Laz Rojas - an old Doomer in trouble.

[Clay]

This is clear, simple injustice. Even is he sues, he cannot get everything back. All the money could provide is basic securities. Personally I’d want to see arrests on top of restitution. 
 

I have told a client of mine(divine frequency developer) to pay to laz instead of me as I do not have a cent to send atm. 100 isn’t much but it’s what we can shake. We are doing what we can with what we have and I can see many are. 
 

Best wishes to you Laz. If you are somehow able to read this, please know that your story has touched the hearts of many and we are here for you. 

[KeaganDunn]

Absolute injustice. They cannot get away with this vile mindset of "guilty until proven innocent", even though the legal principle says it's vice versa.

 

This is blood-boiling and leaving me wanting to give my whole bank account to Laz. But I can only donate so much. The system is so fucked.

[El Juancho]

Even if I did not know who Laz Rojas was I feel very sorry for what happened to him, the legal system in the USA is horrifying, it is dystopian for me...

Edited February 8, 2023 by El juancho

[SuperPIter_DoomWorldthe2nd]

I have come back from the deep tombstones of inactivity, and i can only say one thing:


I'm ABSOLUTELY, and COMPLETELY pissed that this INSANE falsehood even managed to get arguably one of the best people in the community for the creation of the Wolfendoom namesake in this much trouble.

[IcarusOfDaggers]

I would start looking for the perpetrator among the doom community, or any other creative and arts community the guy was a part of. This feels personal jealousy, false accusation and loss of property, all creative property and corruption is nothing new. What is however strange, is the doctor and/or cop being involved in it from the ground up. As such, it's either started at the hospital/police department/police encounter or it started at one of the creative communities the guy was part of. 

 

I think this is the place where doomworld should rally around the person with all their skills. Good luck!

Edited February 8, 2023 by IcarusOfDaggers

[OpenRift]

I am fucking appalled. It's absolutely vile that the government can erase an entire mans life over something that wasn't even proven to be true. I hope we can find out the fuckstick doctor who forgot what their job was and decided this man's fate, because there is a special place in hell for slanderous cockroaches like that.

[Murdoch]

Jesus. Nearly 2 grand in 3 hours. Well done all. Incredible.

[ayjanu]

Fucking hell....  I've known for a while that justice is as corrupt as a virus, but the horror of what Laz went through....  I echo whatup876 on this: this is indeed like a nightmare that you'd want to wake up from.  The way things have been going for a while lately....it's as if the world itself is at Hell's gate.  Morality took a baseball bat to the kneecaps, and was left for dead.  Seriously....this is straight out of hell itself.  I can't donate right now, because my finances are tight this month, but as soon as I can, you bet your ass that I will.  It's time for the wickedness of this world to be recompensed upon its head.

[Noiser]

I will do my best to share this with everyone I know, this is horrible beyond belief.

[daemonspudguy]

I unfortunately don't have any money to spare, but I will try to spread awareness.

[arsac]

5 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

Jesus. Nearly 2 grand in 3 hours. Well done all. Incredible.

Honestly think the GoFundMe will reach it's goal by the end of tomorrow, max, if we keep up the pace we set today.

I hope we contact Laz after all this. I wish him the best.

[Murdoch]

@Doomkid maybe pin this thread?

[Breezeep]

Just sent $30 to the fundraiser. Absolutely fucked up situation all around. Here's to hoping he can get back on his feet soon enough.

[Terrcraft]

just got done reading a book about a similar case. really sad to see this happen to someone who has already gone through so much.

[Midway64]

Holy shit... Gee-zus...

That must have been a really traumatic nightmare to Laz...

I send my sincerest condolences to both Laz and his mother, and I hope he gets out of this situation.

[RottKing]

Good fucking lord, I honestly cannot believe how a single person can be this unlucky. Who cursed this man? I was watching the Vice video on him, and not only did his identity get stolen along with all his money,  I read the article and found this:

 

Quote

 

There's an LA artist named Sarah Johnson who was fascinated by Rojas's story. She helped with the screening and brought flowers to his premiere. She's taken it on herself to try to get a caseworker for him and his mother, and just to try and help.

But then the day after the Cinefamily screening, Sarah got hit by a car and broke half her body so she is still trying to help while dealing with her own recovery. Then Laz's mother, just weeks after we shot the documentary, she fell and broke her hip. Sarah set up a GoFundMe to help them raise funds for his mother's recovery, which a lot of people donated to.

 

Bro? THE DAY AFTER Sarah gets hit by a car? Absolutely unbelievable. What in the fuck. Then I read all this current misery... he really might be one of the unluckiest people to ever live.

[BROS_ETT_311]

2 hours ago, Z50 said:

Honestly think the GoFundMe will reach it's goal by the end of tomorrow, max, if we keep up the pace we set today.

I hope we contact Laz after all this. I wish him the best.

As of this writing the goal has been met :)

[BonJoviStatue]

6 minutes ago, BROS_ETT_311 said:

As of this writing the goal has been met :)

That's great news! I hope Laz will find a way to rebuild his life and fight against the system.

[antares031]

WolfenDoom : Second Encounter was the very first Doom mod I've ever played. It was featured as one of the best doom mods (along with Requiem, Icarus, Memento Mori series, and Alien Vendetta) on DoomMania's Club, a korean doom fan site back in early 2000s. It was such a joy to play, making me think "This is so cool, now I can play Wolfenstein 3D with Doom's graphic!" While it was Alien Vendetta that led me to create doom levels, it was WolfenDoom that introduced me the power of doom modding.

