Editor's Preface:

Well, old Ronnie Burk's at it again, raising all sorts of guerrilla hell. He's been dumping dirty kitty litter on stately ladies, hurling rubbers at conservative liberals, writing inflammatory letters to the media, declaring war, and defending himself in court. This time, however, he dragged the Corpse in with him, as you'll see in the following ridiculous transcript from the Superior Court of the State of California. Supposedly though, the debacle is now over, Ronnie being fined a few thousand dollars. ACT UP, however, is picking up the tab. Meanwhile, Ronnie has split for Brooklyn (see his letter in the Letters section), where he is now involved in another scandal -- this one having to do with GQ Magazine. I'm sure he'll send dramatic news soon, which we can add to his box of overflowing poetry and polemics which we keep down here in Corpse Headquarters. So here it is folks, Ronnie Burk on trial for being a gay-Surrealist, Native-American, Anarchist activist seeking justice.

     -Mark Spitzer, Assistant Ed.

P.S. Be sure to scroll down and see the pornographic posters entered into evidence.

 Ronnie Burk is "et al." 

The Offending Evidence.

Court Transcript:

THE CLERK: Do you swear that the evidence you shall give in this matter shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

MR. BURK: Yes, it is.

THE CLERK: Will you please state your full name, for the record, and spell it?

MR. BURK: My name is Ronnie Burk, R-o-n-n-i-e, B-u-r-k.

THE CLERK: Thank you.

THE COURT: Mr. Burk, I assume you are going to give your testimony by a narrative?

MR. BURK: Yes, sir.

THE COURT: No objection?

MS. FISHER: No objection, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Mr. Burk, you heard the rules that I set down for everybody else? If you speak too quickly, I don't get it. If you speak too quickly, the court reporter doesn't get it.

MR. BURK: Yes, Your Honor.

THE COURT: And you have to give the plaintiffs an opportunity to object and be prepared to argue those objections. Go ahead.

DIRECT EXAMINATION

MR. BURK: Yes. My name is Ronnie Burk. As I said, I was born April Fools' Day, 1955, I'm 45 years old, I'm employed as a writer, I have been publishing since 1976, my entry to the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 209, lists 75 publications.
     I have to say as a gay man, as a Mexican-American, as someone who is designated HIV positive, that the San Francisco AIDS Foundation offends me greatly.
     The Vida y Moviemento controversy --

THE COURT: And you have to spell difficult words.

MR. BURK: The Vida, V-i-d-a, y, M-o-v-i-e-m-e-n-t-o, controversy over the slashing of services for Latinos, I think, is very offensive to me, and I would like to submit to the Court some documents from the BAR regarding the controversy that appeared in the bay gay press here in San Francisco, at this time.

THE COURT: Are they marked?

MR. ST. PIERRE: It's been premarked as Defense Exhibit W.

MR. BURK: Having been a client at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, all of these issues --the Art Fag ad, the Vida y Moviemento have created for me a little alarm for the gay men who are being attacked for simply being gay and walking down the street, which makes me a target.
     The day in question, October 23, I was responding to this ad which I feel to be maligning gay men and endangering gay men by promoting an image of gay men as disease-ridden parasites that need to be contained. These things, to me, are very disconcerting.
     It is true I posted a flier on the web page ridiculing a sarcastic political cartoon of Pat Christen that was taken from Exquisite Corpse, of Queen Juliana, that was altered to lampoon the greed and the promotion of AZT by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
     I would like to submit that graphic and that issue of Exquisite Corpse to the Court, at this time, to dispel the notion that this graphic was concocted to persecute Pat. It was concocted in Europe, in the late eighties, to protest the greed of western Europe's relationship with the Pentagon in the promotion of weapons.
     I simply altered the article. I have heard in this courtroom some suggestion that the use of the Nazi swastika will show that all of this was bred by ideological fanaticism. And I wanted to show what I meant was it was published in the Exquisite Corpse and I posted it on the web page to be a caricature and an act of political satire.

THE COURT: Mr. Burk, what exhibit number are you referring to?

