Clash of titan lawyers in Arm row, Neuy denies assault decoy role

Deal beckons in Arm saga?

Atchariya

Arm

A lawyer for look tung singer Arm Chutima has scored an early victory against her former music label which accuses her of copyright breach, as signs emerge both sides are close to a deal.

Celebrity lawyer Atchariya Ruangrattanapong, chairman of the crime victims’ assistance club, last month came forward to help Arm fight her contract battle after her former manager, Prachakchai Naowaras, asked police to pull her aside at two recent concerts for performing in breach of copyright.

The lawyer has since landed a series of legal blows against her former label, as Mr Prachakchai told the media late last week that after a couple of false starts, both sides are likely to reach a settlement.

“We haven’t talked about returning her contract, but it’s heading in a good direction. In fact, both sides get something out of the status quo, so we can both afford to take a step back,” he said. 

Arm left his label, Hai Thong Kam Records, in the middle of last year in a contract dispute over payments, and has since embarked on a career as an indie. However, she performs songs she wrote herself while still with the label, which insists it still has rights to the music and to her as a performer until her contract runs out in two years, seven months’ time.

Under the new agreement, Arm is likely to remain bound to the label by contract, though she will be free to perform without fear of breaching copyright. As for the rights of over the hit songs she penned, talks are continuing.

Mr Atchariya late last month said his team of lawyers would prosecute for malfeasance any police who try to nab Arm on stage again. Last week he stepped up his attack on the label, lodging a defamation action seeking 5 million baht in damages after Mr Prachakchai, in a sideswipe of his own, posted images of Arm drinking alcohol with friends while still at school.

Before the two sides started talking again late last week, Mr Prachakchai also lodged court papers seeking 21.6 million in damages for breach of copyright, while advising the other side that his firm had private detectives on standby nationwide to record her concerts as evidence, should she try taking the stage again.

Prachakchai

For his part, Mr Atchariya asked the Revenue Department to investigate the label for failing to pay tax, and petitioned the Anti-Money Laundering Office to launch a probe into its business conduct.

Arm’s celebrity lawyer — one of two who are actively working on her case, which has dominated Thai news headlines for weeks — landed perhaps his most devastating blow when he started moves to have 1 million baht in shares owned by Arm’s old label sold at auction, after he was approached by a director in a legal dispute with the firm.

The Khon Kaen District Court last week found in favour of director Uten Sririwi, or Tony Boy, who said Mr Prachakchai’s company hired him to make a movie based on the label’s hit single, Pu Sao Kha Loh, but failed to pay fees of 800,000 baht. He took the firm to court for breach of contract.

Arm penned the hit for her friend and former co-singer Lamyai Haithongkham, propelling Lamyai to overnight fame on YouTube, before being paired as a duo under Prachakchai’s label. Her departure in a dispute over payments left the multi-million baht singing duo in tatters.

After the court found against the label, Mr Atcharariya sought a court order asking the Legal Execution Department to seize the company’s assets. These took the form of a bond of 1 million baht in company shares lodged with the court hearing the movie dispute.

In a further blow to the firm’s standing, Mr Atchariya posted a clip of the firm’s lawyer, Khon Khaen-based Boontaworn Punyamaneechot, taken before he started acting for the firm, in which he told Arm, as a fellow Isan dweller, that he would stick by her.

He also urged her to keep performing, saying the fine for performing music she had written herself, even if the copyright was owned by someone else, was a mere fine, no risk of jail time. 

“Surely ethics would require that a lawyer wait a while before taking up a hire in which he argues the opposite stance,” Mr Atchariya grumbled, after he and Mr Boontaworn earlier traded blows over the tax complaint. Mr Boontaworn denied the label had under-paid taxes and said the department should turn its scrutiny on Arm and her backers instead.

In other developments, a rival record label last week tore up a contract it had entered in dubious circumstances with Arm last month after she was pulled aside by police on her old label’s behalf at a concert in Udon Thani.

