As far as Ray Bradbury is concerned it all started in a letter dated July 10, 2003 he got from Leonard Englander--Mel and Betty's attorney. In that letter Mr. Englander wrote, "Plainly put Mr. Bradbury, it would be our intention to have you become the prey and not the hunter . . ." That was in the days before Lenny got Judge Logan to enjoin Ray Bradbury from "having any conduct whatever" with Mel and Betty Sembler. What do you think that means, my soon-to-be-gagged associate asked me as together we looked up the word "prey" in the dictionary. My Random House Dictionary says this: "prey, n. 1. an animal hunted or seized for food . . ."

Englander's letter is here: page 1; page 2; page3.

As you can read for yourself in his letter, Englander has threatened Bradbury with getting an award against him so high that not even bankruptcy will save him. I'm no attorney but it does seem like a person who is about to sue another, as a first step notifies the other party of intent to sue unless the perceived liable or defamable behavior of the accused ceases and perhaps some sort of corrective action is taken. I do not know whether that is the law, or whether it is just a courtesy. Englander gave Bradbury a chance to make good as you read the agreement/covenant Englander proposed that Bradbury sign. In return for not being sued it would appear that Bradbury would be required to possibly implicate himself as being a felony stalker [Recital 1] and also as being a misdemeanor trespasser. In other words nobody is going to sign to self-incriminating statements like that. So it seems to this writer that that Englander's good faith gesture was no serious proposal at all. He had full intention of going to trial and that is what he has done.