MR. BURK: QQQ.

MR. ST. PIERRE: Yes. I'd like to have marked as Exhibit QQQ, an actual copy of the Exquisite Corpse, the photocopy of the cartoon which has been provided to counsel.

THE COURT: I think a photocopy of the altered cartoon has been admitted, has it not?

MR. ST. PIERRE: That's correct.

THE CLERK: Well, we marked the original issue of the magazine.

MR. ST. PIERRE: This is an original, October 22, 1960, issue of the Exquisite Corpse.

THE COURT: And it's up to triple, what?

MR. ST. PIERRE: Q.

THE COURT: QQQ.

THE CLERK: So marked.
(Defendants' Exhibit QQQ was marked for identification.)

MR. ST. PIERRE: Do you have a copy?

THE COURT: Has opposing counsel seen a copy of it?

MS. FISHER: Yes, Your Honor, we have just seen a copy.

THE COURT: All right.

MS. FISHER: If we could see the --

THE COURT: That's what I mean.

MS. FISHER: --the original that he's trying to submit.

THE COURT: All right.

MR. BURK: I would like to point out that I have three poems in that very issue, independent of the graphics and the article by Bill Levy, political satire in western Europe.

THE COURT: What year is that, 1960?

MR. BURK: The magazine is from 1997. The piece is from the late eighties.

MR. ST. PIERRE: I must have misread it. There are Hunter S. Thompson quotes at the top. I must have misread the date.

THE COURT: Not even Hunter S. Thompson goes back to 1960. I venture to say there's only a few people in this room that go back to 1960.

THE CLERK: That is the date on the actual quotation, Your Honor. It's dated 1960.

THE COURT: Mr. Burk, maybe you better clear this up. Can I see it?

MR. ST. PIERRE: That is the date for the Hunter S. Thompson article; but it's not the date, I believe, for the publication.

MR. BURK: The copyright date is 1997 on the back, and it's published in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

THE COURT: Right. There's a Hunter S. Thompson or a letter to the editor of a magazine, October 22, 1960.

MR. BURK: I mention all of this to frame my state of mind at the time of October 23, 2000, when I saw this ad.

MS. FISHER: Your Honor, if we could deal with -- I'm sorry to interrupt Mr. Burk.

THE COURT: Why don't we deal with the exhibits that are offered.

MR. ST. PIERRE: And in terms of --

THE COURT: First of all, Mr. Burk, you said you wanted to offer or submit to the Court Exhibit, was it, W?

MR. BURK: Yes. The Vida y Moviemento, the BAR article.

THE COURT: Any objection?

MS. FISHER: Yes. That one we object to as hearsay.

THE COURT: Are you offering this article from the July 23, 1998, issue of the Bay Area Reporter for the truth of the matter set forth therein?

MR. BURK: No. I'm trying to establish my state of mind on that day.

MS. FISHER: On that basis, we'd have no objection, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Okay. It's admitted for the purpose of the "not hearsay purpose."
(Defendants' Exhibit W was admitted into evidence.)

THE COURT: You have also asked, Mr. Burk, to submit QQQ, which is a copy of a periodical called the Exquisite Corpse.
     It appears to be number 61. It's not from 1960. Apparently, the reprint is from 1960.

MR. ST. PIERRE: The page specifically in question is page 40, Your Honor, if you want to turn your attention to it.

THE COURT: 40?

MR. ST. PIERRE: 4, 0.

THE COURT: All right. And there's the cartoon. You are offering this so you can show where the original of the cartoon came from?

MR. BURK: Yes.

THE COURT: All right.

MS. FISHER: Your Honor, we have no objection to the admission of the original. We would just like to have a copy of the entire publication rather than just the page itself.

THE COURT: Do you want the whole thing in?

MS. FISHER: Yes, Your Honor, as context for Mr.Burk's description of the one he chose.

THE COURT: That's fine. Any objection to the whole thing being in evidence?

MR. BURK: No, not at all.

THE COURT: That means, you don't get it back.

