Time has moved differently for me over the decade. Starting when I left my comfortable surroundings of Los Angeles, to live in a yet-to-figure it out city called Boise. My kids asked me to move there to be with them, and I did. That portion of my life I will never regret. They’ve grown and moved on to their own lives now and I at least got to be there for a portion of it.
The part I will regret… everything that comes next.
This story will not follow a standard timeline as portions won’t make sense until later. Even now, they don’t make sense to me. But a tale is a tale and I’m going to do my best to get this one told. Let’s start with April 2022. I was a week away from my movie premiere at a local theater. It wasn’t the first time I had a movie play there, but it was looking to be my biggest so far. A few days prior I get a phone call from one of the actors in the film. She tells me a woman is attacking me in a Facebook film group. The woman is screaming how I’m a stalker and I ruin women’s lives. This was not the first time this woman has attacked me on social. She attempted to do it at the showing of my first film. I wasn’t terribly shocked, or even worried. What she was talking about was in a sense old news. Old news that I’m now going to jump back 4 years to explain. Here we go.
A few years back I was ending a 3-year relationship. It wasn’t an easy one to end. We lived together. We were engaged. I had hoped we would end as friends, but eventually we 100% ended. I moved into an apartment downtown, she stayed in the house we lived in which was miles away so the odds of us even seeing each other again were tiny. Neither of us had a hard time moving on and even though it was a tough ending, I wanted good things for her.
I had mentioned that I was engaged. I was. The wedding was even planned. We were going to head off to Mexico and spend a ton of money to get a ton of pictures of us in the sand to look at every other year. It was planned for a day in October. I had marked it on my phone calendar and never thought to remove it. More on that in a second.
Living downtown there was a German-based brewhaus that was street side of my building. I’d head there from time to time. This same October I was there with friends I had met with my former fiancé. Friends can’t help but bring up an ex when juicy details are looming. People like to update you with gossip whether you want to hear it or not. I often told people that I didn’t want to hear it. But this day I heard she was pregnant. This one stood out. Children were the last thing she had wanted. She hated kids to the point that she asked me to get a vasectomy, and happily I did. So to find out she was pregnant seemed funny and sad to me. I figured it was an accident. But as much as I was curious, it also wasn’t my business and honestly, I didn’t want to hear about it. I had my own thing going on as I was on the tail end of a new relationship with a girl who at the time was going through a divorce. She needed to figure her past out as she was figuring out our future.
Calendar alert. It’s time to fly out to the wedding my phone alerted me one morning. I laugh, but a bit sad. I’m sure the canceled wedding is the last thing to go through her mind. She’s having a baby. Then the dumb thing that starts everything happens right from my phone. I made a stupid Facebook post.
I should point out I blocked her on social right when we broke up. As we were ending it, and I was living in the spare room, she began to date. It was quick. I wasn’t angry, I just didn’t want to see it. So I blocked her. From there, I never unblocked her. So making a silly comment, I felt was vague, and private wouldn’t cause any harm. I made a comment comparing an ex having a baby wasn’t as big of a commitment as me buying new rugs. I didn’t say her name, and I honestly was buying new rugs.
I also thought people knew. Turns out, most people didn’t. I started getting messages from friends. Asking me if it was true. I was a bit thrown off that others didn’t know and I took it down. But… too late.
I quickly found out that she not only knew I wrote it but was furious. I felt bad, but also in a sense didn’t think too much about it after. Until…
Two days later, the girl who I was seeing, met up with me and asked me if I was a pedophile. That’s a weird question to get after dating for 6 months and assured her I wasn’t. From there I learned that my ex had reached out to my girlfriend, her soon-to-be ex, and her mother and told them I was a pedophile who was sleeping with a 17-year-old girl.
I was not.
The girl who I was seeing, quickly understood what happened. She knew it was an ex who was out to hurt me but at that point, the damage was done and due to ultimatums from her ex, and demands from her mother, we were through.
I wasn’t angry at the break-up, I was angry that an ex would, and could do that. I went home and stewed about it over beers. Then, I made a crucial error I’d do anything to take back today.
When we were together, my ex traveled often. When she did she’d send many pictures of herself. Some, are not safe for work. Though I had deleted most, messenger keeps things for a lot longer than I wish it did. The beer in me convinced me to message demanding she stays out of my life. I screamed a bit at her in keyboard characters, then I reminded her I still had naked pictures of her and to leave me alone.
I didn’t threaten to send them anywhere, I just reminded her I had them. What did I think would happen? I thought she’d leave me alone. What really happened, is not even close.
