Facebook video screenshot of Kevin Temple on Sept. 17, 2022. Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe and Antioch Public Information Officer Rolando Bonilla. Source: Voler Strategic Advisors.
Calls them “liars”, “thieves”, “predators”, Bonilla a “racist”
Was paid $5,000 but claims he’s owed $15,000 more
Bonilla claims Temple has been “paid in full”
By Allen D. Payton
A letter issued by Antioch City Clerk Ellie Householder on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, included the claim that Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe stole footage shot by an Antioch videographer for use in a campaign for the City of Antioch’s contracted public information officer, Rolando Bonilla for his San Jose City Council campaign earlier this year. It was reported that Bonilla claims the videographer, Kevin Temple, was “paid in full”. In response, Temple posted accusations against both Thorpe and Bonilla on his Facebook page Saturday afternoon. (See related article)
Videographer’s Video Accusations
In a two-minute video post (which has since been hidden from public view) Temple confirmed what Householder had said, saying, “They used my footage to create more commercials and now, I want to be compensated as I should be.”
“And when I asked for my money Mr. Rolando Bonilla felt as if he needed to call me a ‘hood rat’ and a ‘ghetto person’,” Temple continued. “So, I’m not sure why he would say something in that manner because I’m not any of that and I felt like he said it because I’m Black.”
“Mr. Lamar Thorpe is running around, here with racist people to go along with his sexual harassments and his sexual predator ways,” he stated. “That’s crazy.”
“So, I just want everybody out there in FB land from Antioch to San Jose to know that you shouldn’t deal with any one of these guys, don’t vote for them,” Temple said. “Don’t vote for Rolando Bonilla or Lamar Thorpe. They’re both predators and they’re both thieves, and Rolando is racist, and I wouldn’t put it past Lamar, as well.”
“So, please watch yourself when you’re dealing with these two guys, especially you ladies,” Temple concluded.
Screenshots of posts by Kevin Temple on his Facebook page on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, which he copied on Lamar Thorpe’s and Antioch Rants & Raves’ pages.
Videographer’s Facebook Posts About Thorpe, Bonilla
In addition, Temple posted several additional negative comments about Thorpe and Bonilla on his Facebook page which are also now hidden from public view. They include the following:
“ROLANDO BONILLA AND Lamar Thorpe are the biggest liars and thiefs [sic] in the Bay Area.. Lamar has been fleecing the people of Antioch.. paying Rolando Bonilla with Antioch taxpayers [sic] money.”
“Lamar Thorpe has stole [sic] from me and he stole from [t]he city.. paying Rolando Bonilla a san san jose resident with Antioch taxpayer money and then giving right back to Lamar because he was Bonillas ‘campaign manager’.”
“Lamar Thorpe took footage from me and told me he wouldn’t use it and used it to help Rolando Bonilla steal from the city of Antioch.”
“Lamar Thorpe is a thief and if you don’t want a thief running your city do not vote for him or any of his cronies.”
In Temple’s final post about the matter he wrote, “Lamar Thorpe going to tell people that I’m some charity case .. u the one who couldn’t read as an adult. U womanizer.. now all the black folk who don’t agree is ghetto charity cases? You the charity case.. if not for Ellie everyone would know how remedial you really are.. she wrote all your speeches.”
Householder was asked to verify the last part of that comment, but she did not respond.
Bonilla Says Temple “Paid In Full”; Thorpe Does Not Respond to Questions
In an email exchange about Householder’s letter on Saturday, Bonilla denied Thorpe was his campaign manager and that Temple “was paid in full”. Temple said he was paid through Bonilla’s wife’s company. Bonilla wrote that the payment to Temple was, “Part of reimbursement tranches made to company I work for during period of 5/22/2022- 6/5/2022.” In response to questions to “when was your campaign invoiced by the videographer and when was payment made?” and “were you aware of any dispute about it among Ellie and Lamar between the time the services were provided and payment was made?” Bonilla wrote that he “Will track down” as he was traveling at the time.
