Beyond Blind Loyalty: Exposing John Youngblood’s Direct Culpability in the Coordinated Smear Campaign

In civil litigation involving organized defamation and harassment, bad-faith actors and their supporters often retreat behind a convenient shield: "I was just standing by my instructor." They attempt to frame their involvement as passive loyalty or innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire of someone else's war.

In the ongoing civil action against Bret Gordon and his surrounding network, John Youngblood’s legal exposure cannot be sanitized as blind loyalty. The evidence demonstrates that Youngblood’s actions—and calculated silences—go far beyond defending an instructor. Under Florida civil tort law, Youngblood operated as a fully aware participant who covered up severe misconduct, ratified criminal intimidation, actively partook in rank fraud, and provided overt physical support following the illegal dissemination of expunged records.

1. Actual Knowledge and the Cover-Up of Intimidation

Any defense of "innocent ignorance" collapses under the weight of documented admissions. Gordon explicitly admitted to Youngblood that targeting my former student and her 13-year-old daughter was a "mistake."

Youngblood held direct, actual knowledge that Gordon was targeting a minor child and an adult with aggressive harassment. Rather than disavowing these actions or stepping away, Youngblood kept quiet, actively covering for Gordon and maintaining the public shield around their operations.

2. Knowledge of Police Intervention and the $2,000 Online Bounty

Youngblood’s culpability escalated from passive silence to legal ratification when the campaign reached the level of criminal intimidation:

• Awareness of Police Involvement: Youngblood had explicit knowledge that Gordon’s escalation and threats drew official law enforcement scrutiny—a fact verified through records with the Ohatchee Police Department in Alabama.
• Knowledge of the $2,000 Online Bounty: Youngblood knew that a $2,000 bounty was placed online targeting both my head and my former student's head.

Under Florida civil law, when an associate knows that his partner or instructor is committing severe torts—including placing financial bounties and drawing police intervention—and chooses to remain silent, cover up the facts, and maintain active organizational ties, he legally ratifies the conduct.

3. Cross-State Affirmation: The October 2025 Florida Trip

In October 2025—immediately following the unlawful extraction and widespread dissemination of my 30-year-old expunged record across Gordon, Hatfield, and Duplantis’s network—Youngblood took direct, deliberate action to signal his full backing.

• Interstate Travel as Affirmation of Torts: Youngblood traveled from his home in Arizona to Florida specifically to train in-person with Bret Gordon.
• Evidentiary Impact on Civil Conspiracy: This cross-country travel provides concrete proof of ongoing alignment. It destroys any claim that Youngblood was an inactive, distant, or unaligned party who simply "happened to be on an email chain." Choosing to fly across the country to train with Gordon immediately after the expunged record was leaked demonstrates active endorsement, solidarity, and participation in the joint enterprise.

4. Active Participation in Paper-Rank Certificate Fraud

Youngblood’s involvement extends directly into the core deception used to build their group's authority. Youngblood was fully aware of Gordon’s unverifiable background and actively participated in purchasing and acquiring unearned martial arts rank certificates.

This detail is critical under Florida Evidence Code § 90.608 and civil fraud doctrines:

• Destruction of Good Faith: Youngblood cannot claim he was duped or manipulated by Gordon when he willingly partook in buying paper credentials to manufacture credibility.
• Commercial Deception: Utilizing fabricated paper ranks to recruit students, establish branch dojos, or secure organizational credentials establishes a broader pattern of commercial fraud and deceptive trade practices.

5. Designated Witness in Coordinated Bad-Faith Litigation

In the final filings of Bret Gordon and Steven Hatfield’s joint lawsuit in Lake County, Florida (Case No. 35-2020-CA-001851), John Youngblood was explicitly named as a key witness for the plaintiffs right before the case collapsed into a permanent Dismissal with Prejudice accompanied by bad-faith court sanctions (§ 57.105).

Under Florida civil procedure and evidence code:

• Destruction of Neutrality: Being formally listed as a trial witness requires prior consultation, alignment, and agreement.
• Proof of Pattern and Practice (FL Evidence Code § 90.406): Appearing on an official witness list establishes a multi-year, repeatable operational strategy where all three individuals coordinated to launch legal actions and public campaigns against common targets.

6. Joint and Several Liability: Why Youngblood Shares 100% of the Bill

Under the doctrine of Civil Conspiracy, a co-conspirator does not get a discount on damages because they let someone else write the primary blog posts or send the emails.

When a court enters a judgment for compensatory and punitive damages covering Defamation Per Se, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED), and Civil Conspiracy, the rule of Joint and Several Liability applies.

$$\text{Total Judgment} = \text{100\% Responsibility of EACH Named Co-Defendant}$$

Youngblood is legally answerable for 100% of the entire awarded judgment. Furthermore, because out-of-state relocation and asset-hiding schemes offer zero protection under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (UEFJA) and the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA), Youngblood's personal bank accounts, real property, and income streams in Arizona remain direct targets for court-ordered collection, garnishment, and liquidation.