The rest of the night got weirder as her friend Brian pretended to be her boyfriend and ask for copies of the naked photos. When I found out it was him, he started messaging me telling me to kill myself and calling me a pervert. Even weirder, earlier this year he was arrested for voyeurism and burglary, unrelated.
I drank more that night. Went to bed and woke up the next day as if nothing happened. Things did happen.
A few days later two detectives contacted me. They let me know that my ex accused me of stalking. I talked to them. I let them clone my phone. I even let them go through my computer on the spot. They were nice, though it’s not uncommon for police to pretend to be your friend, at least they were upfront with me. They left and said they’d be in touch if needed.
I found it ironic I was being accused of stalking. When my ex and I were together, stalking was a big part of her day. She was proud of it. She had several ghost accounts she’d use to look at ex-boyfriends, ex-friends, and even her Mother she no longer spoke to. She’d often tell me about how an ex got a new job, or how another ex just bought a house on a street she drives on daily. I found it unhealthy. When we split up I had zero doubt she was stalking me. But I had nothing to hide.
Her stalking let her reach out to not only my girlfriend. But her mom, the soon-to-be ex-husband. My work. My friends. And even girls I had previously dated. And do her best to turn them against me. The KGB would be interested in her tactic, as well as very amazed.
The next months get weirder. As I said, she was in touch with many of the people in my past. I find out that there’s not only a gang of girls who I used to date out to get me but there’s a Facebook group. They even start reaching out to girls who I dated in LA. One week I’m contacted by a girl who I hadn’t seen in 8 years letting me know some girl messaged her about bringing me down.
Fortunately most women I had dated, had moved on.
But these ones. They had not. They wanted blood. They came after me with social media rants, sitting outside my apartment, and figuring out my schedule. It got scary.
The police cloned her phone as well and gave me the records. I read several texts she sent to women of my past boasting about how she used her ghost accounts to follow my moves. When I asked why she wasn’t being pursued on stalking chargers, I basically heard it was due to her gender. No matter any of her actions during this matter, she’d be a victim and I’d be in the wrong.
Then comes November. I’m at work. Two police officers enter my work and tell me that my ex has called the police because I had gone to her house and threatened her that morning. I had not, and I could prove it. I smiled at the officer and told him just that, he smiled back and handcuffed me. He didn’t care. He was going to arrest me.
Here’s where my life truly changed. My work never bothered to ask me if any of it was true, they just fired me. Many of my friends, never bothered to ask either, they just wrote me off.
I found out the Facebook group used that time to contact even more people from my past, but now with a new member. The women I first mentioned at the beginning of this post.
I started getting messages from people I went to high school with saying that she reached out to them, to let them know I’m a felon from several states out East. I shouldn’t have to, but I will point out this isn’t true. Here is one she sent to a girlfriend I went to high school with.
The info about being a felon in other states is not true. I had actually never been in trouble with the law before.
At this point, I don’t know who I can talk to, who I can trust, and what’s next in my life. I spend the next few months with my lawyer working things out. They are convinced I wasn’t a stalker or a voyeur and let me know if I plead guilty to harassing her using my phone, I’d have a misdemeanor and be able to move on. I did just that… and moved on… or could I?
The Facebook group was still active. I found out through an outsider that they knew every step I was taking and I should watch each new step I took. During this time I started my own agency, one of my first clients was picked off by a Facebook member who I dated for a split second who reached out to them claiming I was a pervert.
Another member who was an old guy friend was writing on social media about how I was a sex offender. It was a mess and I knew that flying off the handle is what got me here, so each time I’d put my head down and go forward. Over time it all seemed to haunt me less and less. Every day I managed to grow my agency, write and produce two films and a few shorts, make new friends. Things were going pretty well.
Then, in April 2022.
As I mentioned, a different Facebook group, one that I was a part of, had to share the story you just heard. But with her own special twists. I won’t pretend that I was innocent when I e-screamed at my ex, but she made it appear as if I was out to murder her. She posted photoshopped images and exaggerated stories. I was getting messages left and right from people I didn’t know letting me know my reputation was in severe danger. I went to go online and check, and quickly realized the person who ran the film group, which I was a part of, had booted me from it. I could offer no defense.
Then it got weirder. A girl I knew, and had been with once, popped in with a comment claiming I had taken her to my office and raped her. Holy shit, where did this come from? I was devastated, confused, angry, and scared. I had never been accused of anything like this before. I had never remotely even committed this sort of crime before. Suddenly the forum blew up. Messages poured in. Those who knew I was innocent and those who assumed otherwise. On this day I had quickly become the most hated man in Boise. And there was nothing I could do about it.
