As Motorsport.com reports, the legal battle between Joe Gibbs Racing and its former competition director Chris Gabehart has intensified over a deleted text thread. Joe Gibbs Racing is asking the Western District of North Carolina to allow a trial jury in February to consider an adverse inference, meaning the judge could instruct the jury to assume that messages deleted by Gabehart contained evidence damaging to the defendants.
The text thread in question consisted of seven messages exchanged between Gabehart and Spire owner Jeff Dickerson on November 15. Gabehart wiped the conversation because he felt uneasy receiving an employment offer from Spire while still negotiating his exit from Joe Gibbs Racing, admitting in depositions that he panicked. Meanwhile, Dickerson had his own texts set to automatically delete every 30 days to manage bulk. Joe Gibbs Racing argues that Gabehart should face sanctions for destroying potential evidence, pointing out that Gabehart took photographs of trade-secret material and placed files on personal drives around that same period.
Legal filings from Gabehart’s lawyer, Cary Davis, strongly reject the premise that the deletion implies guilt in the absence of actual proof. The filing states that Joe Gibbs Racing is attempting to use an adverse inference as a substitute for evidence it has never found, noting that the organization remains free to cross-examine Gabehart about the deletion at trial rather than asking the court to do its persuading for it. Furthermore, Gabehart maintains that his duty to preserve evidence was not triggered on November 7 when he photographed his computer, as litigation was not yet reasonably foreseeable, and that Joe Gibbs Racing did not send its cease-and-desist and preservation letter until December 15.
Spire also filed responses distancing itself from Gabehart’s actions and urging the court to reject Joe Gibbs Racing's requested sanctions. Spire argues that punishing Gabehart with such jury instructions would unfairly prejudice the case against Spire as well, especially since there is no evidence of any Joe Gibbs Racing documents being disseminated at Spire prior to Gabehart's employment. Additionally, Spire points out that issuing such an order with over three months remaining before trial is premature and based on an incomplete record.
While the court has accepted as fact that Gabehart misappropriated certain materials before leaving his previous role, Joe Gibbs Racing has yet to present inarguable proof that trade secrets were actually utilized by Spire. As both sides spar over timestamps, forensics, and legal duties to preserve data, the case moves closer to a February courtroom showdown where these arguments will ultimately be tested.
