Videographer Cary ONeal, also known as “Mr. Malibu,” was sued by Pepperdine University for libel on April 11 after posting videos of polluted storm runoff that he attributes to the school.
By Jimy Tallal / Special to The Malibu Times
Another week, another lawsuit over water quality in Malibu. Two days before the City of Malibu agreed to pay more than $6 million to settle a lawsuit with two environmental groups over storm drain issues, Pepperdine University filed a libel claim against local videographer Cary ONeal for videos ONeal posted on the Internet that blamed the university for contaminated runoff.
ONeal is a local videographer who goes by the nickname Mr. Malibu and operates a website as well as a Facebook page where he posts mainly noncontroversial videos of celebrity events and interviews with celebrities in Malibu.
On March 25, ONeal posted a 30-second video to his Facebook fan page and YouTube channel titled “Sewage Effluent on Malibu Beach” with the subject line, “Pepperdine Recklessly Dumps Sewage on Malibu Beach.” The video first showed the Malibu Mesa Wastewater Reclamation Plant, which is a small county-operated sewage plant that processes most of the wastewater from Pepperdine University and Malibu Estates. Most of the treated water is used to irrigate the landscaping at Pepperdine, but the excess flows into the tiny Marie Canyon Creek. The creek flows under Pacific Coast Highway, through the western side of Bluffs Park, where it empties into a storm drain on Malibu Road and then out into the ocean. The ONeal video showed water with suds pouring out of the storm drain onto the beach, along with the following statement: “Pepperdine Caught Dumping Sewage Effluent on Malibu Beach – March 25, 2012.”
Two days later, Pepperdine responded to the posted video with a cease and desist order, saying it was not responsible for whatever came out of the Malibu Mesa facility because it was a county-operated treatment plant. It also said there was no polluted runoff on March 25, the day ONeal said the video was taken, and that the larger than usual outflow that day was due to significant rains.
Pepperdine then contacted Facebook directly and had the fan page removed. ONeal responded by posting a message on his other Internet pages saying “Facebook wrongfully removed my Mr. Malibu fan page after I posted a video showing the pollution coming from Pepperdine on Saturday.”
ONeal then posted a 4-minute version of the first video on YouTube on April 1 with the title “Malibu, California, USA – Luxury Beach Homes of Adam Sandler, Tom Hanks, David Duchovny and Pink Under Siege.” The video appeared to suggest the university was dumping effluent near the celebrities’ homes.
After several days when ONeal did not remove the video, the university filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court for libel and “invasion of privacy by placing person in false light in public eye.”
Jerry Derloshon, senior director of public affairs at Pepperdine, told The Malibu Times that “the content in the video is totally false. After failing to reach another solution, we felt it was necessary to bring this lawsuit. Apart from that, it is common practice that we don’t want to comment on matters in litigation.”
ONeal said in an e-mail to The Malibu Times that he had since complied with Pepperdine’s request to take down the video; and that “if they don’t drop the suit, they might as well try to squeeze blood out of a turnip.”
ONeal said he first became aware of the effluent flowing out of Marie Canyon Creek back in 1999 after family and friends told him about it. ONeal added that on the day he recorded the video, “I can assure you [the runoff] stank to high hell and was clearly polluted.”