MR. BURK: That's quite all right. I prefer that it all be in evidence.

THE COURT: That's fine.

MS. FISHER: And again, we would just like a copy of the entire exhibit.

MR. ST. PIERRE: I believe that is the only copy that defense counsel has, and you are welcome to view it from beginning to end.

MS. FISHER: Well, perhaps we can copy it at the break.

THE COURT: You are entitled to a copy of any exhibit.
Let's go off the record.

(Off-the-record discussion.)

THE COURT: Okay. Back on the record. QQQ is in evidence. It can be removed to be copied so that everybody has got a copy.
(Defendants' Exhibit QQQ was admitted into evidence.)

THE COURT: Go ahead.

MR. BURK: Concerning October 23, I arrived at noon, I came into the reception room, I asked to speak to someone about the ad, I had a copy of the ad in my hand, the offending ad, and I was told there was no one to speak to.
     I continued to ask where the money was going. This went on for a few, about a half a minute or so, and then Ms. Haikalis showed up, coming down the stairway. I turned to her, complimented her on her hair, asked about the ad, and she told me that she had nothing to comment about the ad, and she told me to leave, at which point, half a minute later I turned to leave and Mr. Gallagher was at the front door pounding on Todd on the sidewalk.
     As I went to go leave, I actually had to wait for him to move out of the way of the doorway so I could get out of the building. As I came around, he grabbed Betty, threw her hand against the wall, and proceeded to attack her. And at that point I was pointing out to Mr. Gallagher that we were outside the building.
     At that point, I went and joined the others that were outside and we began chanting, "Where is the money going, where is the money going?" The police arrived at 12:16, and subsequently I was arrested for public disorderly conduct, and I was taken to jail and that was that.

THE COURT: Have you concluded your testimony?

MR. BURK: Yes, that's the conclusion of my narrative.

THE COURT: Does any other defendant have any questions of the witness?

MR. PETRELIS: No, Your Honor.

MR. SWINDELL: I have one question, Your Honor.


DIRECT EXAMINATION

MR. SWINDELL: Q. Mr. Burk, you mentioned that at the October 23 demonstration you were arrested?

A. Yes.

Q. I was just wondering what is the status of that arrest since then?

A. I am doing 24 hours of community service diversion through the court with Judge Mahoney, the assault charges were dismissed, and I'm doing my diversion at this time.

MR. SWINDELL: Thank you. No further questions.


CROSS-EXAMINATION

MS. FISHER: Q. Mr. Burk, would it be fair to say that you have a long-standing hatred of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation?

A. No.

Q. How about with respect to Ms. Christen?

A. No .

Q. How would you characterize your feelings about the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Ms. Christen?

A. Disdain, remorse, disappointment.

Q. Anger?

A. No.

Q. Ever?

A. There was a time, having been a client and having been referred to the hotels, that I was angry, but that was almost five years ago.

Q. And you believe that AIDS treatment drugs have been responsible for the death of several of your friends?

A. That's been my experience.

Q. And you also believed that the AIDS Foundation promotes the use of those drugs?

A. That has been my experience.

Q. And it continues to be your experience, right?

A. Well, I have no relations with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. As you know, I have been denied services since 1996.

Q. And with respect to 1996, that was the year in which you issued your Declaration of War; is that correct?

A. Yes .

Q. If you could look at Plaintiff's Exhibit 4, Mr. Burk. Do you have Plaintiff's Exhibit 4 in front of you?

A. Yes. I know it by heart, we have been through this a lot. Let's see. Exhibit 4. Yes?

Q. Now, this was the Declaration of War that you issued on or about October 22, 1996; is that right?

A. Yes.

Q. And on the last page of that declaration you state in capital letters, "I will not rest"?

A. Yes.

Q. This was a declaration that you sent immediately following the dumping of used cat litter on Ms. Christen; isn't that right?

A. Yes.

Q. And are you aware that this declaration has been reprinted recently on a web site?

A. Yes, as an appendix to the court transcripts, yes.

Q. And if you would look at Exhibit Number 9.

A. (Witness reviewing exhibit.)

Q. And on the side of the page, next to the court transcript of the Project Informed case, it says a Declaration of War by Ronnie Burk. Do you see that?

