October 25, 2001
To: cgies@taubman.com, kmacdonald@taubman.com,
padams@taubman.com, danton@taubman.com,
Sabrina.Smith@nbc.com, russ@russmartin.com
Subject: Public Relations and contributing to the downfall of America
Ms. Carol Gies
Vice President, Marketing and Center Planning
I am writing this email because I am interested in knowing if you and your company are truly
aware of a situation that exists between the Taubman Company and one Hank Mishkoff. In brief, the
law firm of Gifford, Krass, Groh, Sprinkle, Anderson & Citkowski is representing your company in a
civil action law suit against Hank Mishkoff.
The law suit is based upon false allegations of your company (Plaintiff) being harmed by a web
site that Hank Mishkoff (Defendant) operated. While I shall not argue the merits and points of this
case, I strongly advise you to read them for yourself on-line at
http://www.taubmansucks.com. Mr.
Mishkoff has provided a great bit of detail about the case as well as his own insight and feelings
about the way this is being handled.
Perhaps you are truly unaware of what is happening. I would like to believe that is the case. I
even inquired with Mr. Mishkoff as to whether or not he has contacted your company directly. He
indicated that he had not, as he has conflicting points of view on whether or not it would be
damaging to the case for him to contact you directly. However, I am not affiliated with Mr.
Mishkoff or the case in any way. I am "Joe Public" consumer.
Let me state that I first believe that if you are not aware of what your legal representation is
doing for you, you should be. Don't take your lawyers' word for it, go read it for yourself (see
link above). People (or law firms) have a way of representing themselves in the best light,
especially to their clients. erhaps there truly was or is no ill will towards Mr. Mishkoff, but
your legal representation did a fine job of grossly misrepresenting your intentions and best
interest in this manner. The information and actions conducted by your law firm have been
misleading, grossly over-exaggerated, harassing and ill-willed to say the least.
What I fail to comprehend is how this matter not only could have been resolved in an inexpensive
manner, but a truly civil manner. No, I do not believe that what is taking place is considered
civil, even though it is being carried out as a civil suit in our legal system. That in itself is
laughable and borderline idiotic. People would probably get away with beating each other with clubs
if they could. This is, in effect, what your legal representation is attempting to do, only the
club is turning into a mountain of legalese and paperwork.
Until such a time as your company resolves this issue in a reasonable manner (which Mr. Mishkoff
had expressed many times he wised to do), the public can only conclude that your company not only
condones these actions, but that it encourages them. hanks to the Internet and the world wide web
(WWW) this information can be made public and distributed to hundreds of thousands of people, if not
millions.
Even if by some stroke of luck a restraining order is placed upon the case and Mr. Mishkoff is no
longer able to provide the details, enough people not only know about this but are willing to help
out that it will continue to be an issue for you. You may be able to seal court records, but you
cannot stop freedom of speech.
Personally, I will not be shopping at ANY mall owned or operated by your company. Thanks to
your web site I have a list of ones to avoid. As a consumer and a citizen, it is all I can do to
support what I believe to be a violation of decent and civil behavior. I have had to deal with
lawyers before and I know what a financial vortex they can be, much less an entire law firm. Your
company would better benefit this country by ceasing to contribute to the moral, ethical and legal
decay of this country and channeling the monies wasted on this effort into the Disaster Relief Fund
that you so prominently display on your site.
Ms. Gies, if you wanted marketing, you got it.