A link to Temple’s video and Facebook posts were emailed to Thorpe and Bonilla Sunday night with a few questions. Rolando was asked if he can you provide proof from his campaign that Temple has been paid, and to
further explain his response regarding “reimbursement tranches made to company I work for”. He was asked for the name of the company and if it is Voler Strategic Advisors, which is who the City of Antioch has contracted with Bonilla for his services as the public information officer.
They both were also asked if they have any comments in response to Temple’s claims.
Bonilla responded by writing, “The allegations made by the party are completely false. As someone who comes from a disadvantaged background myself, I have always worked hard to create opportunities for others.
Given that I work with a successful, award-winning team of video professionals, I was asked to give him an opportunity, which I did. Said party was paid in full. Despite only having two brief interactions with this person for a small project, he has tried for months to extort me with threats of these malicious lies.
As recent as Saturday, September 17, 2022, the party continued his efforts to extort me demanding $15,000 or he would go public with his lies.
I regret ever giving this person an opportunity to learn from professionals who have worked hard to build a legitimate business from hard work. I have no further comment on this matter.”
Temple Paid $5,000 Not Additional $15,000 He’s Demanding
Asked how much he was paid, Temple said, “I was paid $5,000.”
He was then asked about the additional $15,000 for use of his work without permission.
“This is how I work. I’ve been a videographer for 15 years,” Temple said. “Like a photographer, it’s your project, the footage is mine. Intellectual property.”
Lamar told me ‘I need some footage for something specific’,” he continued. “I told him that if he uses my footage, I’m going to charge him $15,000. I think it was in an email. I’d have to go back and look.”
Asked why the additional charge, Temple explained, “If you create 100 projects off my footage, I’ve lost.”
“I saw those commercials on TV thinking they’re the ones I created, but they weren’t. They were the ones they created using my footage, unauthorized,” he stated. “Lamar tried to say, ‘I didn’t know they were going to use it’ and that he misread Rolando’s email about how they were going to use the footage. He said he only read the first sentence of the email. Come on, you’re a mayor and you didn’t read the entire email? Roland tried to pretend he didn’t know.”
Asked if he has or is going to sue Bonilla, Temple responded, “I’m going to start the process.”
“How could I have been extorting him for months when I never reached out to Bonilla?” Temple then asked, rhetorically about Bonilla’s comments. “My conversations have only been with Lamar, until Saturday.”
Asked who called whom Temple said, “Rolando texted me, then I texted him back, then I called him. Then he called me a ‘hood rat’? I called him professionally. He started dropping “F-bombs” and calling me a hood rat. It was very disturbing.”
In further response to Bonilla’s comments Temple said, “I’ve helped every person in Antioch on the council, Tamisha, Monica, I did one for Joy, one for Nicole Gardner who didn’t win, for Antonio Hernandez on the school board. And for multiple elections.”
“I’m the one who introduced Lamar to video, not just shooting them on his cell phone,” he continued. “I’ve done two profile videos on this man. If that’s what you call inexperience, it’s my videos that got him elected. No one would have known about him being born to his mother in prison without my videos. I’ve done a six-part series on him.”
“At this point I just want to be compensated,” Temple then said. “That’s not the man I knew when I first met him,” referring to Thorpe.
“I feel for those two ladies. I know one of them. I shot video for the healthcare district,” he added. “If I’m so inexperienced, why would I be hired to shoot video for a healthcare district?”
Bonilla Says He Owns Video and Doesn’t Owe $15,000 More, Temple Paid by Company Not Campaign
A review of Bonilla’s Form 460 campaign finance disclosure reports on the San Jose City Clerk’s website show no payments made to Thorpe nor to Temple. However, they show multiple payments to the company Bonilla works for, Voler Strategic Advisors. Yet, no payment to Temple appears on the Form 460 reports on Schedule G entitled, “Payments Made by an Agent or Independent Contractor”. The reports on Schedule G do show payments by Voler to KNTB NBC Bay Area and Telemundo of almost $19,000 for TV advertising.
