NOTE: This piece first appeared on FLGulfNews.com.
By Rick LaRivière with Richard Luthmann
In a fiery Two Lees in a Pod interview, investigative reporter and former attorney Richard Luthmann offered his nemesis, YouTuber Jeremy “Germ” Hales, a startling olive branch – and a challenge. Luthmann announced he would consent to rejoin Hales’s lawsuit in Gainesville federal court (from which Hales has blown the chance to serve Luthmann) if and only if Hales drops co-defendant Ray Bonecrusher from the case as an act of Christian mercy.
“Release Ray Bonecrusher from this lawsuit… If you release Ray as an act of mercy because of his sick wife, maybe I will consider your offer of consent,” Luthmann declared, reading from a written ultimatum he posted to Hales.
He demanded Hales publicly announce the dismissal of Bonecrusher – an elderly veteran caring for an ailing spouse – “for reasons of Mercy… and I will do the rest. Blessed are the merciful, for they’ll be shown mercy.”
According to Luthmann, this gesture would prove Hales isn’t the hypocrite Luthmann believes him to be.
So far, Hales has not budged.
“He hasn’t gone on his broadcast channel. He could have done it tonight… or any day – just make a 30-second video [saying] ‘I’m releasing Ray because I’m a Christian… I’m gonna have mercy.’ But he doesn’t have mercy. He’s a very, very bad person,” Luthmann scolded.
The “anti-Woke” crusader insisted he’s given Hales “every opportunity… to prove to the world that he can be a merciful Christian man,” and Hales has “proven time and time again he cannot.”
Lisa Lee and Robbie Kezsey (of Discovery Channel’s Swamp Brothers fame) also chimed in.
Luthmann’s stance – showing compassion to an adversary’s co-defendant – is, in his view, the ultimate test of Hales’s professed faith. By refusing to show mercy, Hales (who runs the popular What the Hales YouTube channel) only vindicates Luthmann’s portrayal of him as a sanctimonious fraud.
As Luthmann put it, “Ray’s a great American… and you got Jeremy, who’s an asshole… doing this” to a vulnerable family. The offer stands: drop “Bonecrusher” out of the frivolous lawsuit, and Luthmann will consider coming to the table – a move he says would test Hales’s character in front of his own followers.
Hales Goes to Hell: “Fake Christian” Firestorm as Luthmann Brands Hales a Predator
The Two Lees podcast turned into a hellfire sermon as Luthmann repeatedly tore into Hales’s character. Draping himself in bombast and Scripture, Luthmann lambasted Hales as a “fake Christian” and “hypocrite” who preys on his own fans. He noted that Hales’s audience – many of them “good, God-fearing people” – have been duped by a YouTuber who “is not… like his audience.”
“Jeremy’s an exploiter,” Luthmann said. “He’s… a predator in the dictionary definition of the word. He looks at his viewers… as people he can milk,” treating loyal fans like cattle for cash.
Such behavior is “the furthest thing from being a Christian,” Luthmann seethed, hammering Hales for showing no mercy toward Bonecrusher’s family. In Luthmann’s eyes, Hales’s lawsuit against fellow Christians while begging his own viewers for support makes him the ultimate hypocrite.
“He says he’s a Christian… Well, he’s not acting like it at all,” Luthmann scoffed.
Luthmann did not mince words about Hales’s eternal fate, either. Citing a Sunday church homily, he thundered that “Jeremy’s falling into hell” like a withered autumn leaf, and urged the YouTuber to “repent right now, change [your] evil ways.”
The tirade grew even more personal as co-hosts likened Hales to a Pharisee, prompting Luthmann to gleefully agree.
“He’s a hypocrite… Hypocrite. He’s a hypocrite,” Luthmann spat, repeating the charge four times for emphasis.
By Luthmann’s account, Hales wraps himself in piety on his channel (What the Hales) while violating Christian values through lies, greed, and vindictiveness. Luthmann even questioned Hales’s past as a preacher, suggesting Hales was drummed out of ministry once people “realized …he’s not a Christian…he does not have Jesus in his heart.”
He implored any true Christians in Hales’s subscriber base to open their eyes. Following a “predator” like Hales, Luthmann warned, is spiritually perilous: “You cannot be a Christian and be a predator all at once… Jeremy Hales has chosen to be a predator [and] not to be a Christian,” he preached.
In Luthmann’s view, righteous people should unsubscribe from What the Hales rather than enable a self-professed holy man who “has chosen not to be a Christian.”
The segment amounted to a stunning public shaming – Luthmann positioning himself as defender of the flock, casting Hales as the predatory wolf.
The verdict from Luthmann: Jeremy Hales is a “very, very bad person” headed for damnation, and “he’s not man enough to even tell his audience the truth.”
Hales Goes to Hell: Bracing for Battle as Luthmann Details Scorched-Earth Legal Strategy
Beyond the pulpit-worthy rhetoric, Luthmann laid out a hardball legal strategy to defeat Hales and his attorney, Randy “Pocket Rocket” Shochet, in court. On the podcast, Luthmann detailed a blueprint of motion filings and discovery tactics aimed at crippling Hales’s federal case (which names Luthmann, Bonecrusher, and others as defendants).
