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Randall Kaplan – Victim Impact Statement

1. Your honor, I appreciate the opportunity to speak today and


share my victim impact statement with the court. This is the most
unsettling and uncomfortable statement I have given in my life,
and I will try to be as composed as possible as I go through and
describe the horrifically violent and unprovoked attack that left
both me – and my wife – with very significant and permanent
injuries.

2. As you indicated earlier today, just minutes after the most recent
setting hearing and day we were last in the courtroom on
February 26th, Mr. Gimelstob posted the following entry on his
Facebook and Instagram pages:

a. "Media reports continue to misrepresent what happened in


court today. I have never and will never engage in any
settlement discussion which would require an admission of
guilt. I maintain my innocence and will only consider a no
contest plea. To that end, we will continue to pursue a fair
and just settlement agreement. If that proves to be
impossible l will fight the case to the end, confident that the
truth will wholly vindicate me."

3. On February 22nd, Mr. Gimelstob gave a video interview to TMZ


stating that he was not a violent person – and in which he publicly
declared attack never happened.
4. For more than five months – until today – Mr. Gimelstob’s blunt
and very public refusals to accept responsibility for his actions was
as alarming as they illuminating about his state of mind – in fact
they have been shocking, appalling, and pathological.
5. I am going to start today by briefly talking about my former
relationship with Mr. Gimelstob. After that I will discuss the
details of attack, my injuries from the attack, my wife’s injuries
from the attack, and how the attack has affected my life and the
lives of my family.

6. Relationship
a. I first met Mr. Gimelstob in September 2008 at a mutual
friend’s wedding in New York.
b. I had not spoken with him in more than five years – but on
May 2nd of last year he called me six times, and also texted
me asking me to call him. I didn’t answer his calls, and I
didn’t return his text. I didn’t like him, and I wanted
absolutely nothing to do with him.
c. Eight days later, on May 10th, I was having dinner with my
wife at a restaurant and when we walked in I saw a woman
named Kris Royce who was a parent at my kids school – and
who is also Mr. Gimelstob’s divorce lawyer. I went over to
say hello to her, and when I did somebody I didn’t see
sitting next to her tapped me on the shoulder and
aggressively said, “What’s the matter – you don’t fucking
call me back?”
d. I was surprised to see Mr. Gimelstob there – he was
extremely agitated and angry when he saw me. He
aggressively asked why I didn’t call him back, and I
shrugged. Then he got in my face and aggressively said,
“You’re either with the Gimelstobs or Sinnotts.” By this he
was referring to the family of Cary Sinnott, with whom Mr.
Gimelstob is getting divorced.
e. When I shrugged again with my hands by my shoulders –
meaning I had nothing to say to him – he put his hand in my
face and said “I’m going to fucking kick your ass and kill
you.”
f. When I asked him if he had really just threatened me in front
of his attorney, he said he had and said, “I’m rich and she’s
the best attorney in the world and will get me out of
anything.”

