JUDGE FINDS FRAUDITOR GUILTY

Ajouté : 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]What's up everybody? I hope you guys are doing fantastic. In today's video, we have an update on Richard Maza who was found guilty. Now, we have the sentencing info. It's not great. It's not a good sentence, but there is a caveat that will make it very hard for him to fraud it. So, let's take a look at the article. So, it says, "A YouTuber who pepper-sprayed a man outside a Mountain View Costco pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge last week in exchange for being sentenced to one year of court probation with credit for time served." Los Angeles resident Richard Maza, 51, deployed pepper spray on a shopper at Costco on March 28th while recording a video for his YouTube channel Freedom of the Press. Maza describes himself as a First Amendment auditor, part of a movement whose members exercised their rights to film in public and then post the videos online, often featuring confrontations with passerby. In the case of the March 28th incident, Mountain View police said Maza went too far, intentionally provoking and pepper spraying Milpa's maintenance worker, Paul Rubino, to generate views. After a confrontation with Rubino, Maza followed him to his car. When Maza put his camera in Rubino's open window, Rubino pushed him away. Maza then pepper- sprrayed him.

[00:01:20]Police said supporters of the First Amendment auditors say that they used pepper spray in self-defense, but Santa Clara County Prosecutor Rob Baker argued Maza's actions were not protected.

[00:01:34]Self-defense wasn't an issue. It was clear Mr. Maza intended to agitate people for the purpose of provoking a reaction for social media, Baker said in an email to this publication. Also, when Mr. Maza used the pepper spray, the victim was attempting to leave the area in his vehicle and posed no threat to him. Maza pleaded no contest on May 19th and misdemeanor battery in exchange for prosecutors dropping a felony charge for illegal use of tear gas. Under California law, Maza is now permanently prohibited from possessing pepper spray in the state. He will also not be allowed to possess a firearm for 10 years. Baker said for one year, Maza will be on court probation, which does not subject him to formal supervision, but requires him to refrain from committing additional crimes and consent to being searched by police without the need for probable cause. No jail time was required beyond the 6 days Maza initially spent incarcerated after his arrest. Many similarly situated defendants often get judicial diversion in cases like this. But given his motivation to provoke a reaction for social media coupled with a strong video evidence, I felt a conviction was appropriate so that it would be illegal for him to possess a gun for 10 years.

[00:02:49]Baker wrote, "I would hate for him to do something like this again and shoot someone under a false pretext of self-defense as he did here." Now, Maza was also ordered to pay $165 to the state's victim restitution fund. He may also be required to pay Rubino's restitution, although an amount has not yet been determined according to court documents. Maza's courtappointed public defender, Lara Walman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. And then they included a picture of the career criminals over here that are terrorizing California.

[00:03:24]So, just to give you guys my thoughts on the situation, the article goes on and it's very interesting. So, we're going to keep reading in just a moment, but I want to give you my opinion. I think that the sentence is low when it comes to no jail time, but I think that the sentence is pretty smart when it comes to putting an end to his frauding grift and to protect the public because now he's not allowed to have any pepper spray whatsoever. So, how the hell is he supposed to do a pepper spray fraud when he's not equipped with pepper spray?

[00:03:55]It's not going to work. On top of that, he can't possess a gun for 10 years. Not that I would think he would use a gun in self-defense because he's not that kind of guy. What they do is they target older people and then pepper spray so they can get away with no consequences.

[00:04:10]But the blood lust was too much for him.

[00:04:12]he became too bloodthirsty and that's why he did this attack on someone who was retreating in their vehicle. So, I would have liked to see a little bit more jail time and possibly the judge order him to close down his YouTube channel because clearly it's just a criminal activity. But maybe this is something that will happen with the civil lawsuit, which we'll take a look at in just a moment. The sentencing does not end Maza's legal trouble stemming from a trip to the Bay Area with a group of fellow auditors. Rubino is suing Maza and three other auditors in federal court for assaulting and racketeering, alleging they use threats and violence as a part of a scheme to profit from confrontational videos. Rubino is seeking $3 million in damages and is asking a judge to order the YouTubers to divest from their channels and related companies. This has been very traumatizing thing. Not just the pain but also the emotional impact. I haven't been the same dude. Rubino previously said someone needs to answer for that.

[00:05:11]Because Maza did not plead guilty, the plea cannot be used directly against him to prove liability in Rubino's civil case. This is disappointing because when someone pleads no contest to a felony, the plea can be used, but here we cannot use it in the same way under either California law or the federal rules of evidence, said Andrew Waters, Rubino's attorney. Waters told this publication that he will still try to introduce the conviction into evidence so a jury can weigh its value. Waters is also personally pursuing a separate civil lawsuit against Maza and others after he encountered a group of First Amendment auditors outside of Drager's Market in Menllo Park. He noted that he was not informed about Maza's plea ahead of time. We were not consulted in any way about this and my client will be disappointed with the result. This is a pretty light slap on the wrist for someone engaged in a large amount of bad antisocial behavior. Waters said Waters is still attempting to serve Maza with court papers to initiate Rubino's lawsuit. According to Waters, people at Maza's address have refused to answer the door. And let me just say a quick side note is that even if you can't serve in person, you will be able to serve them eventually. You cannot run away from a federal lawsuit. Just like in my case, we were served by email. So that is also an option. Since Maza is a YouTuber, he uses his email for business. So he will get served at some point. It's just a matter of time. Since his arrest, more than 150 of Maza's roughly 260 YouTube videos have been removed or deleted from his channel. The Costco confrontation was part of a trip to the Bay Area by a group of criminals who filmed at locations in Mountain View and Menllo Park. Canadian criminal Richard Troyan who posted under True North transparency and Southern California criminal Nick and Conrad Rankin were filming with Maza at the Costco on March 28th, but were not arrested. The day after the Mountain View incident, while Maza was still in jail, the three criminals were in downtown Menllo Park, where the criminal Troan pepper-sprayed a man outside an Ace Hardware and is now facing two felony charges. All four YouTubers will be named in both civil lawsuits, according to Waters. While Maza was arrested by Mountain View police the same day as the altercation, the case against Troan has proven more difficult.

[00:07:49]San Monteo County prosecutors decided to charge Troan over a month later while a judge approved an arrest warrant for him earlier this month. Police have yet to locate and execute it according to court records. So, personally, I don't think they are going to catch Troanne because Troan is back in Canada and they should have arrested him while they had him, you know, to charge him a month later.

[00:08:15]Obviously, he's just going to go back to Canada and I don't think he would get extradited. I would love to be proven wrong, but I don't think that would happen. So, yeah, overall some justice.

[00:08:28]It could be a lot better. It could be a lot worse. I don't see how you can do a pepper spray fraud without pepper spray.

[00:08:35]So, I think his criminal enterprise is pretty much cooked and the civil lawsuit is still very much underway. Now, if the Californian officers cannot get a hold of Troan for his criminal charges, one thing's for sure, his civil lawsuit will have an impact on him because if that lawyer is able to get a judgment whether if Troyanne defaults or they go to trial or something like that, then he is able to enforce it in Canada. All he has to do is file an action in the Superior Court of Ontario and he'll be able to seize Troan's assets or put a lean on it. So, he will be able to touch him. I just don't think the criminal charges will go anywhere because he's all the way back in Canada now. Anyways, that's it for the video. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe and I'll see you guys on the next