A Feral America Investigation
The Driz matter is not one case. It is a tangle of them... a criminal prosecution, a $72 million civil judgment, two more victims’ parallel lawsuits, an eve-of-trial bankruptcy, and a fraudulent-transfer suit chasing the money. Across nearly a decade there have been venue changes, judge reassignments, and prosecutor swaps. This page tracks the moving pieces, color-coded by case, every entry drawn from the court record.
The $72.6M jury verdict and the years-long fight to collect it.
The prosecution of the 2015 assault.
Alberto’s separate felon-in-possession conviction.
The TMZ photographer the Drizes attacked first. Settled in 2019.
Jeremy Findel’s own parallel suit against the same attackers. Fought to the eve of a jury trial in 2021.
The suit to unwind the moved Blaze Pizza stake. Still active; jury trial set for Oct. 2026.
The eve-of-trial filing and the nondischargeability fight.
Newest developments sit at the bottom. Dates shown as a year or month only are approximate and being pinned down; exact dates carry the full day.
| Date | Case | Proceeding | Court · Dept · Judge / Counsel | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-04-17 | Incident | The attack outside The Nice Guy | On La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood | Anne Greene, her brother Matthew, and their friend Jeremy Findel are beaten after stepping in to help. Anne suffers a traumatic brain injury. |
| 2015-04-30 | Criminal | Felony complaints filed | Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, downtown · No. BA436130 · DDA Allison Willhite | Charges of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury (Penal Code 245(a)(4)). |
| 2016-03-14 | Criminal | Informations filed | LA County District Attorney · Foltz | The criminal case advances toward trial against the group. |
| 2016-12-08 | Civil | Civil complaint filed: Greene v. Driz | Stanley Mosk Courthouse · No. BC643270 (lead case) | Plaintiffs Anne Greene, her brother Matthew Greene, and their friend Jeremy Findel, represented by Gary Dordick and John Kristensen. The first of three related suits over the same attack. |
| 2016-12-12 | Suraci | Photographer’s suit filed: Suraci v. Driz | Stanley Mosk Courthouse · No. BC643372 · Dept. 71 | TMZ photographer Robert Suraci, one of the two photographers the Drizes turned on first, sues. Defendants include all four attackers plus Aaron Torbati and Blaze Pizza, LLC. |
| 2016-12-12 | Findel | Findel’s own suit filed: Findel v. Driz | Stanley Mosk Courthouse · No. BC643450 | Jeremy Findel, beaten in the same attack, files his own parallel lawsuit the same day as Suraci, against the same defendant group. Represented by John Kristensen and Todd Friedman. |
| 2017-12-06 | Civil | Three cases formally related | Stanley Mosk Courthouse · Judge Dennis J. Landin | The court relates the three suits over the attack — Greene (BC643270), Suraci (BC643372), and Findel (BC643450) — to be handled together, with Greene as the lead case. |
| 2017 | Civil | Torbati sues the victims back | Stanley Mosk Courthouse · No. BC643270 | Aaron Joseph Torbati, one of the attacker group, files a cross-complaint against Anne Greene and her brother Matthew Greene — the people they beat. |
| 2017 | Firearm | Alberto "Daniel" Driz charged as a felon in possession of a firearm | Airport Courthouse · No. SA096430 · defense Blair Berk | He is later convicted, a charge that by its own terms means he was already a felon. |
| 2018 – 2021 (confirming) | Criminal | Criminal dispositions | Foltz · Shapiro / Werksman / Shawky (Maurice) | Maurice Driz convicted of felony assault and sentenced. Alberto’s and Shawn’s assault charges end in post-disposition dismissal. Co-defendant Aaron Torbati convicted. Exact plea and sentencing dates pending minute orders. |
| 2018-10-24 | Suraci | Joelson settles the photographer’s case first | Stanley Mosk Courthouse · Dept. 71 | The court grants a good-faith settlement determination (Code Civ. Proc. §877.6) for defendant William Joelson — represented by attorney Lewis Adelson — nearly a year before the Driz brothers settle. |
| 2019-05-16 | Suraci | Suraci case settles | Stanley Mosk Courthouse · Dept. 71 | The court records an Order to Show Cause "after settlement as to Defendants Alberto Driz and Maurice Driz." The photographer has reached a deal. |