7. Halloween Attack
a. Nearly six months after threatening to kick my ass and kill
me, Madison and I took our two-year old daughter Carter
trick or treating for her first Halloween.
b. We were excited and Carter was excited. Carter had picked
out a pilot outfit with her name on it and we had prepped
her about Halloween and how she was going to get a lot of
candy that night. We went to a local street called
Homewood in Brentwood – it’s one of those safe Halloween
neighborhood family destination spots, around a mile long,
and is blocked off to traffic because thousands of people
trick-or-treat there each year.
c. We met up with other families with their two-year olds, and
after around an hour, Madison and I left our friends and
their toddlers and headed to our car to keep Carter on her
sleep schedule.
d. At 6:20 pm, I was pushing Carter in her stroller when I was
hit with a sudden, tremendous force from behind. I never
saw the ambush coming or had any warning it was about to
come – I went flying to the ground face-first – unable to
brace myself – while a very heavy body pounced and landed
on top of me.
e. It hurt like hell and I was in complete shock.
f. I tried moving but my arms and legs were pinned to the
ground, and almost immediately the person who ambushed
me started punching the back of my head while screaming
over and over again “You fucked with my family” and “I’m
going to fucking kill you.”
g. The person was screaming it at the top of his lungs filled
with rage – and I had no clue who it was.
h. I don’t know much about physical assaults, but I
immediately thought of two things:
i. First, that my attacker had the wrong person; and
ii. Second, that the attack would end quickly.
i. I was wrong on both.
j. I was pinned to the ground – and couldn’t move – and was
in total shock – and as soon as the blows to my skull began,
I started screaming “HELP!” and then “CALL THE POLICE!”
k. But the punches kept coming, with tremendous force, and
my attacker kept yelling “I’m going to fucking kill you!” over
and over again.
l. It was beyond petrifying – I have never been so scared in my
entire life. As the attack continued with no letup in sight, I
thought my skull was going to crack open, and I wondered
how many more punches I could take.
m. I tried moving many times as I screamed but was unable to
move my arms or my legs because my attacker continued
punching and beating the back of my head repeatedly –
and I was trying my best to cover my head with my hands to
protect it.
n. With my head pushed into the ground, I turned and
screamed again for help. I was also shouting
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” over and over from the pain –
which you have seen on the video my wife took at the start
of the attack. But when I turned my head to scream, it
exposed my face.
o. And when that happened, my attacker’s devastating and
brutal punches went from the top and back of my skull to
the sides of my face – including my cheeks, forehead and
ears – as well as my back.
p. Early this morning, as a factor in deciding Mr. Gimelstob’s
punishment, you stated that the attack was short. I
respectfully disagree Your Honor – the attack lasted three
minutes.
q. During that time, I was punched at least 50 times – but
when you count it out – 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . the actual
number was likely over 100.
r. As the attack continued, I wondered if my skull was going to
crack open – or if he would punch the back of my neck –
and wondered if I was going to be paralyzed – or if I would
die – and if I died would my two-year daughter and wife
who were only a few feet away witness me being beat to
death.
s. As his fist continued pounding into my head, I became
dizzy, and thought I may pass out, and I thought of the San
Francisco Giants fan who was beaten after a Dodgers game
and was paralyzed for the rest of his life. I thought about a
friend from the summer before who was sucker-punched,
blacked out, hit his head on a sidewalk without breaking his
fall – and DIED.
t. I worried about my three teenage kids, and whether I was
going to see them again, and whether I was going to see
my family back in Detroit – my mom had just turned 75 –
and my grandmother was going to turn 100 in two days.
u. Finally, as I was about to pass out, I heard some commotion
and yelling and people screaming at my attacker, and then
felt a small struggle. I realized that people had finally
stepped in to pull my attacker off of me, who was still saying
“I’m going to fucking kill you” while he pointed at me with
eyes of a crazed lunatic.
v. Witnesses told me that it took three people to finally pull
Mr. Gimelstob off of me, including a much older man who
risked injury to himself by doing so.
w. But apparently the three-minute attack by this psychopath
wasn’t enough. These three people who had pulled Mr.
Gimelstob away had to keeping holding him back – he was
trying to break free and come back after me and was still
yelling “I’m going to fucking kill you!”

x. I can only assume that since he was screaming “I’m going


fucking kill you” during the entire attack – after jumping me
and pinning me down and pounding on my head – like a
crazy lunatic in front of many young children – that that’s
exactly what he was trying to do.
i. If nobody had stopped him, and if he had continued
beating my head like he wanted to, I may not be here
today. I could be dead.
ii. If he had tackled me on the pavement instead of the
grass – something purely fortuitous – 50-100 or more
punches to a head getting smashed on concrete could
have been fatal.
iii. The attack finally ended thanks to three courageous
bystanders – and as they pulled my attacker off of me,
that was the first time I saw who it was – Mr.
Gimelstob – a guy who had threatened to beat the
shit out of me and kill me six months earlier at a
restaurant in Brentwood – and then tried to do it.

