A lawsuit filed by a Crestline woman demanding that the state recognize the Sasquatch, aka “Bigfoot,” as an official species has been dismissed.
The court dismissed the case at the request of petitioner Claudia Ackley, on March 15, court records show.
Ackley said her attorneys advised her to drop the lawsuit she filed Jan. 18 in San Bernardino Superior Court against the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the state Natural Resources Agency. She plans to refile the suit so it is compliant with the rules of the court. A hearing that was scheduled for Monday, March 19, was vacated by the judge.
“The attorneys wanted me to stop it and then for them to rewrite it,” Ackley said, adding that her attorneys told her if she had gone forward with her original filing, she would have been “eaten alive.”
In a March 17 Facebook post, Ackley informed her friends, “I only get one chance and I must do it correctly in order to proceed.”
Ackley, 46, teamed up with documentary filmmaker Todd Standing, the man behind the Netflix film “Discovering Bigfoot” in drafting the original lawsuit. Standing, who had a similar lawsuit filed in British Columbia, Canada, where he resides.
Standing said Tuesday that he, Ackley and a paralegal wrote the first lawsuit themselves, which was not vetted by any lawyers.
“There’s so many things a lawyer has to do appropriately. We now have a team of lawyers in the U.S. who are going to put it together,” Standing said in a telephone message. “They have to interview all the witnesses. They have a lot of work to do. The legal action is going to be enormous now.”
Ackley’s Texas-based attorney, Bobby Garcia, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ackley and Standing said they plan to present evidence proving the existence of Sasquatch, including testimony from wildlife biologists, wilderness experts and police forensic officers. They said they also will introduce fingerprint, footprint, and even DNA evidence from hair samples Standing said he obtained from a tree during a 2014 expedition.
Yet even the most devout Bigfoot aficionados have their doubts about Ackley and her lawsuit.
“I suspect it will be dismissed for lack of evidence,” said Daniel Perez, a Riverside-based Bigfoot researcher and historian who publishes the monthly Bigfoot Times newsletter. “I can’t see the matter getting any legal footing.”
Ackley’s claims of encountering three Sasquatches in Lake Arrowhead last March while hiking with her two daughters are the only documented claims on record of a Bigfoot sighting in the mountain resort community, Perez said.
“I did talk with some people at the Bigfoot Bonanza just recently who live near Claudia, and they know the area well and they reported that outside of Claudia and her claims, no one else is reporting anything like Bigfoot in the area,” Perez said. “This whole matter is bad publicity for the serious Bigfoot community, and just one more reason why a great many folks across the nation take the matter with a grain of salt.”
Brad C
looks like she went dark on her FB site
Steven J
If it is indeed as presented here, then good for her for doing the smart thing.
Glen K
(New Jersey) I would rather the title of the article read: Case withdrawn by plaintiff. Anyway, I guess it’s just semantics. The Important thing here is she is listening to her attorney, and proceeding the Right way. So much smarter than having the case tossed out. I wish her All the Best!
Wes
Done
Glen K
(New Jersey) Haha. Wes, you didn’t have to, but thanks!
Bal G
Somebody somewhere just needs to bring in a body. Yeah, yeah it will be discredited by everyone and their mother, but so be it. A little scorn and ridicule should not stop a person or persons from achieving this endeavour. Let’s just end this once and for all. They exist. So many people can’t. have witnessed the same thing over and over without there being something there.
Nick H
So many witnesses with fascinating encounters on SC that have came forward to share them with us all, and now Todd and Claudia head to head seemingly alone against the machine. If there only was a way, perhaps a petition or something to present as evidence from all the witnesses across NA, something, instead of hanging them out to dry.
Augustine L
It needs to be rewritten and will be resubmitted.
Afton S
Well I hope all the Bigfoot research groups from around the country actually pull together and back this thing instead of sitting around on the sidelines waiting to see what happens and then talk crap about them later saying they didn’t have enough evidence. Now’s the Time to put petty differences aside and if you’ve got good evidence call them up and say you want to help
Scott D
As I said in another thread, this is not the case to bet on . She has a credibility problem, as the researcher notes in the article. Also, any affiliation with Standing is suspect. All this will do is set the community back, IF it actually gets resubmitted to the courts.
Jerry M
Best of luck to Claudia. I’m pulling for you
Steve K
Ms. Ackley, have you any more witnesses? Yes your honor, I would like to call my last witness. Proceed please. I would like to call Harry No Last Name to the stand.
Maybe, just maybe she would have a prayer but I doubt it.