The Squarepants Gang Takes Over Huntington Gallery?
A woman demands $5.5 million from Todd White, the former lead artist on “SpongeBob Squarepants,” claiming he hired a bunch of thugs to attack and rob her, then took over her art gallery in Huntington Beach.
Margaret Howell, owner of The Gallery HB at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach, says that White, “in a thankless fit of greed,” hired at least four men to attack her so he could take control of the gallery that exhibits his work.
“Despite White’s string of professional successes … his true nature was revealed on the night of August 2, 2011, when he orchestrated a malicious and brutal assault and robbery against the very woman who helped him launch his career in studio art,” Howell says in her Superior Court complaint.
Howell claims the hired thugs met her at the gallery and pretended they were interested in buying White’s art.
She says that White’s attorney Keith Davidson, and his “agent and martial arts sparring partner” Bryce Eddy were there too, along with other martial arts experts. “The other men were ‘hired muscles,’ martial arts experts retained by White or his representatives, whose purpose was to physically assault and intimidate Ms. Howell,” the complaint states. Davidson and Eddy are both named as defendants. She says the identities of the other men “will be ascertained through discovery and a review of hotel security videos.”