y. As these three good Samaritans pulled this thug off of me,


and as he was trying to break free and attack me again – a
woman who had been standing there watching the entire
attack from the beginning screamed a couple of times,
“That’s enough Justin, Stop. They called the police – we
need to get out of here.” According to multiple witnesses,
this was Justin’s girlfriend Austin Ruth who went trick or
treating with Justin and his son that night – and who
watched the attack from start to finish.
z. Several witnesses I had never met before came up to me
and asked me if I was ok, and one of the witnesses ran after
Justin to take his picture. A minute later she came back
frightened and out of breath – she said that Justin was angry
at having his picture taken and started after her for a
moment before she ran back to me and the group gathered
around me. According to what she told me that night, Mr.
Gimelstob also tried to punch her.
i. Mr. Gimelstob was unsuccessful in assaulting her, but
the woman did take a photo – which is in the file –
which was taken at 6:31 pm.
aa. When this witness came back from taking his picture, she
told me that Justin had just walked away and walking down
the street and joined his group as if nothing had happened.
i. How is that? You jump somebody from behind like a
coward, beat a defenseless man in front his wife and
2-year old and others on Halloween, try to kill him,
and then you just walk away to get some candy with
your son?
bb. And while most families ran away fearing for themselves–
my wife and our two-year old daughter didn’t.
cc. We were pushing the stroller when I was ambushed, and my
wife Madison watched her husband – and Carter watched
her helpless dad – get savagely beaten from 10 feet away.

8. For four months, Mr. Gimelstob has slandered me in public –


telling an incredibly large number of people that I started the
event, that it was a fight, and that – get this – that I provoked him
by allegedly shouting to him 30 feet away that I’m glad his dad
died – something that was absurd from the beginning. All of the
sudden, as he has realized he is finally going to have to face
consequences – and due to his desire to avoid the LAPD
detective, my doctor, and the many witnesses describe the attack
in detail – he’s all of the sudden admitting full responsibility??? I
have an incredibly hard time believing that.

9. Now I’m going to about the devastating and irreversible effects


and injuries that this violent attack has had on my life and my
family’s lives.

a. That night Madison drove me home, and we waited 90


minutes for the police to arrive.
b. When we went home, Madison and I were in a state of
shock. I was badly bruised and in a tremendous amount of
physical pain – and also in a tremendous amount of
emotional pain.
c. Madison was suffering too, as was our baby Carter – both of
them were very upset and crying.
d. My three teenagers were out with their friends, and I called
each of them separately and told them what had happened,
and they each started crying hysterically as I told them I had
been savagely beaten but was going to be ok. I didn’t
know if I was going to be ok, but I didn’t want them to worry
more than they needed to – and I wanted to call them
before they heard about the attack from other people since
many of their friends were trick or treating on Homewood
where the attack happened.
e. While we waited for the police and cried – we also worried
that this psychopath may come to my house and actually try
to kill me since he screamed it during the entire attack.
f. The police finally came to my house, took statements from
my wife and me, and left 30 minutes later.
g. I called my physician at home, who meticulously walked me
through a serious of questions and protocols to determine
whether I should go the ER for a CT scan. His questions
were focused on whether I had any internal cranial bleeding
– he didn’t think I had a brain bleed based on my answers
but gave me symptoms to look for during the night. Then
he told me to come to his office the next morning.
h. My wife and I were worried about internal bleeding all night
– that night I had a panic attack that I might die in my sleep.
My head was pounding, my face was sore, the top of my
head was raw and felt as if somebody had taken a few layers
off, and my ears were sore swollen and raw, making it
impossible to sleep. My body was sore and bruised in many
places.
i. My teenagers were at my ex-wife’s house that night – they
called me several times during the middle of the night –
extremely upset – asking if they could come over at
midnight just so they could see me and be with me.
j. I was in terrible shape – dizzy, bruised, swollen – and didn’t
want them to see me like this.
k. The attack had some serious consequences for them.