Pornpol Chimtawee, of Naiphol Entertainment, denies he tricked Arm into signing to his label at the police station after he turned up to help get her freed on bail.

Arm complained that Mr Pornpol, who knows Mr Prachakchai, had asked her to sign a document, supposedly to secure her bail release. She discovered later that the firm had actually signed her up as a performer simultaneously with Mr Prachakchai, so even if she freed herself from his contract she will still be bound to the other company.

Mr Pornpol last week he insisted he struck the deal to stop police nabbing the performer again, as it would clash with the contract she has with her old label. However, he agreed to abandon the contract after Arm’s lawyers complained.

Neuy insists she is clean

Neuy

Former net idol Saitharn ‘‘Neuy’’ Wangprasert denies she acted as a decoy, luring a young man into a savage beating at a city condo rented by a friend.

Neuy visited Bang Khen police last week after the victim, Wuthichai “Pao” Daowruang, 25, laid a complaint about the Oct 20 beating which left him with deep cuts to his head, hands, and bruises over his body.

Neuy, barely out of her teens, is married to Panya “Keng Laiprang” Yimumphai, 33, a tattoo-clad net idol serving three years in jail on an old drugs charge stemming from his time behind bars in 2008 while serving time for robbery and attempted murder.

 She denies acting as a decoy as victim Pao claims, even though she is friends with the alleged ringleader, and met him moments before he entered the room where the victim was attacked. 

Pao

Pao said he and a group of six or seven friends had been out in the Ram Intra area when they ran into Neuy and her pals, who invited him back to their place. The attack took place there, when Pao said a group of seven or eight youngsters entered the room without warning and started kicking and stabbing him.

The clash stemmed from angry words which Pao had exchanged on Facebook about a month ago with the ringleader, a young man identified as Bank. Pao didn’t know Bank would be there, but Neuy saw him moments before the attack place, supposedly after she excused herself to go to bed.

Pao went out briefly with a mutual friend called Nan, who later took up with Bank. However, Pao made contact with her on FB after she took up with Bank. The young man saw the messages and told Pao to keep his distance. "Stop messing with my girlfriend," he growled. "Actually, that’s my girlfriend too!" he replied.

Some confusion surrounds who invited Pao back to the condo in the Chaeng Wattana area. Neuy took him to a room rented by her friend Pla on the eighth floor, one floor below her own, even though it was her, according to Pao, who extended the invitation.

He said he joined about six others in the room and they were there about 20 minutes before a group of three young men entered and called Neuy and Nan outside for a chat. Moments later, the young women returned saying they were heading to bed. Pao said he thought it was odd that they invited him and a friend back, only to excuse themselves shortly after.

Five minutes after they left, a group of six including Bank entered the room and started attacking him, he said. 

Bank asked first if Pao was the one with the “smart mouth” with whom he had argued on FB. “He kicked me in the mouth, and punched me. When I leapt up, he got out a knife. I fended him off with my hand, which he cut, and he stabbed me in the head. When I fell, they attacked me in a group ... I couldn’t cope so I pretended to faint,” he said.

In a bizarre twist, Neuy and Pao took part in a television interview last week, along with a handful of friends also present. 

One of Pao’s friends, Keow, said he pleaded with the attackers to stop and they eventually left. Another friend managed to get Pao into the lift as they could see he needed medical care. 

However, in the confusion they forgot to press the button, and the lift ended up on the ninth floor, where they encountered the attackers, who resumed their attack.

Neuy said the first she learned of the attack was when Pla called her. She said a young man with whom she and Nan rent their place, Pad, had invited Bank. She saw him outside her room on the ninth floor as she was heading to bed but thought nothing of it.

Pao said he finds it hard to believe that Neuy was not more deeply involved. “It’s up to her what she says, but the matter is now in the hands of the law,” he said. 

Nuey suspects Pao drummed up the “decoy” claim to attract media attention. The case continues.