The Reckoning Ahead

Standing by an instructor ends where civil conspiracy, rank fraud, police interventions, and cross-state travel to support unlawful record leaks begin. John Youngblood did not just stand by; he covered up law enforcement involvement, ignored a $2,000 online bounty, participated in manufacturing fake credentials, offered his name as a designated witness, and flew across the country in October 2025 to publicly show his support.

Yes, Bret Gordon, You Are Going to Be Sued — And Here Is Exactly Why

There is a common misconception among digital bad-faith actors that behind a keyboard, across state lines, or shielded by a network of compliant proxies, actions carry no real-world consequences. That illusion is about to end.

To Bret Gordon: the civil action being prepared against you is not an empty threat, a social media bluff, or an exercise in online posturing. It is a calculated, evidence-backed legal strategy designed to hold you and your entire operational cell strictly accountable under Florida law.

1. Libel Per Se and Mass Dissemination of Expunged Records

Under Florida civil tort law, publishing false statements accusing an individual of a felony conviction constitutes Libel Per Se.

You, along with your network, obtained a 30-year-old expunged court record—a document reflecting charges that were completely dropped and legally erased under Fla. Stat. § 943.0585. Rather than acknowledging the legal reality of dismissal, you circulated this document across your network under the direct email subject line:

"Criminal record of conviction Barron Shepherd."

By falsely framing dissmissed and expunged charges as a criminal conviction and emailing this document directly to associates, student lists, legal counsel, and martial arts governing bodies, you executed an undeniable act of Libel Per Se.

2. Hypocrisy and Uncontested Defamation in Judicial Records

The record of your hypocrisy sits permanently preserved in the public domain. In your joint frivolous lawsuit with Steven Hatfield against Dale Dugas in Lake County, Florida (Case No. 35-2020-CA-001851), you had the audacity to accuse someone else in a court of law of engaging in defamation.

Yet, as a matter of judicial record within those very proceedings, your own systematic defamation of me sat uncontested, confirming that while you were attempting to sue others for reputational harm, you had actively been executing the exact same smear campaigns against me since 2020.

• The Frivolous Lawsuit Weapon: Bashing opponents in court filings while committing the same torts out of court demonstrates deliberate malicious intent.
• Dismissal with Prejudice: Your suit collapsed into a permanent Dismissal with Prejudice accompanied by bad-faith court sanctions under Fla. Stat. § 57.105, cementing a paper trail of abusive litigation that will be introduced directly into evidence against you.

3. Criminal Intimidation, Police Scrutiny, and Bounties

Your actions crossed the boundary from civil defamation into intentional harassment when you extended your campaign to target my former student and her 13-year-old daughter.

• Law Enforcement Intervention: Your threats and escalating behaviors drew direct scrutiny from the Ohatchee Police Department in Alabama, establishing a formal law enforcement record of your intimidation tactics.
• The $2,000 Online Bounty: A $2,000 bounty was published online targeting my head and my former associate's head.

These actions form the groundwork for actionable claims of Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED) and tortious interference, carrying severe exposure for both compensatory and punitive damages.

4. Procurement and Exploitation of Illegally Extracted Records

You did not work alone; you relied on a proxy to act as your primary procurement node. This proxy utilized his spouse's federal government security clearance and contractor credentials to access shielded databases and pull the expunged file.

Passing an illegally extracted government record to you, which you then distributed, triggers liability under both civil conspiracy doctrines and statutory data protection frameworks, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA, 18 U.S.C. § 1030).

Joint and Several Liability: The Total Financial Bill

Under Florida's Civil Conspiracy doctrine, every co-conspirator who participates in a joint enterprise to commit tortious acts shares 100% Joint and Several Liability.

Relocating across state lines, closing down umbrella websites, or transferring assets offers zero protection under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (UEFJA) and the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA). Every bank account, real property interest, trust fund and commercial revenue stream associated with you and your co-defendants will remain subject to post-judgment court levies, garnishments, and execution.

Holding Every Co-Conspirator Fully Accountable: Why I Am Pursuing Everyone Involved

When an organized network decides to engage in a multi-year campaign of defamation, fraudulent impersonation, and criminal intimidation, its members often assume that operating in a group dilutes their individual responsibility. They believe that by splitting up the tasks, one placing calls, another making social media posts, and another contacting national organizations, that no single person can be held on the hook for the total fallout. Under Florida civil tort law, that assumption is a catastrophic legal mistake.