m. Carter woke up the next morning in her crib and started her
morning by saying, “Daddy Daddy, help help, ouch ouch,
police police” while making punching motions. She’s two
years old. She could see my bruises all week, said “daddy’s
hurt” and wanted to hug me every chance she could. The
“daddy’s hurt” comments lasted for a while – she would
point to my swollen ears and say, “daddy’s ear hurts,” and
would point to “daddy’s big boo-boo” – the bruise on my
leg that was there for more than six weeks.
n. My 15-year old son cried himself to sleep the night of the
attack, which has had a profound effect on him. He hasn’t
slept well since the attack. The attack and image of his dad
being savagely beaten and being helpless – and then
seeing my injuries and my body – has left him angry and
depressed. He asks me every few days what’s happening,
and he – like my daughters – remain petrified of him. Since
the attack, his schoolwork and grades have suffered
signficantly.
o. My twin 17-year old girls Arianna and Bianca started bawling
when they saw me the day after the attack. They also
couldn’t sleep well – they were very upset for several weeks,
and have also discussed the attack with therapists. They are
completely traumatized about the attack – and have asked
me not to discuss with it with them because it’s too painful,
because it makes them very sad, and because they remain
fearful of him.

p. And as far as I’m concerned, this attack has been one of the
worst – if not THE worst thing – that has ever happened to
me – physically and emotionally.
i. I have had a concussion which has lasted four and a
half months – and which still hasn’t gone completely
away.
ii. I get frequent headaches that often leave my head
pounding for many hours a day – which it did nearly
every day for the first month after the attack.
iii. I’m forgetful
1. When I went to see my doctor nine weeks ago, I
couldn’t remember what building his office was
in even though I’ve been seeing him for many
years.
2. Six weeks ago, I forgot the code to the gate
where I’ve lived for 20 years.
3. Four weeks ago, I forgot the sum of 6 x 7.
4. My doctor has said this will go away – but I’m
anxious about it and worry that it won’t.
iv. For more than a month after the attack, my scalp had
open wounds – making it incredibly painful to it
extremely painful to shower.
v. My ears were swollen, incredibly sore, and had open
wounds on the cartilage, making it impossible to sleep
on my sides which is the normal way I sleep – and
which also contributed to making showering incredibly
painful.
vi. My cheek was badly bruised, making sleep even
harder.
vii. My calf had a very dark and painful bruise for more
than six weeks.
viii. Four and a half months later, my right shoulder is still
incredibly sore, requiring an MRI and physical therapy.
I still don’t have free range of motion – my arm hurts
when I move it above a certain height.
ix. I’ve been to therapy to deal with the effects of being
the victim of a brutal attack.
1. I’ve been very sad.
2. I’ve been depressed.
3. I’ve had PTSD – I have relived the attack several
hundred times - sometimes several times a day –
and I still have terrible dreams about it.
x. Even though my scalp and bruises have healed, I
haven’t slept well since the attack.
1. It’s left me anxious about whether he may attack
me again.
2. It’s left me anxious about the pain and effects it
has caused my kids.
3. It’s left me anxious about the irreparable
damage he’s done to my wife.
4. I’ve been anxious about the many lies that Mr.
Gimelstob has told in the aftermath of the attack
– including that it never happened – causing me
further pain.
5. Not only this, he’s been slandering me in public
with many more of his absurd lies.
6. I’ve been anxious because he has a very long
history of prior attacks – five attacks in four
years. Many have been reported – he’s denied
all of those as well – intimidating people from
involving the police.
7. Because he keeps getting away with assaulting
people – I’m anxious that will come back and kill
me like he’s promised to do.
xi. The attack has also affected me at work.
1. It’s affected my ability to focus.
2. It’s affected my performance there.
3. It’s affected my work ethic – I often have to leave
work early.
4. His slanderous lies have affected my reputation –
I’ve had more than 50 people ask me about the
“fight” that Mr. Gimelstob told everybody had
occurred.