A. Yes .

Q. Is that a picture of you right above that?

A. Yes .

Q. What are you doing in that picture, Mr. Burk?

A. I'm smiling and giving the "V" sign.

Q. And what kind of T-shirt are you wearing there?

A. ACMT. It has to do with the Spanish Civil War. This photo was taken from a San Francisco Weekly article about Harold Norris, the poet.

Q. And that was a more recent photo than the 1996 Declaration of War, right?

A. Yes.

Q. And how did this Declaration of War end up on something called AIDS News Daily?

A. As an appendix to the transcripts of the web page handling news about AIDS activism and the dissident movement.

Q. Did you have anything to do with helping them to reprint the Declaration of War with your picture above it?

A. No, I did not.

Q. Now, how did they find it?

A. It was posted by David Pasquarelli. The transcripts and all of the appendix graphics and E-mails and everything else that you will see that goes on with this transcript. It was actually posted as a kind of Tella Novella (sic) in the web page as a kind of soap opera with the Project Informed Circus last summer.

Q. Did you know before the Declaration of War was going to be republished, along with the transcript, that that was going to happen?

A. No, I did not.

Q. Did you undertake any steps after you saw that it had been republished or remove it?

A. No.

Q. And I'd like to ask you, as well, if Mr. Pasquarelli also put on the third to the last page the pictures of Mr. Delaney and Pat Christen, Dump Fat Cat Pat, and the final picture that you have described as coming from a graphic about Queen Juliana, do you see those?

A. Yes.

Q. Did he also cause those to be put on this web page?

A. Yes. As I stated, it is an appendix to the transcripts, these are all discussed in the transcript.

Q. And did you undertake any efforts to try to take off from this web page, the graphics of Mr. Delaney or Ms. Christen?

A. I saw no reason to, as a matter of clarity.

Q. Mr. Delaney is the head of Project Informed, right?

A. Yes.

Q. And if I could put back up the web site gallery that we looked at earlier. Your testimony today was about the origin of Number H; is that correct?

A. Yes.

Q. You recreated that one --

A. Yes.

Q. -- or you created that one? Mr. Pasquarelli created Q, Dump Fat Cat Pat?

A. Yes.

Q. Okay. Now, first of all, I'd like to ask you whether all of these pictures appear today under the ACT UP SF web site as one whole page called "The Gallery"?

A. I believe so.

Q. And could you tell me which of these were prepared by any of the defendants in this case --

MR. ST. PIERRE: Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.

MS. FISHER: Q. -- and what they are, as well?

A. It would --

THE COURT: Hold on a second.

MR. BURK: It would take a lot of time.

THE COURT: Hold on a second. There's an objection.

MR. BURK: I'm sorry.

THE COURT: We'd like to have this in evidence and it appears as a whole page and each of these individuals has been associated with prior threats to others, particularly in association with people who are named employees in this case, are relevant under various principles we have discussed earlier.

MR. ST. PIERRE: Your Honor, if I may respond. I thought we had been over this before.

MR. PASQUARELLI: Minutes, letters, pictures are relevant to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. It seems that there's no point in going through all of this.

THE COURT: Didn't I overrule it, didn't I rule on it before?

MR. PASQUARELLI: I believe you did.

MS. FISHER: I don't believe you have ruled before we kind of stopped going through this because we were having difficulty establishing the origin of each picture and the fact that they appear together on one page.

MR. PASQUARELLI: My recollection was that Plaintiff's Exhibit 1 was not admitted into evidence for that reason, that it was not relevant, only the specific pictures themselves that we talked about, Q, H, those were relevant.

MS. FISHER: I just read this last night, Your Honor, and that was not what I would describe as Your Honor's ruling.

THE COURT: Have we established that Mr. Burk is capable of competently identifying the author of each of those pages?

MS. FISHER: No, not yet.

THE COURT: WHy don't we do that and I'll think it over.