He urged every co-defendant to immediately invoke Florida’s anti-SLAPP protections, filing robust motions to dismiss and demanding that the judge impose a steep security bond on Hales. By Luthmann’s calculus, Hales is suing for $5 million, so “the bond should be…10% – $500,000. Everybody should put in…a minimum $500,000 bond [request],” he advised. For Hales, that means put up or shut up: post a half-million-dollar bond to proceed, or watch the case collapse.
“It’s not a trick – it’s written into the law,” Luthmann quipped of the little-known bond provision, likening it to legal gravity. Florida Statutes, Section 501.211(3) states:
In any action brought under this section, upon motion of the party against whom such action is filed alleging that the action is frivolous, without legal or factual merit, or brought for the purpose of harassment, the court may, after hearing evidence as to the necessity therefor, require the party instituting the action to post a bond in the amount which the court finds reasonable to indemnify the defendant for any damages incurred, including reasonable attorney’s fees.
“Jeremy is going to have to pony up $50,000 a head,” Luthmann said.
If the case isn’t dismissed outright, Luthmann is chomping at the bit to unleash full-blown discovery.
“That’s where you get the most fun in litigation,” he said with audible glee. Luthmann revealed he’s already drafting dozens of probing questions for Hales. By federal rule, each defendant gets 25 interrogatories – “you can ask Jeremy 25 questions and he’s gotta answer… under oath” – but Luthmann’s favorite weapon is the “notice to admit,” which has no limit.
He outlined how he would pepper Hales with statements to admit or deny, including personal and potentially embarrassing topics, such as alleged infidelity and family estrangement.
“Admit or deny: you were unfaithful to your first wife,” Luthmann mused as an example, indicating nothing will be off-limits.
Even Hales’s faith will be litigated: “Admit, Jeremy Hales: are you a Christian? Admit or deny,” Luthmann laughed, previewing one of many pointed questions he plans to pose.
The goal is clear – corner Hales on his lies and hypocrisies long before a jury ever convenes.
Luthmann also took direct aim at Attorney Shochet, whom he portrayed as a stooge abetting Hales’s bad acts. He suggested Hales may have forfeited the attorney-client privilege by using Shochet to further a fraudulent harassment campaign. Luthmann vowed that if he’s ever officially served, one of his first moves will be a motion to disqualify Shochet for dual roles in the saga.
In Luthmann’s view, Shochet has blurred the line between lawyer and co-conspirator: “If Jeremy is… using Randy’s representation as a continuance of his fraud… then his attorney-client privilege… is lost. That means we can get every conversation between Randy Shochet and Jeremy Hales – how juicy would that be?” Luthmann said with a grin.
He promised to invoke the “crime-fraud exception,” accusing Hales of making Shochet “party to his fraudulent, dishonest… harmful activities” – grounds, Luthmann argues, to strip Hales of privilege and put “Pocket Rocket” Shochet on the witness stand in front of a jury. Such an aggressive tactic underscores the scorched-earth approach Luthmann is prepared to take.
“He’ll get a lesson in scorched-earth litigation, very, very quickly,” Luthmann warned, doubting the former dentist turned insurance shyster, Shochet, knows what’s coming.
Hales Goes to Hell: A Jury Trial Show to Rival Armageddon
As for the jury trial, Luthmann can barely hide his confidence. He crowed that Hales made a fatal mistake by dragging Ray “Bonecrusher” into the lawsuit.
“I’m telling you right now, the best witness in this whole case is Ray,” Luthmann declared. “You put Ray on the stand and a Florida jury… they’re gonna look right at Jeremy and say, ‘What’d you do to this poor man?’ and he’s gonna lose immediately.”
In Luthmann’s estimation, Bonecrusher’s sympathetic story – a retired veteran with a sick wife unjustly sued by a rich internet personality – will instantly turn the tide.
“Ray wins this case, hands down,” Luthmann said, calling Bonecrusher “the best person there is” for jurors to hear.
And Luthmann plans to double down on star power: co-defendant Robbie Kezsey (of Discovery Channel’s Swamp Brothers fame) will also take the stand. Robbie’s celebrity status is an asset, Luthmann argued, noting that jurors love a familiar face.
“Robbie’s a good witness too, because Robbie’s got a bit of star power… If you saw the Johnny Depp trial… people know who a celebrity is – they automatically want to hear what they have to say. Robbie’s entertaining, he’s likable, and he actually appeals to a bigger cross-section of the audience than Jeremy Hales does,” Luthmann explained.
Between Bonecrusher’s gravitas and Kezsey’s charisma, Luthmann predicts a rout: a jury box stacked with supporters of the defendants, and Hales left with at most a couple of holdouts.
“How bad [is] the deck… stacked against Germ before he walks in the door? He doesn’t get it,” Luthmann laughed. “We have all the cards. Germ, you have no cards. You’re an alligator f*cker.”
In short, Luthmann is preparing for a showdown in court – and relishing it. He directs readers to his ongoing coverage on Luthmann’s Substack and YouTube for the latest developments.
If Jeremy Hales expected to intimidate his critics with litigation, Richard Luthmann has made one thing abundantly clear: he’s ready to fight, and he’s fighting to win.