q. But as bad as these effects have been, nobody has suffered


worse injuries or trauma than my wife Madison – who
witnessed me being beaten and who watched this man
pound away at my skull screaming “I’m going to fucking kill
you” while I was trapped to the ground.

r. My wife was traumatized by the attack, and she cried every


day from what she saw, and from worrying about me, and
from worrying about Carter and the trauma our two-year old
had witnessed.
i. This would be horrific for any wife and mom to watch
with her baby by her side, but Madison was also newly
pregnant.
ii. She didn’t sleep well either after the attack, and like all
of us she wondered if Justin would come back and kill
not only me but all of us since he screamed “I’m going
to kill you” over and over again.
iii. And she was worried for Carter – who like her –
watched it all from 10 feet away.
iv. A week after the attack, after being incredibly upset
from what she saw and experienced, and what Carter
saw and experienced, and seeing me hurt emotionally
and physically – Madison started having intense pains
in her uterus. The pains worsened, to the point she
was screaming from it, and she could hardly walk or
function for long periods of each day.
v. And then she started bleeding. First it was a little, and
then she started bleeding badly for a few days.
The intense pain continued for a few days as we
shuttled back and forth to her OBGYN – fearing the
worst – hoping that our new baby was going to be ok
– but knowing that our baby wouldn’t be.
vi. Unfortunately, she had a miscarriage.
vii. As one can expect, the loss of a baby is incredibly
painful and emotional – and depressing. Since the
attack, we’ve looked at the ultrasound pictures we had
– wondering about the baby we lost – which makes us
incredibly sad and incredibly angry.
viii. Prior to the attack, Madison had what her doctor has
called “a perfectly normal pregnancy.” Her blood
tests were great, her uterine lining was great, and the
baby’s size was great. And Madison was feeling great
too. We have asked her doctor whether the severe
emotional trauma from the attack caused the
miscarriage, and her doctor explicitly told us – and I’m
quoting: “There is no other reason to explain it.”
ix. Mr. Gimelstob has been charged with an aggravated
assault felony in this case – but he also caused the loss
of our baby.

s. One would think that all of these injuries to everybody in our


immediate family would adequately explain the effects on
our lives – but they were just the start.

t. For many weeks our entire family – Madison and my three


teenagers – were extremely frightened to leave our house.

u. To try protect all of us, I filed a TRO the day after my attack,
and the judge immediately granted it. I then hired a
process server to serve Mr. Gimelstob, but our anxiety and
fear grew when Mr. Gimelstob evaded service three times
while his car was parked outside of his house and Austin
Ruth answered the intercom. Then the Sheriff’s Department
attempted service three more times, and he evaded those
attempts as well. As a courtesy, I had an attorney friend
reach out to his divorce attorney Kris Royce – and also to
Sean Holley – to accept service on his behalf – and both
refused. That’s eight attempts to serve him in a month –
and he evaded all of them.
v. Adding to our fears was the fact that Mr. Gimelstob knew
where I lived – he had been to my house once six years
before – and in case he forgot my address it was in my TRO
filing. We all thought that only a complete psychopath
would ambush and violently attack a man pushing his
daughter in a stroller on Halloween in front of many other
people – and we wondered what else he was capable of.
w. As you know, when you file a TRO the form asks for Mr.
Gimelstob’s home address, and that’s when I learned that
Mr. Gimelstob lives one street over and only several
hundred yards away from my ex-wife’s house where my kids
spend half of their time. This meant that my kids were not
only frightened to leave my house, but they were really
terrified to leave my ex-wife’s house.

x. My kids, Madison, and I all thought the same thing: this was
a guy who tried to kill me, had not succeeded, and was
intentionally evading authorities so the TRO would not be
effective – which we interpreted that he may come back and
finish what he had started.

y. That was bad enough – but what made things even worse
was when people read the many stories about the attack in
various newspapers and reached out to me to tell me that
the Halloween assault was not an isolated incident – and
that Mr. Gimelstob had committed at least four other violent
assaults and threats in the previous four years.