MS. FISHER: Q. Okay. Mr. Burk, can you identify the author of each of these pictures?

A. No, I cannot. There are graphics here that predate my involvement with ACT UP. And I would like to say that Bob Kaufman, the poet, and Poncho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary, are not members of the AIDS industry, and I cannot comment on every graphic because I have no history with many of them.

Q. How many did you, yourself, do?

A. One, two, three, four. I see four.

Q. Which ones are those?

A. "D," picture of Bob Kaufman jumping out of a dumpster that relates to a statement that we issued on homelessness; "G," HIV Fraud in Collaboration with Todd Swindell, it's a collage with Robert Gallo; and then "H," which is the Queen Juliana reconstitution of Pat Christen; and then "T," Poncho Villa smoking pot with his friends on his ranch as a statement in prohibition now.
I wrote those for the dispensary for ACT UP San Francisco. Those are the ones I can identify.
     Oh, yes. And "J," Larry Kramer, that is a collage from a photo by John Laurenstein and the AIDS activists from his book AIDS or that takes Larry Kramer to task as a charlatan.

THE COURT: How do you know Poncho Villa is smoking pot?

MR. BURK: Because I researched it and Cata Sato (sic), the photographer, made a point of it.
     Actually, there's a very good biography issued about Poncho Villa and his use of marijuana. That is how I documented these things.

THE COURT: Okay.

MS. FISHER: Q. And do you know who prepared any of the ones, other than the ones you have just identified?

A. I couldn't say specifically. I mean, I know that David was involved with the Boycott Hot Cookie, because that's what I was involved with.

THE COURT: That's "C."

MR. BURK: Yes. But I can't comment on -- actually, now that I think about it "N" is mine, too, Our Pride Is for Sale, that's a collage I did for the BAR.

MS. FISHER: Q. Do you know who prepared the one for Mitch Katz, Number B, Fire the Liars, Open the Baths?

A. No.

Q. And how about Dr. Volberding, Number P?

A. No.

Q. All right. Your Honor, we'll explore the rest of them with other defendants, I think.

Mr. Burk, after you dumped kitty litter on Ms. Christen, did you ever apologize or express any remorse or tell Ms. Christen or the AIDS Foundation that you would never do that again?

A. No.

Q. And, in fact, the Declaration of War that you sent soon afterwards said that you would redo it again, right?

A. Yes. At that time, I did feel that way in 1996.

Q. Right. And, in fact, you have previously expressed that the reason you were moved to throw used cat litter on Ms. Christen was because you felt you had ended up in a terrible hotel as a result of a referral from the AIDS Foundation back in 1995 or '96, right?

A. It was not a feeling, it was something that happened. Yes, that's true.

Q. But that's what moved you --

A. Yes.

Q. --to throw the cat litter on Ms. Christen?

A. Yes .

Q. And, in fact, you haven't forgotten that memory at all, have you?

A. The memory of being in a hotel?

Q. Of being in that hotel.

A. No, I have not, and I don't suspect I will in this lifetime.

Q. And you were, in fact, yelling about the rat-infested hotel that the AIDS Foundation put you in on October 23, in the tape that we saw last week, right?

A. And with regards to the African-American gentleman who is currently living in one of those hotels, yes.
     We were dialoguing about the situation of hotels and the abuse and the exploitation of black and brown people being sent to these hotels in the name of HIV services.
     Yes, I was discussing that with the African-American gentleman.

Q. In fact, you weren't dialoguing or discussing, we watched the tape, and you were yelling at quite a high volume about the terribleness of that hotel, right?

A. Yes.

Q. And that was just October 23, of this past year, right?

A. Yes, it was.

Q. I would like to ask you with respect to the rest of your testimony about October 23, when you and your co-defendants arrived there, you pretty much all walked in together, right?

A. Yes.

Q. And then you dispersed around the lobby, right?

A. Well, I walked in, there were, I think, two or three people with me, other people arrived.
     If you mean to imply it was organized, no, I walked in independently. I mean, that was my gist of going down there.

