Angry Amazon Texts Land Van Bramer In Civil Court

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — The owner of a Long Island City barbecue restaurant is suing City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer for reporting him to police over Amazon-related text messages.

Joshua Bowen, owner of John Brown Smokehouse, accused Van Bramer of filing baseless criminal charges over texts Bowen sent to Van Bramer's chief of staff about Amazon canceling the deal for a second headquarters in Long Island City.

Bowen also accused Van Bramer of suppressing his right to free political speech by sharing screenshots of the texts on Twitter, according to the complaint, filed Sunday in Queens Supreme Court. Bowen is demanding at least $50,000 in damages, court records show.

"Van Bramer has repeatedly and maliciously promoted the narrative on Twitter and to the press that the [Chief of Staff Matthew] Wallace/Bowen texts constituted criminal threats which could only be addressed by filing a complaint with the New York City police — in other words, that Bowen is involved in criminal activity," the complaint said, referring to Van Bramer's chief of staff, Matthew Wallace.

On March 1, Van Bramer tweeted screenshots of Bowen's texts, writing: "I don't respond to threats." The Long Island City councilman, who was a vocal opponent of Amazon's HQ2 plan, also reported the messages to police, according to the New York Daily News.

"You can be at the back of the parade or in front of the firing squad," Bowen wrote in one text. "If they [Amazon] come back, y'all may get elected dog catcher."

Josh Bowen, who recently went to Seattle to meet with Amazon sent this text today. It is several threats rolled into one. Demanding an elected official make a call to Amazon by a certain time - or else. This is disgusting. did others get this too? I don’t respond to threats. pic.twitter.com/Txtf53aaiN
— Jimmy Van Bramer (@JimmyVanBramer) March 1, 2019

"My chief of staff received an aggressive text message directed to me from Mr. Bowen, which I perceived to be threatening. I still do," Van Bramer said in a statement. "This lawsuit filed against me is frivolous, without merit, and riddled with inaccuracies."

Bowen said the texts weren't threats and that he was only insisting Van Bramer reach out to Amazon to try to persuade the e-commerce giant to revive its plans for a Long Island City campus.

"Bowen made it clear to Wallace that he was not trying to threaten either Wallace or Van Bramer, but that he believed that Van Bramer would be destroying his political career if he did not take action to save the HQ2 deal," the complaint said.

On Feb. 24, Bowen flew to Seattle to meet with Amazon executives and ask the company to reconsider the decision earlier that month to cancel plans for the Long Island City HQ2, QNS.com reported.

"Bowen wanted Amazon to hear from an ordinary Long Island City business owner and resident about how much the small business community and ordinary Queens residents wanted Amazon's HQ2 to be built in Long Island City," the complaint said.