A Feral America Investigation
Three people stepped in to stop a beating. A jury said the four men who put them in the hospital owe $72,645,492. They have not paid a penny of it, and with years of unpaid interest the debt has grown to roughly $122 million... while Anne Greene, who lost the most, fights off homelessness.
On April 17, 2015, Anne Greene was outside The Nice Guy in West Hollywood when she heard a fight break out by the smoking area. By her own testimony, she jumped a fence to step in, believing the men would not hit a woman. They did. She was sucker punched from behind and knocked unconscious. Her brother Matthew, their friend Jeremy Findel, and the rest of her party rushed in after her, each one sucker punched and brutalized in the melee while another woman from her group dragged Anne's limp body out of the way. For stepping in, Anne left with a fractured skull and jaw, as well as a traumatic brain injury that ended her career; her brother Matthew's spine was fractured; and Findel was left with permanent hearing loss in one ear.
In July 2021, after a three-week trial in which all four attackers represented themselves, a jury rejected their self-defense story and ordered them to pay $72,645,492, reported as one of the largest awards in the country for injuries that are predominantly PTSD. Nearly a decade later, the plaintiffs have not collected a penny of it. Under California law an unpaid money judgment accrues interest at 10% a year, so the longer these men stall, the more they owe: by the plaintiffs' accounting the debt has now grown to roughly $122 million. This is the record of who they are, what a jury found, and how they have tried to escape it. Every claim links to a document.
Who's Who
Co-owner of the family's chain of Blaze Pizza franchises, and a named supervisor in a separate sexual-harassment verdict against the business.
Open the file → The TwinTwo days after the Greenes sued, moved his 49% ownership stake to a man named Peter Koral in a below-market "fire sale."
Open the file →Filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy at 4:45 p.m. the night before trial, then spent it, his own lawyers say, on a yacht in the Caribbean.
Open the file → The Family FriendDenied kicking a victim on the stand, then admitted under video evidence that his own testimony was false.
Open the file →Click any name to open their file · punitive figures approximate, per reported verdict
The 2015 attack was prosecuted as a crime, too. The men were charged with felony assault (California Penal Code 245(a)(4), "force likely to produce great bodily injury") in Los Angeles criminal court. Maurice Driz was convicted of felony assault. His twin, Alberto Driz, is a convicted felon on a separate firearm charge, and his assault charges were dismissed following a disposition. Shawn Driz's assault charge was likewise dismissed following a disposition. Will Joelson does not appear in the criminal case at all.
For the criminal exposure, the Drizes retained a rotating cast of celebrity defense attorneys, including Robert Shapiro, of O.J. Simpson fame, Thomas Mesereau, who defended Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby, and Blair Berk. Then, when the three plaintiffs took them to civil court, all four defendants represented themselves. Each man's record is on his own page above.
The victims won on paper and then watched the money vanish. Shawn Driz filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy at 4:45 p.m. the night before trial, hoping to freeze the case. It failed: the court lifted the stay, the trial went ahead to the full verdict, and a debt for a willful, malicious injury is the kind bankruptcy cannot erase.
His uncle Alberto Driz had moved earlier. Two days after the Greenes filed suit in 2016, and the same day Blaze Pizza announced internally that "Daniel Driz, his brother, and his nephew have been removed from all Blaze Pizza operations," Alberto transferred his 49% stake in the family's Blaze holding company to Peter Koral in a below-market sale. The Greenes are now suing to unwind it, and a judge has let that fraudulent-transfer case proceed.
The judgment is final, and the Greenes are still in court to enforce it, through debtor examinations and levy fights that run into late 2026. Every month they stall, the interest meter runs. A jury said Anne is owed. She still has not been paid.
How to Help
The fastest thing you can do is Anne's fund. Then follow her firsthand account and share it, because the one thing these men have counted on is that nobody outside a courtroom would be watching.
Follow Anne
She documents the court days, the filings, and the fight in real time.
Case: Anne Greene et al v. Alberto Daniel Driz et al, L.A. Superior Court No. BC643270. Sources: Beverly Press · L.A. Patch · Dordick Law · Kristensen LLP · Greene v. Koral ruling (23STCV24928) · LASC docket (BC643270) · Bankruptcy docket (C.D. Cal. No. 2:21-bk-15494-VZ; Adv. 2:21-ap-01199)