Q. Well, how long before you got there did you plan on showing up there?

A. There was no set plan. We had discussed the ad over the -- since Thursday, and I had heard that people were considering going down there on Monday, the first working day, to discuss the ad.
     The ad actually asked for input from the community. And as an HIV positive activist, who is gay and lives in San Francisco, I felt that it was within my rights to do just that. I was actually responding to the last sentence of the ad in terms of input and comment.

Q. The last section of the ad that says "let's talk" or something like that?

A. Yes. Exactly.

Q. Well, you didn't really go to the AIDS Foundation offices to talk?

A. I most certainly did, and I was denied the chance to talk at the moment of my arrival.

Q. Do you usually find it's the best environment to talk when you are yelling and chanting and holding signs?

A. I usually find it best to talk when people are willing to talk and then we can dialogue.
     If there's no room for dialogue then that's why we protest. As an activist, I know that by heart.

Q. And did you expect that when you went into the Foundation's offices, that there would be a willingness to talk in light of your own personal history with the Foundation?

A. Yes, I did have a hope that they were actually owning up to their ad and would be willing to discuss this with a group of HIV-activist positives in the community, of HIV people who have a history in the gay community. I did think they meant what they said when they said they wanted to talk.

Q. Did you throw condoms and literature?

A. I tossed condoms, yes.

Q. How many condoms did you toss?

A. I have no idea.

Fat Cat Pat.

Q. And did you toss the condoms because no one would talk to you, is that why you did that?

A. I tossed them as a symbolic act that actually -- I stated, "This is all we get here." I believe I said, "$18,000,000.00 and this is all we get, a bag of condoms."
     That was the point of tossing the condoms, I think, that ACT UP, in general, has had a history of talking condoms since its inception.

Q. And, Mr. Burk, after you went back outside, we have seen the tape of you doing and saying certain things, and I notice that there was a Spanish phrase that you used on the tape with respect to Ms. Christen, I believe.
Could you tell the Court what that was?

A. Actually, it was with respect to Anna Benassi. I was, in Spanish, questioning her allegiance to the Latino community as a representative of Pat Christen. I called her a "vendida," which means "sellout."
     I was commenting on her position as a Latino, of working for a racist institution.

Q. You also called Ms. Benassi a fucking dyke?

A. No, I did not.

Q. Did you hear Mr. Bellefountaine --

A. No, I did not.

Q. - -call her that or a dyke? Did you hear anyone calling Ms. Benassi a dyke?

A. No. I would have no problem calling her a dyke, but I did not call her a dyke.

Q. I would like it if you would turn to Plaintiff's Exhibit Number 39.

THE COURT: You know, before we start on that, we have been going quite awhile. Why don't we take a break.

MS. FISHER: Okay, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Fifteen minutes.

(Recess.)

MS. FISHER: I have no further questions of Mr. Burk, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Any examination by any other defendant?

MR. PASQUARELLI: No, Your Honor.

MR. ST. PIERRE: Yes, Your Honor, I have a couple of questions.

REDIRECT EXAMINATION

MR. ST. PIERRE: Q. Mr. Burk, prior to the advertisement of October 19, 2000, when was your last contact with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation?
A. After October 19, it would have been the hearing for the TRO that was December of 1996.

Q. Turning your attention to October 23, you previously testified that you threw some condoms during the protest. Did you actually throw condoms at anyone?

A. No, I was tossing them in the air.

Q. And finally turning your attention to what's been talked about as your Declaration of War --

A. Yes.

Q. -- and what was marked as Plaintiff's Exhibit 9 --

A. Yes. -- those that were on the AIDS web site.

A. Yes.

Q. Did you see that? Do you have any intention of republishing your 1999 Declaration of War?

A. No, none whatsoever.

MR. ST. PIERRE: No further questions.

REDIRECT EXAMINATION

MR. PETRELIS: Q. Mr. Burk, can you look at Plaintiff's Exhibit 4, please.