Bonilla was then asked if it was Voler Strategic Advisors that paid Temple for his work. He responded, “Yes, you will see it reflected in 460’s for period of 5/22/2022-6/5/2022. Reflected as a reimbursement from the Committe to Elect Rolando Bonilla to VSA. Rolando Bonilla for San Jose City Council-District 5 2022 Form 460 5-22 thru 6-5-2022
Lastly, the issue with the party is not whether he was paid for the job, he acknowledges full payment. The issue is that he is alleging that, although my campaign paid for the video and b-roll, he has ownership of my personal likeness and that anytime I play the video, or a portion of the video (that I paid for) he is to be paid $15,000.
This would be the equivalent of a wedding videographer charging the married couple, and owners of the video, every time they play the wedding video. It doesn’t happen. Additionally, this is something that I have never agreed to, nor would I ever, as I own the rights to my likeness. Such an agreement would legally have to be in writing and would require said party to pay ME for use of my likeness.”
Temple Says He Was Paid by Bonilla’s Company and Thorpe, Not Campaign
Temple was later also asked if he was paid by Voler Strategic Advisors since no payment to him could be found in Bonilla’s Form 460 reports. He responded, “Yes I was paid by Voler Strategic.. I was paid 2500.. then I was paid 2000.. and then I was paid my final 500 from Lamar who said he was overpaid by the Bonillas.”
More Questions for Bonilla, Thorpe; Bonilla Says Thorpe Never Worked for Campaign, Company; Fails to Properly Report Payments to Temple
Bonilla and Thorpe were then asked to confirm what Temple shared about how he was paid and by whom. Bonilla was asked about not reporting the payments on Schedule G of his Form 460 and isn’t that where they should have been reported. Finally, he was asked did Voler Strategic Advisors ever pay Lamar for his work on Bonilla’s campaign or for any other work.
Bonilla responded, “No, Lamar has never worked for my campaign. He’s never worked for the company I work for. Ever.”
Again, Bonilla was asked if it’s true Thorpe made the final $500 payment to Temple and if so, shouldn’t the payments through Voler and/or Lamar have been reported on Schedule G of Bonilla’s Form 460 campaign finance report. He didn’t respond prior to publication time.
In Text Exchange Temple Believes Thorpe Claimed to be Bonilla’s Campaign Manager
In a brief conversation Saturday night, Temple said he had proof from a text exchange with Thorpe that he referred to himself as Bonilla’s campaign manager. He was asked to provide a screenshot of it, which Temple did.
In it, a message to Temple from someone named Lamar reads, “Might be managing a campaign in San Jose. I’ll need you for bio videos if you want the work.”
Then a later text from Lamar to Temple on Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, reads, “I got the contract. Let’s talk when you have a moment.”
Questions were then sent to Thorpe and Bonilla asking, if Thorpe wasn’t Bonilla’s campaign manager, how do they explain the text conversation with Temple. They were also asked what does ‘I got the contract’ mean and to what contract was Thorpe referring.
UPDATE: Bonilla responded, “You’d have to ask him. On my end, we did not use or hire a campaign manager.”
Later, Thorpe finally responded via email writing, “I’m getting really tired of this back and forth. Text messages do not provide context as there were conversations that preceded those text messages. I helped Kevin get multiple contracts including in the South Bay. Some materialized, some did not. I’ve had contracts in the South Bay that have nothing to do with Rolando or Kevin. I am not going to engage with people like Kevin who are comfortable leaving homophobic remarks on my voicemail.”
Temple Hides Video from Public View, Now, Only “for Friends”
Regarding the removal of his Facebook video Temple responded, “No its for friends.. I want to see how this is going to play out.. I see people are turning this into an opportunity instead of trying to fix the wrong.. my video was for all the people I brought into his campaign. It was to let them know that I supported him in front of them and I will denounce his actions in front of them.”
Please check back later for any updates to this report.