10. I read – as did my terrified kids – a TRO that in early 2016 his
wife Cary Sinnott gave details that Mr. Gimelstob had stalked her,
bugged her bedroom, assaulted her physically, assaulted her
emotionally, and had tried to run her over with his car while their
child sat in the backseat.

11. I was told that Mr. Gimelstob had threatened a friend of Cary’s
named Kris Thabit in March of 2017 at a restaurant, and then in an
eerily similar manner to Mr. Gimelstob’s assault on me – saw him
again six months later, followed him out of a restaurant, pulled his
phone of out his pocket, and punched him. The next day, worried
about his jobs at the Tennis Channel and ATP, Mr. Gimelstob filed
an optics-based TRO saying that Kris Thabit had followed him out
of the restaurant. There’s video footage that shows the opposite,
meaning Mr. Gimelstob had committed perjury.

12. I was told that in September 2017, Mr. Gimelstob was playing
in a paddle tennis tournament in Venice, and after arguing a line
call, Mr. Gimelstob called his opponent a “faggot” and a “girl,”
jumped over the net, and started to attack and choke his
opponent before being restrained by three people – including
Austin Doerner, the number one paddle tennis player in the
world.
a. Similar to his denials in my attack, and in the Kris Thabit
attack, Mr. Gimelstob has also repeatedly denied this attack
happened.
b. One of the witnesses to the attack told me to reach out to a
man named Rich Humphries who had filmed most of this
incident, and Mr. Humphries confirmed that he indeed had
a video and that Mr. Gimelstob has tried to buy the video
from him twice.
c. Mr. Humphries also promised to destroy the video if he’s
subpoenaed because he was terrified of Mr. Gimelstob
before the Halloween attack – and he fears for his life if his
video would help send Mr. Gimelstob to prison.
13. Finally, I was also told that on September 27, 2017, Mr. Gimelstob
threatened a woman named Mia Feil – following her out of their
children’s preschool, and with Mr. Gimelstob’s son at his side, he
screamed, “Tell your fucking husband I will break his neck if he
ever writes another affidavit in my divorce.” Ms. Feil filed a police
report with the LAPD, but then declined to pursue this matter
because she was – and remains – extremely terrified of Mr.
Gimelstob.

14. Including the attack on me, that’s five assaults in four years – all of
which Mr. Gimelstob denies every took place. He may not have
an official criminal record – but he very likely would if people were
not terrified that he would come after them again.

15. Once we learned of these assaults, Madison and I and the kids
spent a lot of time discussing whether we should hire private 24-
hour security for everybody in our family. I talked with security
consultants and former law enforcement officials about this, and
they all told me that anybody who’s crazy enough to attack a man
on Halloween and try to kill him while he was pushing his baby in
a stroller would be very difficult to defend against.

16. We didn’t hire private security, but it’s more than four months
later and my kids regularly ask me about him when they go out
and what they should do if they see him.

18. As Your Honor considers the plea deal discussed this morning,
I hope the court considers the sincerity of Mr. Gimelstob’s sudden
admission of responsibility after strenuously denying it from the
moment the attack occurred.
19. In considering Mr. Gimelstob’s sentence, I have a specific
request for the court:
a. I would ask that Your Honor put Mr. Gimelstob on felony
probation for three years and report to a probation officer
during that time.
b. I’m am making this request for several reasons:
i. his very long history of violence – five previous attacks
that he has denied and refused to take any
responsibility for – despite trying to buy a video of
one of them;
ii. my injuries and lasting concussion;
iii. my kids fear that he could harm them – particularly
given their everyday proximity to them;
iv. the severe emotional and physical trauma my wife has
suffered;
v. and whether he has the capacity or ability to comport
what is being required w him

20. To date, Mr. Gimelstob has not earned any reduction in


sentencing. However, sentencing him to felony probation –
keeping him under the auspices of a probation officer – as well
the court – would make him earn the proposed reduction in
charges – and it would make me feel safer, my wife feel safer, and
my kids feel safer.

Thank you very much for your time.

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