Judge orders radio station owner to jail for failure to cooperate with receiver

A federal judge ordered a litigious radio station owner to jail on contempt charges for not cooperating in the sale of his stations to pay a judgment for playing music without paying the licensing fee.

WB Music Corp. sued Edward Stolz II in 2016, claiming multiple stations he owns had been infringing on the company's copyrighted music.

Judge Jesus G. Bernal, of the Central District of California, agreed and ordered Stolz to pay $1.25 million. WB Music Corp. v. Royce International Broadcasting Corp., 5:16-cv-00600-JGB-SP (CD Cal., filed April 1, 2016).

In July, Bernal appointed a receiver to help arrange the sale of Stolz's stations to pay the plaintiffs. Fred D. Heather, representing receiver W. Lawrence Patrick as a partner with Glaser Weil Fink Howard Avchen & Shaprio LLP in Los Angeles, filed a contempt motion on Aug. 24 claiming Stolz was not cooperating.

Bernal granted the request on Sept. 2 and ordered Stolz to surrender to U.S. marshals at the George E. Brown Jr. Federal Building in Riverside no later than noon on Sept. 11.

"Defendant Edward Stolz is hereby found in contempt of court for his repeated, willful, and intentional violations of the court's orders...,"" Bernal wrote.

Stolz's attorney, Dariush G. Adli with Adli Law Group PC in Los Angeles, did not respond to a call and an email seeking comment.

Stolz is listed as a litigant in at least eight prior federal cases in the Central and Eastern Districts of California. These include a trademark case, other copyright cases and disputes with insurers.

He also engaged in a two-decade legal battle over the ownership of a Sacramento radio station. Stolz signed a letter of intent to sell the station in 1996, then later alleged RICO violations by the buyers and attempted to block the sale. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his bid to overturn a Federal Communications Commission order to allow the transfer. Stolz v. Federal Communications Commission, 16-1248 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

-- Malcolm Maclachlan