I am aggressively pursuing every single individual involved because a multi-party civil conspiracy does not divide or dilute financial liability among defendants, it multiplies the avenues of collection.

The Legal Framework: Joint & Several and Individual Tort Liability

Under the paired legal doctrines of Joint and Several Liability and Individual Tort Liability, every participant in a civil conspiracy is answerable both for their own specific tortious actions and for the full harm caused by the group.

When a court awards a total damages figure, for example, $200,000 in compensatory and punitive damages for defamation per se, intentional infliction of distress, and civil conspiracy, each defendant is legally responsible for 100% of that entire judgment until the sum is satisfied in full.

In practical terms, the law treats the judgment as $200,000 owed from each person involved until the total awarded amount is completely paid. If one co-defendant attempts to evade collection, hide cash, or declare bankruptcy, the entire financial burden instantly shifts onto the remaining co-conspirators. "Just following orders" or playing a secondary role offers zero legal immunity.

Mind you 200 k is a conservative estimate as I am seeking the maximum in damages. There will be no settlements or settling out of court. 

Out-of-State Relocation and Asset Hiding Will Not Protect Them

Those involved who believe geographic distance or creative financial engineering will shield them from collection are facing a rude awakening under civil execution statutes:

• Living Out of State Offers Zero Protection: Under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (UEFJA), a civil judgment entered in Florida is easily domesticated in any state where a defendant resides or owns property. Out-of-state bank accounts, wages, and real estate are subject to direct local execution, levies, and garnishments.
• Trust Funds Are Fair Game: Discretionary distributions and trust assets can be attached to satisfy court-awarded damages. Once a trustee approves a payout or transfer, those funds lose spendthrift protection and are subject to immediate seizure. Continuing writs of garnishment can intercept payouts directly at the source.
• Fraudulent Property Transfers Will Be Voided: Transferring titles, real estate, or having business accounts, property etc in the names of spouses, family members, or third parties to avoid collection falls under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA). Courts actively order the immediate liquidation of those assets to pay the debt. 

No Free Passes

Every person who participated in this coordinated strike, whether they drafted the libelous emails, executed fraudulent phone calls to a grieving widow, or published synchronized social media attacks, has placed their personal financial future directly on the line.

By taking every co-conspirator to court individually and collectively, we (the law firm representing me and I), ensure that every single asset, income stream, and trust payout across the entire network remains an active target for court-ordered liquidation until every penny owed is fully collected.

 

The Synchronized Smear Campaign: Exposing a Coordinated Civil Conspiracy

When bad-faith actors attempt to destroy a reputation built over four decades of martial arts instruction and verified public service, they rarely operate alone. They work in packs, hiding behind screens, relying on coordinated timing, and feeding off one another’s malicious energy.

On a single day, just hours apart, three individuals, Bret Gordon, his instructor Steven Hatfield, and Daniel Duplantis, launched a coordinated strike across multiple platforms to defame my character and undermine my standing in the martial arts community. 

This was a synchronized campaign designed to inflict maximum professional and personal damage. The mechanics of this multi-pronged attack relied on deliberate coordination, malicious libel, and shared assets across different channels:

• The Dissemination of Expunged Records: An illegally obtained, 30-year-old expunged record—showing charges that were dropped and completely dismissed was disseminated via email under the subject line "Criminal record of conviction Barron Shepherd." This malicious libel was distributed directly to Gordon’s instructor, Steven Hatfield, his legal counsel, his black belt students, and sent to the NKJF by Duplantis. I now hold the email that was sent to every single member of Gordon’s circle.
• The Direct Libel (Gordon): Bret Gordon posted directly to his personal Facebook page, falsely alleging that I was a "convicted felon.”
• The Organizational Attack (Duplantis): Daniel Duplantis made direct phone calls and transmitted these false "convicted felon" claims and emails directly to a national martial arts governing body (the NKJF) in a malicious attempt to destroy my credentials and professional relationships.
• The Shared Asset & Coordinated Amplification (Hatfield): Simultaneously, Gordon’s instructor, Steven Hatfield, joined the attack. Proving beyond doubt that this was a planned, joint effort, both Hatfield and Gordon used the exact same screenshot of a post containing my picture in their Facebook posts. While Hatfield avoided using the word "criminal" outright, he published this coordinated attack referring to me as a "clown show" ("Every Clown Deserves a Circus"). Worse, statements have been documented where Hatfield leveled physical threats, declaring that someone—meaning me—was going to get hurt.

Under Florida civil law, a conspiracy requires a "meeting of the minds" to carry out an unlawful act. When three closely aligned individuals target the exact same person on the exact same day and when they circulate the same libelous subject lines, contact the same governing body that Hatfield and Gordon had just been booted out of, and deploy the exact same screenshots containing my image the law does not view it as random chance or a coincidence. It views it as undeniable proof of joint orchestration and shared campaign assets.

