Interrogation In Lawsuit Between Snapchat Founders Briefly Interrupted By Naked, Gesticulating Man

The litigation over the origins of Snapchat has seen some strange moments — a friend of two founders who own the company is suing them, claiming the blockbuster app was his idea — but none stranger than this: During a deposition of Frank "Reggie" Brown IV, the Stanford University frat boy who claims he invented the concept of a self-deleting photo-messaging service, a naked man interrupted testimony by gesticulating at Brown through a window.

A close read of the transcript indicates that the attorneys for both Brown and Snapchat seemed to know, for some reason, that a naked man might appear outside the window of the room in which the interrogation was being held, but they neglected to warn Brown.

The naked man is referred to cryptically at the beginning of the transcript, as the lawyers get to know each other. The deposition was held at the office of Cooley partner Mike Rhodes, who represented the defendants, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, of Snapchat:



Santa Monica is, of course, a beach town. So perhaps someone was sunbathing nude — although Cooley's office is a couple of blocks in from the beach. Regardless, the distraction became so intolerable later in the day that the lawyers were forced to draw the curtains:

The record isn't clear on what happened exactly. "Mr Jones" is a reference to Timothy Jones, a lawyer at Morrison & Foerster, whom Brown consulted before he sued the company. He is not the naked man, of course.