| 2019-07-15 | Suraci | Suraci jury trial vacated | Stanley Mosk Courthouse · Dept. 71 | The trial, estimated at 7 to 10 days and coordinated with the Greene and Findel cases, is taken off calendar as the settlement is finalized. |
| 2019-09-27 | Suraci | Stipulated judgment; Blaze Pizza dismissed | Stanley Mosk Courthouse · Dept. 71 | A hearing on the Stipulation for Judgment and Entry of Judgment is held; Blaze Pizza, LLC and the Doe defendants are dismissed. The case is disposed. The amount is not public. |
| Dec 2019 | Civil | Defendants’ attorney relieved | Stanley Mosk · counsel Maria Hall withdrawn | All four defendants proceed toward the civil trial representing themselves. |
| Jul 2021 (eve of trial) | Bankruptcy | Shawn Driz files Chapter 7 at 4:45 p.m. | U.S. Bankruptcy Court, C.D. Cal. · No. 2:21-bk-15494-VZ | An automatic stay is triggered in a bid to blow up the civil trial before it starts. |
| Jul 2021 (+2 days) | Bankruptcy | Bankruptcy stay lifted | C.D. Cal. | The civil trial goes ahead anyway. |
| Jul 2021 | Civil | Three-week jury trial and verdict | Stanley Mosk | The jury rejects every self-defense story and returns a verdict of $72,645,492 against all four defendants. |
| 2021-06-29 | Findel | Findel’s parallel case reaches the eve of trial | Spring Street Courthouse · Dept. 8 | After 103 docket entries and a designated long-cause (multi-week) trial setting, Jeremy Findel’s own jury trial is taken off calendar and his case is disposed — the eve-of-trial resolution pattern. |
| 2021 | Bankruptcy | Nondischargeability adversary filed | C.D. Cal. · No. 2:21-ap-01199 | Plaintiffs move to keep the judgment alive as a debt for "willful and malicious injury," which bankruptcy cannot erase. |
| 2021 | Bankruptcy | Trustee files Report of No Distribution | C.D. Cal. | Shawn Driz is recorded on the federal books as a "no asset" case. |
| 2023-10-12 | Koral | Greene v. Koral filed | LA Superior Court · No. 23STCV24928 · Dept. O · Judge H. Jay Ford III | Alleges Alberto Driz fraudulently transferred his 49% Blaze Pizza stake to Peter Koral to look judgment-proof. |
| 2024 | Civil | Judgment-debtor examinations | Stanley Mosk · enforcement | Plaintiffs compel the defendants to answer under oath about where their money is. |
| 2024-04-25 | Koral | Demurrers overruled | Dept. O · Judge H. Jay Ford III | The fraudulent-transfer, civil-conspiracy, and unfair-competition claims survive. The case advances past pleadings. |
| 2026-07-15 | Civil | Enforcement hearing held | Dept. 729 (judgment enforcement) | Ex parte on a claim-of-exemption timeliness issue; the motion is granted. |
| 2026-10-12 (set) | Koral | Fraudulent-transfer jury trial set — Santa Monica | Santa Monica Courthouse · Dept. O · Judge H. Jay Ford III | After repeated continuances, the trial is currently set for October 12, 2026, with a final status conference on October 5. The docket shows a year of hard-fought discovery — motions to quash, protective orders, and sanctions. Pending. Defendants include Peter Koral, Alberto Driz, and a chain of Blaze Pizza (“BP”) LLCs. |
| 2026-11-09 | Civil | Motion for a charging order | Dept. 729 (judgment enforcement) | Plaintiffs move for a charging order — the tool used to seize a debtor’s ownership interest in a business or LLC. This hearing was set for November 9, 2026, but the court has already vacated (taken off calendar) that date before it arrives; the reason is not yet in the public record. |
| 2026-11-16 | Civil | Claim of Exemption / Third-Party Claim hearing set | Dept. 729 | Pending. Plaintiffs are moving on assets whose ownership a third party disputes. |
| In progress | Docket | Venue changes, judge reassignments, DDA substitutions, and the interim hearings in between | Across all cases | Being compiled from each case’s register of actions and Anne Greene’s minute orders. Have a document? Send it and we will add it, with the source. |
Sources: LA Superior Court dockets BC643270, BC643372, BC643450, BA436130, SA096430, and 23STCV24928; U.S. Bankruptcy Court, C.D. Cal. Nos. 2:21-bk-15494 and 2:21-ap-01199; the Greene v. Koral ruling; and contemporaneous reporting (Patch, Beverly Press).
