"Street Kids": The Lawsuit That Predicted Live Nation's Monopoly

April 17, 2026

In February 2011, a Live Nation executive sent an email to the son of the New Jersey State Fair's event manager. The email was designed to destroy the competitor. The target was Thomas Dorfman, a New Jersey concert promoter who had just secured an exclusive contract to produce an electronic dance music festival at the Meadowlands:

A contract Live Nation had previously passed on and then decided it wanted. The email was sent by John D'Esposito, a Live Nation promoter. It was dated February 23, 2011. It told Al Dorso Jr. that Dorfman had been "intoxicated and unable to sort out a very disorganized and hectic situation" at a prior concert. It warned that Dorfman and his partners were "street kids" who "CAN NOT produce an event." It referenced drug overdoses at a separate Live Nation event as evidence of what could happen if Dorfman was allowed to proceed.

It closed with: "Tommy D is a smooth talker, but a serious liability."

The intoxication claim was fabricated. Court filings document that a concert in question went poorly because the venue changed the location at the last minute, not because of any misconduct by Dorfman. D'Esposito had obtained the story secondhand and sent it to Dorso Jr. knowing it would influence his father's decision about the concert.

The email worked. Al Dorso called Dorfman and asked whether the accusations were true. He encouraged Plaintiffs to meet with Live Nation and "find a way to work with them." They didn't. Live Nation escalated. What followed is documented in Case No. 2:11-cv-07318, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Dorfman, his partner Chris Barrett, and their company Juice Entertainment sued Live Nation for tortious interference and defamation. The suit alleged that Live Nation used its relationships with talent agencies, particularly William Morris Endeavor, to pressure artists no to perform at State Fair festival. Without artists, Dorfman and Barrett couldn't fulfill their contract. The contract was terminated and both men left the music industry.

The case produced an internal admission that is difficult to misread. At an April 2011 meeting, Live Nation's Senior Vice President of Bookings, Jason Miller, told Dorfman directly: " You guys were totally ambushed, for no particular reason." The lost profits ruling became its own legal dispute. The court applied New Jersey's "new business rule", a doctrine limiting damages for businesses without an established earnings history. Dorfman's legal team argued the rule was obsolete. They cited in re Merritt Logan, Inc., 901 F.2d 349 (3d Cir. 1990), in which the Third Circuit signaled its departure from the new business rule.

Dorfman told Room Reports that Judge Walls himself, in his opinion following summary judgment, acknowledged the 'may have erred' in applying the rule. The correct time to appeal, Walls held, was after the trial on existing liability issues.

In 2022, the New Jersey Supreme Court made that departure unequivocal. Thomas Dorfman, CEO of Juice Entertainment, has been pursuing the appeal ever since. "The ruling on my case was terrible, not just in my opinion, but under the law," he said. "The recent verdict against Live Nation at trial does not change our confidence nor plan to appeal on this issue."

The February 23 email is Exhibit 37 in the court record. The Bates number is LN0001020-22. It is public record. Live Nation did not respond to a request for comment.

"After 15 years fighting Live Nation I feel vindicated.

But this goes much further than just being a monopoly. In my NJ case and as I have been alleging publicly there is overwhelming evidence of financial fraud, racketeering, misappropriation of public funds, accounting and security fraud, perjury, and a slew of other criminal activities.

As exposed by the recent NBC investigative report by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Gretchen Morgenson.

The fight for me is only heating up.

I will not stop until CEO Michael Rapino and his associates are in jail." --Thomas Dorfman.

Room Reports.