Hatfield labeling me a "clown" using the identical screenshot Gordon deployed, was a strategic, synchronized attempt to amplify a smear campaign. Hatfield’s post served as public cover and coordination for the libel that his circle was pushing behind the scenes.

They executed this strike believing that operating across different mediums social media posts, private emails, and phone calls, would shield them from collective liability.

They were wrong.

Under the doctrine of civil conspiracy, when individuals act in concert to commit tortious acts, joint liability attaches. Every participant becomes legally answerable for the harm caused by the entire group.

Duplantis has already faced a formal military action for his misconduct and my civil action is forthcoming. Gordon and Hatfield’s flagship legal assault has collapsed into a permanent Dismissal With Prejudice accompanied by bad-faith court sanctions (§ 57.105). And the evidentiary trail, from identical shared digital assets and forwarded email records to matching timestamps, is fully documented.

The complete, undeniable proof of their conspiracy has been handed to me by someone looking to escape legal action by pointing fingers at others. NO apology or any amount of finger pointing is going to work..... EVERY single person involved will answer for it in a court of law. 

FORMAL STATEMENT OF EVIDENTIARY ACTION AND INTENT TO SUE

Bret Gordon directed and orchestrated a bad-faith campaign aimed at defaming the legacy of my late martial arts instructor. This campaign culminated in a fraudulent, directed telephone interaction targeted at my late instructor’s surviving widow, a full decade after his passing.

Following public disclosures that exposed individuals for fabricating training credentials and false affiliations with my late instructor, Gordon upset over being made to print a correction about my instructor, directed a long-time female student and black belt of Trio Martial Arts to execute a targeted phone call to the widow of my instructor. 

During this call, the individual utilized a false identity, fraudulently introducing herself as a young family member searching for her "grandpa." This deliberate misrepresentation was executed solely to extract information, harass the grieving widow, and undermine my instructor's legacy, simply because he was my instructor. 

The originating telephone number and digital logs have been definitively identified. Formal statements have been executed, corroborating the timeline, the intent, and the exact sequence of events surrounding the call. The evidence conclusively links the direction, instruction, and execution of this fraudulent act directly from Bret Gordon to his proxy.

Legal Consequences and Impending Civil Action

The individual who placed this call remains actively associated with Bret Gordon and Trio Martial Arts. Sworn statements and corroborative evidence directly tie this individual to both direct participation and indirect co-conspiracy in Gordon’s multi-year harassment campaign. By executing this directive, this individual abandoned any legal immunity, tying herself directly to tortious misrepresentation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy.

Every individual involved in this incident, including the female black belt who executed the call, has been placed directly in the crosshairs of actionable litigation. For their involvement, this individual will be named as a primary co-defendant and sued to the fullest extent of the law, without exception. Anyone either directly or indirectly involved with the many attempts to attack and discredit me and those affiliated with me, over the years in any form will indeed be sued to the furthest extent that civil litigation allows. 

Bret Gordon Scapegoated His Own Inner Circle

For years, Bret Gordon orchestrated a relentless campaign to destroy my reputation, he wrote lies regarding my back ground in an attempt to smear and maliciously defame me and this culminated last summer with an illegally obtained, 30-year-old expunged record, showing charges that were dropped and dismissed and were disseminated via email with the subject line "Criminal record of conviction Barron Shepherd." 

This malicious libel was distributed directly to Gordon’s instructor, legal counsel, black belt students, and martial arts organizations. I now hold the email that was sent to every single one of Gordon’s circle. Let me be clear I am coming after EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!

Gordon has already claimed he had zero involvement in these attacks and that those around him had acted entirely on their own initiative to commit crimes and launch smear campaigns, because I am "famous" as he put it. 

Gordon will not escape liability and he guaranteed that his own inner circle will face direct civil litigation, subpoenaed depositions, and individual asset execution for defamation per se and civil conspiracy. 

No amount of claiming you had nothing to do with it is going to help. No amount of claiming you are no longer involved with Bet Gordon will work. I do not care what states any of you live in. I do not and will not care that you have families. If you try and hide assets with your spouses or family members, I will go after them too. 

Statement of Formal Action

On January 1, 2026, initial formal actions were instituted in direct response to deliberate attempts to defame, misrepresent, and damage my professional credentials and standing within the Judo and martial arts community.

Fabricated claims were disseminated with the clear intent to inflict maximum harm and conceal underlying fraudulent conduct.

As part of a structured and methodical strategy, all remaining actions, formal filings, and legal recourse measures will be officially initiated on January 1, 2027. All supporting documentation, historical evidence, and official records remain fully preserved to ensure complete accountability is enforced through the proper channels - extending to all parties whether directly or indirectly involved.