Brittany Murphy’s Father Sets the Record Straight

Angelo Bertolotti addresses misrepresentations in the recent media coverage of his lawsuit against Office of the Los Angeles Coroner and the LAPD


Brittany Murphy remembered by her father


In an interview with Fleur De Lis Film Studios, Brittany Murphy’s father, Angelo Bertolotti, released a statement to address his recent case filing (LA Superior Court Case No. BC476868). “Recent media coverage of my court case includes some serious misrepresentations that I believe should be addressed. An article by Alex Ben Block in The Hollywood Reporter was replete with incorrect statements, which have since been replicated by a number of other media outlets. I will refute some of these inaccuracies to set the record straight.

First and foremost, Block falsely claimed that my lawsuit names toxic mold as the cause of my daughter Brittany Murphy’s death. This assertion is patently false. Mr. Block apparently failed to review my case filing before he wrote the article in question. He has the contact information for me and my co-writer, Julia Davis, but made no attempt to reach either one of us before he released this piece.

My lawsuit simply asks to have the specimens of Brittany’s hair and tissues to be released, so that I can have them independently tested. As the Office of the Coroner and the Los Angeles Police Department have admitted, there has been no testing for poisons and toxicology was not done on Brittany’s hair samples. Until all specimens are thoroughly and properly tested and analyzed, I do not intend to speculate as to the cause of death. Block has been posing as the ultimate authority in the matters of life and death pertaining to my daughter, but his articles and media appearances have been filled with irresponsible misstatements, intentional omissions and blatant misrepresentations.

Block’s animosity towards my daughter stems out of the fact that after her marriage to Simon Monjack, Britt didn’t spend much time socializing with Block or his daughter. Block went so far as to fancy himself as Brittany’s father figure and refer to me as someone who simply “says he is the late actress Brittany Murphy’s biological father.” Mr. Block allowed his resentment to make him stray from the principles of objective journalism. He continues to betray my child’s memory. Block made serious material errors, misrepresenting my relationship with Brittany, attacking my decades-old “past” and erring on the simplest of facts, including my age.

Even after Brittany’s untimely death Block continued to slander her. He made public appearances discussing my daughter’s alleged ailments and anemia supposedly caused by irregular menstrual cycles (which doesn’t explain Simon Monjack’s alleged death from the same causes), calling Brittany and Simon “paranoid” and doing everything he could to trash my daughter’s reputation.

After I attended the screening of the documentary film “The Terror Within” with Block, I fully expected that he would immediately publish a retraction for his previous article, “The Final Difficult Days of Brittany Murphy” . In that article Block wrote, “I first met Simon shortly after their marriage, when Brittany brought him to our house in Encino for Father’s Day 2007... Simon told us they had to take extreme security precautions because they were under surveillance by helicopters and their phone was bugged.” After the screening, Block informed Julia Davis that he had the tapes of that fateful interview. He admitted that Brittany and Simon confided in him about being terrorized by the Department of Homeland Security, the same agency that brutally retaliated against Julia Davis, the DHS whistleblower .

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attempted to deport Simon in retaliation for Brittany’s participation as a witness in Julia’s successful litigation against the agency. The tapes, according to Block, also detail the abuse of Simon at the hands of ICE.

Julia and I believed that after seeing the film, which featured video footage of the Blackhawk helicopter raid of the Davis residence, Brittany’s statement in support of Julia that caused her to be targeted by the agency, numerous excerpts from court orders and other legal filings, Block would publicly admit that Brittany and Simon were telling the truth. They were, in fact, under surveillance, including helicopters. Their telephones were wiretapped, Brittany was afraid to go home, because of the sneak-and-peek incursions into their residence and other terror tactics she suffered after speaking out in support of Julia Davis and being named as a witness in her lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security.

While Block continued to give interviews, posturing as an expert on Brittany Murphy, he remained mum about these very serious issues. In fact, Block secretly reached out to Department of Homeland Security officials, who convinced him that this aspect of the story must remain out of the mainstream media. He even lied that Julia Davis was fired from her position with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), when in fact she left her employment and prevailed in her subsequent litigation against the DHS. In a court order, EEOC Judge Daniel Leach ruled that Julia's resignation was "involuntary" and was caused by the Department of Homeland Security's "illegal conduct", "unnecessary harassment" and "impermissible discrimination" against her. Contrary to Block’s claim that the perpetrators of these acts were “unnamed officials in Homeland Security”, they were clearly identified in numerous court cases, as well as the documentary film “The Terror Within” that Block viewed during its pre-release screening.

Judge Leach ruled that “based on the record in the case, complainant [Julia Davis] has established not only that the Agency engaged in illegal conduct, but also that the conduct was intolerable to a reasonable person because it was especially humiliating and included unnecessary harassment… I find that complainant’s resignation was caused by, or in response to, the illegal treatment”. Several courts have reviewed the extensive evidence in Julia’s case and ruled in her favor, finding that the Department of Homeland Security “engaged in illegal conduct”, “committed an abuse of process”, falsely declared Julia Davis a “Domestic Terrorist”, determined that the nature of their actions against her was “extreme” and their motives were “retaliatory” and “improper”. Perpetrators of these acts included former CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner, former Director of Field Operations Adele Fasano, ICE Agent Herbert Kaufer, his wife, CBP administrative employee Lauren Kaufer, CBP employees Matthew L. Issman, James Wong and Jeffrey Deal, as well as the former U.S. Attorney Deborah Wong Yang who led two malicious prosecutions against Julia Davis and her husband (all contrived charges were eventually dismissed and the Davises were found factually innocent).

By being named as a witness in Julia’s case against the government, Brittany and Simon were exposed to the same terror tactics by the DHS/ICE. Instead of protecting Brittany when she reached out to him for help, Block helped the very perpetrators of these despicable actions in their attempts of silencing her voice, in life and in death. In light of the fact that Alex Ben Block allowed himself to be inappropriately influenced by third parties, in addition to his own ulterior motives, he should step aside and let real journalists objectively report the truth about this case. Brittany deserves nothing less.”

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