A. Yes. Let's see. Which one is that?

Q. Your Declaration of War.

A. Oh, yes. Okay.

Q. Do you see the section here --

A. Hold on a second. Is it "4" or "9"?

MR. PETRELIS: Plaintiff's Exhibit 4, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Okay. It's an E-mail, I believe.

MR. BURK: Yes.

MR. PETRELIS: Q. Can you read where it's from, this section here, please, in the middle of the page?

A. Which section?

Q. It says from Pat Christen -- excuse me -- from Christen, Pat?

A. Yes .

Q. Can you see that?

A. Yes.

Q. Can you read the subject, please?

A. Cat Litter Capers.

Q. Would you describe the subject line, Cat Litter Capers, as threatening?

A. No.

Q. Can you tell me if there's anything in this E-mail from Pat Christen that mentions any threats that were made at the incident?

A. No.

MS. FISHER: Excuse me. Objection. The document speaks for itself.

MR. PETRELIS: Thank you.

MR. PASQUARELLI: I just have a couple of questions, Your Honor.

MS. FISHER: Your Honor, I would move to strike.

THE COURT: Do you want me to rule on the objection?

MR. PASQUARELLI: Oh, I'm sorry.

THE COURT: He answered the question.

MR. PETRELIS: Yes, I would, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Let me get the question.
(Pause in proceedings.)

THE COURT: The objection is well taken. Is it in evidence?

MS. FISHER: Yes, Your Honor.

THE COURT: All of 4. So 4 consists of documents that appear to be somewhat unrelated. There's the text of an E-mail sent by Pat Christen, subject Cat Litter Capers, Mr. Burk's multipage Declaration of War. Am I to understand that this is an attachment?

MS. FISHER: Yes, Your Honor. I think it's Ms. Christen's E-mail passing on Mr. Burk's E-mail with her comments on it.

THE COURT: Okay. Then the entire thing is in evidence?

MS. FISHER: Yes, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Objection sustained. Whatever is in there is in there.

MR. PETRELIS: Q. So, Mr. Burk, is there any threat in this E-mail from Pat Christen?

THE COURT: Mr. Petrelis, I'll be the judge of that.

MR. PETRELIS: Okay. I withdraw it. Thank you, Your Honor.

MR. PASQUARELLI: I just have a couple of questions, Your Honor.

REDIRECT EXAMINATION

MR. PASQUARELLI: Q. Mr. Burk, regarding Plaintiff's Exhibit 9, the so-called reissuing of your Declaration of War.

A. Yes.

Q. Could you turn to that briefly, please.

A. (Witness complied.)

Q. That was posted on a web site entitled AIDS web site, correct?

A. Yes .

THE COURT: Who has got the phone? Didn't I make an observation about that at the outset of this hearing?

MR. ST. PIERRE: I believe you did, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Electronic devices will be completely turned off in this courtroom, unless you would like to donate it.

MR. PASQUARELLI: Q. That web site, just to repeat, was the AIDS web site, correct?

A. Yes.

THE COURT: Repeat the questions, please.

MR. PASQUARELLI: Q. Just to repeat, Mr. Burk, that web site where the so-called reissuance of your Declaration of War was posted was called the AIDS Myth Web Site?

A. Yes, that's correct.

Q. Is that web site, in any way, affiliated with ACT UP San Francisco?

A. No, it is not.

Q. Does ACT UP San Francisco have any control over the contents of that web site?

A. No.

Q. Would you have been able to remove or add any pictures or text to or from that web site?

A. No, I would not.

MR. PASQUARELLI: Thank you, Your Honor. No further

MS. FISHER: Just one question, Your Honor.


RECROSS-EXAMINATION

MS. FISHER: Q. Who does run the AIDS Myth Web Site?

A. I have no idea.

Q. So you don't know whether or not that individual could be talked into taking things off there; is that right?

A. I know that they are based in Ireland, but I have no relation to the editors of that web page.

MS. FISHER: All right. Thank you.

THE COURT: Any other testimony you wish to offer?

MR. BURK: I just wanted to state for the benefit of the Court that I weigh 110 pounds. That's all.