation communities like NoFap.

But even if his work with Stripchat will undoubtedly provide fodder to anyone eager to write him off as biased or in the pocket of the porn lobby, for Ley, that tradeoff is worth it. “If we want to help [anxious porn consumers], we have to go to them,” he says. “And this is how we do that.”

Biased? Ley reminds us of the infamous tobacco doctors, and the Sexual health Alliance remind us of the Tobacco Institute.

COI #2 David Ley is being paid to debunk porn and sex addiction. At the end of this Psychology Today blog post Ley states:

“Disclosure: David Ley has provided testimony in legal cases involving claims of sex addiction.”

In 2019 David Ley’s new website offered his well-compensated “debunking” services:

David J. Ley, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and AASECT-certified supervisor of sex therapy, based in Albuquerque, NM. He has provided expert witness and forensic testimony in a number of cases around the United States. Dr. Ley is regarded as an expert in debunking claims of sexual addiction, and has been certified as an expert witness on this topic. He has testified in state and federal courts.

Contact him to obtain his fee schedule and arrange an appointment to discuss your interest.

COI #3: Ley makes money selling two books that deny sex and porn addiction (“The Myth of Sex Addiction,” 2012 and “Ethical Porn for Dicks,” 2016). Pornhub (which is owned by porn giant MindGeek) is one of the five back-cover endorsements listed for Ley’s 2016 book about porn:

Note: PornHub was the second Twitter account to retweet RealYBOP’s initial tweet announcing its “expert” website, suggesting a coordinated effort between PornHub and the RealYBOP experts. Wow!

COI #4: Finally, David Ley makes money via CEU seminars, where he promotes the addiction-deniers’ ideology set forth in his two books (which recklessly(?) ignores dozens of studies and the significance of the new Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder diagnosis in the World Health Organization’s diagnostic manual). Ley is compensated for his many talks featuring his biased views of porn. In this 2019 presentation Ley appears to support and promote adolescent porn use: “Developing Positive Sexuality and Responsible Pornography Use in Adolescents.”