I talked to the police and shared my side of the story including items from the security cameras in my office. Fortunately, my studio is littered with them. Once they saw what was on them, they let me know no investigation would go forward. It was great on the law front, but the reputation front was another story.
The days went on, my Facebook friends list went on the decline. My usually busy phone had gone silent. Except for the call that my premiere has now been canceled. She had called the theatre claiming that if the premiere happened, a large group would protest it. The Egyptian didn’t blink. They kept my money and canceled it. I now had to call friends up, who were coming to the showing, and tell him the news.
My producer Catrine didn’t give up on me. She knew my legal issue story prior to any of this. Most of my friends did. I never tried to hide it. I made a mistake and paid for it. But she also knew the story being told, wasn’t true. How was Catrine rewarded for this? This woman came after her. Demanded all the actors who worked for Catrine, should now sue her. This of course was preposterous but any attack on your company is still an attack and can leave a scar.
Catrine let me know a reporter had reached out to her. She was from the Idaho Press and wanted to write a story about me, and my film being canceled. Catrine warned me of the reporter’s clandestine direction and that I should be careful. 2 weeks had gone by and I hadn’t heard from the reporter. I had assumed it had gone away, then one Monday I received a text from a number I didn’t know. It was the reporter, she said she was writing the article and needed to ask me questions, but in a hurry as the article was going up in a few days. Nothing like waiting to talk to me until the last second. I agreed to but never got the questions. I then decided, before it was too late, to text the tale you just read. I gave her screenshots and contact info for others who had been harassed by Her. She had run the Film Festival a few years prior and I was told it ended when she pocketed the funds. I also had another filmmaker reach out telling me of their battles with her. I heard the story of how she offered to produce a local director’s film, but took the money and run. Another person, who worked with her let me know she had wrecked more lives than she could keep track of. But she didn’t want to hear any of this. She asked me how long I was in jail, and why I was harassing her.
Some of the messages I received about her.
I quickly learned the story that was to be told, wasn’t the story I was telling her. I then realized days later that this reporter was friends with her and doing her a favor. She even thanked her on Twitter.
I reached out to the Idaho Press, and they vaguely supported the article but after asking for better response, after I shared all the details of the interview, they let me know the reporter was no longer with the paper. I had heard from an insider this wasn’t the first time she had questionable ethics. I’m sure it won’t be the last.
I also learned the reporter wanted to go deep into the rape accusation. Even as far as calling me, to another person she interviewed, a rapist. There have been a few times in my life I’ve seen people I know publicly being accused of sexual assault. Most times I knew it wasn’t real. Even on the day I’m writing this, a friend who ended a relationship with someone who I felt was a toxic person, showed me how she called him a rapist in a Facebook post. This was today, THIS DAY! I don’t know what’s next for him but I also feel pretty confident it didn’t happen. I might be one of the few on his side.
EDIT: As of today, they are back together. She admitted she said things out of anger. I will never understand how or why anyone would do that.
After this, a second premiere was canceled. Again because of her. I had arranged for a small theatre in California to show the film. She discovered this and sent the owner a message with the subject line “Bill Doty Harasses Women” and threw in several tales she told before. The owner, fearing what she’d do to his theatre, ended the event.
Over the last few years I learned that we don’t live in a world where those you accuse need to prove it, those accused just need to prove they didn’t. For the last 4 years, I have been waiting for the world to collapse on me because they didn’t get what they wanted, didn’t like their life direction, or just woke up in a bad mood. They just need to point their finger, and suddenly I’m on the long mend.
So, as of today, there’s been no premiere, and that’s okay. I’m finishing up my second movie but have to recast a few parts, and that’s okay. I’ve lost a handful of friends who never asked if any of this was true, and that’s okay. I’ve become pretty thick-skinned in the last 4 years and I’m getting stronger. That’s not an open invitation for the universe to come after me. But each time it does, I just keep going.
As for this woman, the girl who insists on letting her live rent-free in her head 24/7, who is she? She’s a woman I met 10 years ago when I first moved here. She claimed to be a filmmaker, she was not. She claimed to be highly connected to the industry, but she was not. She said she wanted to be my friend.
Clearly, she’s not.
My film is now streaming on many platforms online. They have plans to attack it. Give it low ratings. They will share it online and make sure others attack it too.
It’s unfair to the actors and the crew who worked on it. It’s unfair to anyone who has worked on any of my films and shorts. It’s unfair that they spend every second of their day thinking about me and how to hurt me. I just hope they know I don’t think about them at all.
I’m still going to create. I’m still going to shine.
I’m sure many of you still have questions. That’s okay, I have answers. You know how to reach me so… let’s talk.