From a decision last week by Judge Robert Pitman in DL v. JS (W.D. Tex.):
Plaintiff dated ES from September 2021 to January 2022 when they were both in high school. On December 18, 2021, Plaintiff and ES were having intercourse when Plaintiff removed his condom without ES's knowledge. ES, Defendant, and ES's mother filed a civil lawsuit in Utah state court against Plaintiff and his parents in May 2022. The case proceeded publicly for over a year, when the parties agreed to classify the case as private, which sealed the pleadings and filings docketed in the case and renamed the parties with pseudonyms. The Utah civil suit has since settled.
In the instant case, Plaintiff brings claims of libel, public disclosure of private facts, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant contacted a member of the board of his fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity at the University of Austin at Texas, via email and stated that Plaintiff sexually assaulted his daughter in high school. Plaintiff also alleges that Defendant has sent similar statements to various sororities affiliated with the University of Austin at Texas via the postal service. According to Plaintiff, these mailings contained the unredacted complaint from the Utah civil suit. Plaintiff filed this motion to proceed under pseudonyms concurrently with his complaint.
Plaintiff requests leave to proceed anonymously using the pseudonyms "DL" to refer to himself, "JS" to refer to Defendant, and "ES" to refer to Defendant's daughter, who is not a party to this action, in order to protect his reputation, the reputation of ES, and to avoid further dissemination of details concerning Plaintiff's alleged sexual misconduct against ES. Defendant responds that no public interest is served by allowing the use of pseudonyms and nothing about this case overcomes the presumption against allowing a party to proceed anonymously….