 

May good fortune follow him from now on.

[innerethos]

I don't know what makes me more sick: the story or the fact that it is true.

 

I found the court case number on some random look-up site.  The official LA County website did not give it to me, even after I paid them to look-up cases by name.  Rat-fucking bastards.

 

Then, I went on their fancy website and searched the case number (without the courthouse prefix and inmate number suffix).

 

Need I post a screenshot?  Yes, I will.

 

Spoiler

 

Really surreal. 

 

I just stumbled across this community fairly recently.  I am humbled and impressed, both completely outside the scope of this thread, and also within it, I guess.  Really surreal story.  False imprisonment stories are on the rise lately.  LA County is pure fucking evil.

 

Please don't mind me--I will be contacting Mister Rojas and arranging a donation outside of GoFundMe, which I hear can sometimes be difficult to obtain funds from.

 

Hope you all are doing okay.

[Steve D]

Donated. This is absolutely Kafkaesque. Extreme nightmare horror.

 

I am so fucking disgusted by the LA authorities. May they rot in hell. I came to Doom via MacDoom in 1995. Laz was also a MacDoomer. All that DeHacked work that he did in Wolfendoom and Astrostein was, so far as I know, done on the Mac, which made things harder for him. Laz was always a huge presence in the MacDoom world, such as it was. Back then a lot of us just contacted other Doomers by emailing them directly to say how much we enjoyed their maps. I never contacted Laz but he was always there. He was so prolific, at a time when hardly anyone was truly prolific -- doing something like 100 maps, IIRC -- that you always had new Laz material coming out. So even though I never knew him personally, I was always proud of him as a MacDoomer. I never forgot about him and I was always happy to see people still enjoying his work

 

I was very disturbed by the Vice documentary. He was having such horrible luck. Laz was definitely an unusual talent. His video editing work was surprisingly good considering that he seemed to work with 2 VCRs and maybe a genlock. That's a tough row to hoe. I wish things had gone better for him, but the world of creative art is a difficult path. As the saying goes, "Many are called, but few are chosen."

 

And add to that the cruelty of losing everything he worked on. Damn.

 

Reading about his latest travails, I felt great empathy for him. I know what it's like to be the sole caregiver for an invalid parent. It's like raising a child in reverse, because they get more and more helpless over time, and thus the demands on you continually increase. I'm glad there were people in his life who tried to help.

 

Here's hoping he can find a good lawyer to take his case pro bono. Yeah, you give up 40% of the settlement at the end, but I know personally that 60% of a settlement is much, much better than living on the street. 

 

All the best to you, Laz Rojas.

 

 

[Tony_Danza_the_boss]

I've followed Laz for quite sometime and have enjoyed his WolfenDoom content immensely. They were some of the first maps I ever downloaded for Doom. Hearing his story and the absolute atrocity the City of LA put him through is awful. Having lived there for quite some time, I can definitely say he will have no shortage lawyers who would take this case pro bono if what he describes is true. LA probably has the most lawyers per capita of any city in the US, and I have no doubt in my mind he will be able to find one to take his case. Best of luck to you Laz you will get through this and brighter days are ahead.

[Merry Widow]

A decent person like Laz Rojas does NOT deserve this shitty treatment. I hope all those involved in this travesty rot in hell. Thoughts and prayers for you Laz!

[Lizardcommando]

Good lord. I am speechless from hearing about all of this.

 

Reading through the details once more, goddamn all of the assholes who fucked up Laz's life. May karma punish those evil doers with the worst fate possible.

Edited February 8, 2023 by Lizardcommando

[Mordeth]

As a (rare) exception to the rule, I've temporarily pinned this thread to get some more eyeballs on it.

[CBM]

Sadly my own economical situation in the last 4-5 years or so has been very dire and it will be that way for the rest of my natural life...

due to many serious IRL things that I wont get into but it was stuff that were out of my control.

I am not homeless but I am close.

However, I am still afloat and hopefully it will stay that way.

 

So I am not able to donate anything but my thoughts and prayers.

Bad luck and pain is not always distributed equally among the human population.

 

I hope that he will eventually get back on his feet somehow and that many are able to donate...

also I am happy to hear that the goal has been reached.

 

God bless.

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by CBM

[Stealth Frag]

It's hard to believe the scale of injustice and suffering this man had to go through. I'm terrified by this story. All I can do is participate in the fundraising. But the heart bleeds.

[The_SloVinator]

Donated.

 

Hopefully he'll get back on his feet & into a more comfortable living. Possibly even sue the county.

[Murdoch]

Now over 3 grand. Extraordinary. @Dynamo take a bow. This one simple gesture you made has probably changed a wronged man's life for the better. It's not much money in many ways. But it's breathing room. It's decent meals, a cheap phone and some credit, possibly even a roof overhead for a time. But above all, and perhaps most importantly, it's hope.

 

Heroism isn't always about risking your ass to save someone in danger. Sometimes it's just speaking up. You and everyone who has donated are heroes in my book. It's an honour to count myself as part of this community. 

[Walter confetti]

Dear God, what a horrible situation! How this things can happen? It's insane, pure madness!

My Grandma had Dementia as well (she's was at a lower stage) and died last year due to a stroke...