Aself-admitted wife-beater who was himself the subject of what are now called #MeToo allegations – with the reputation as a disgraced ex-cop and ex-Las Vegas security officer who was fired from both jobs is on a new mission — to tarnish the name of Sylvester Stallone! Doug Poppa, who was outed from law enforcement refashioned himself as a journalist who has claimed a bizarre conspiracy was behind the Las Vegas massacre is obsessed with Philadelphia icon Sylvester Stallone. That is the conclusion of an exhaustive world-exclusive YC investigation that follows the fake news phenomena rapidly affecting media outlets nationally.
With Poppa’s own disturbing and questionable background, it is ironic that he is the source of what appeared to be police documents sent to the DailyMail containing alleged thirty-year-old “MeToo” allegations about international superstar Sylvester Stallone. That predictably prompted negative media attention for Stallone and media “relevance” for Poppa, someone with a reported history of seeking media attention even when it was detrimental to his coworkers in law enforcement, potentially jeopardizing their lives.
» Why does this matter?
In a time where the term fake news is thrown around, looking at the background of the source of information being spread for public consumption is a crucial topic. Many news outlets use sources to give their story credibility without a thorough — or at times any — vetting process behind it. Where “MeToo” claims are involved and careers are being lost based on nothing more than allegations being made, looking at the old adage “consider the source” is especially timely.
The Ethics Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists says that “checkbook journalism is not only unethical, it threatens to undermine journalism and damage democracy.” Readers and viewers, the committee warns, are left “wondering whether the [paid] source is telling the truth, telling the [news outlet] what it wants to hear, or embellishing the truth.”
Despite Poppa’s dubious past – that included claims by his wife that he physically assaulted her on many occasions, peeping through his wife’s windows, claiming a bizarre conspiracy was behind the Las Vegas massacre and now accusing Philadelphia icon Sylvester Stallone of assault – he reframed himself as a journalist, blogging and tweeting his thoughts into cyberspace.
» Self-Admitted Wife Beater!
It is ironic that Poppa, who never denied physically assaulting his ex-wife and repeatedly caused her personal injury by going to the illegal lengths of setting up an illegal sting operation to spy on her with police-issued equiptment – is obsessively making “MeToo” claims against iconic actor Sylvester Stallone.
The odd history of Poppa includes a revealing dark episode in which he was accused of repeatedly assaulting and threatening his wife. Divorce filings obtained by YC contain allegations by his wife that “on numerous occasions” Poppa “assaulted her and threatened to harm her,” and “[t]hat the Defendant [Poppa] has on numerous occasions, without provocation, been guilty of cruel treatment towards” her and “he has assaulted [her] physically on numerous occasions so as to cause her great mental anguish, physical injury, apprehension of future serious bodily harm to herself….” Although Poppa admitted in court filings that his wife told him she no longer loved him, he refused to move out of the house, so she fled to her parents’ house.
Poppa also spied on his wife by peeping through her bedroom window, a fact tacitly admitted by Poppa in other court filings, according to a Court Commissioner’s findings in other court documents in Donnica Poppa v. Douglas Poppa, Circuit Court of Loudoun County Virginia. The Commissioner issued an official report in the Poppa divorce which found that while working as a narcotics investigator, Poppa had “placed the wife’s residence under surveillance” after he became “suspicious” of her, and he peered through her bedroom window. Per Poppa’s legal filings, he was trying to catch her cheating on him. In today’s Time’s Up era, this would be an archetypical #MeToo story.
» Doug Poppa’s Credibility Shattered from the Outset!
Doug Poppa’s odd history started off in the small rural area of Loudoun County, Virginia, where he served as a sheriff’s deputy. On Poppa’s LinkedIn profile, he claims he was forced out of the department for exposing a district attorney for failing to turn over documents in an attempted murder charge. However, that was far from true. Documents exclusively obtained by YC show that Poppa was firedafter it was discovered that he had secretly recorded a meeting with his superiors – a meeting during which he was being reprimanded for intentionally compromising the safety of his fellow officers. Poppa admitted he had been secretly recording their conversations for months.
Before being fired as a sheriff’s deputy, Poppa had been “transferred to other duties after he deliberately compromised the security of the narcotics division and the security and safety of his fellow undercover deputies by publishing a picture of himself in The Washington Post.” By agreeing to widespread media publication of his photo identifying him as working narcotics, Poppa put undercover officers and their contacts at risk of being recognized and harmed, it was alleged in court filings in Douglas A. Poppa v. Sheriff John Isom,Circuit Court of Loudoun County Virginia, At Law No. 13253. An article published around that time by Vanity Fairdescribed Poppa’s firing as stemming from him “being too available to the media….”
According to extensive court documents reviewed by YC, Poppa embarked on a byzantine series of attempted grievance challenges and legal maneuvers he pursued in an attempt to get his job back. The Sheriff’s various suspension and termination actions were unanimously upheld by the grievance panel.
Just a few years later, following the pattern of Poppa being suspended then fired from his job, Poppa was canned from his job in security at a Las Vegas hotel, but he would attract national media attention after claiming The Riviera Hotel fixed their casino games. It was a short-lived story after The Riviera released a statement to the Huffington Post stating “While we do not normally comment on active litigation, the claims included in Mr. Poppa’s complaint are false and totally without merit and we intend to vigorously defend against them,” The Riviera told the Huffington Post in an email. “We look forward to the actual truth coming out during the course of the legal process.”
Our investigators also confirmed Poppa is connected on social media to infamous individuals such as Holly Ashcraft, who pled no contest to throwing her new born baby in a trash dumpster, and Gitte Lellan Pedersen, who was imprisoned after laundering money obtained in the extortion and murder of four people.
The irony of Poppa being the source of a thirty-year-old #MeToo story about a noted celebrity — a story that has propelled Poppa himself into the limelight (again) — cannot be ignored. With a checkered history including allegations of spousal abuse, of wrongfully secretly recording law enforcement officers, of spying on his wife, of putting the lives of fellow cops at risk so he could have his photo in the national press, and of getting suspended and fired from multiple jobs, whether Doug Poppa has been properly vetted by media outlets relying on information he provides seems like an obvious question.
The DailyMail did not respond to a request for comment on the documents obtained by Poppa and CNN retracted the documents from their platform following this bombshell revelation.
» The Documents
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