Mitchell / Gilleon Attorney Dan Gilleon received an Outstanding Trial Lawyer award from the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego for his efforts and excellence in winning a defamation action against the Minutemen. The case went to trial and a jury returned a verdict in favor of Gilleon's clients in the amount of $135,000. Gilleon later obtained a separate $200,000 judgment against another Minuteman who participated in the defamation.

In recent years, a group of individuals formed and referred to themselves as the "San Diego Minutemen." They claimed their only purpose was to watch and secure our borders from undocumented immigrants. However, claims began to surface that these individuals were engaging in threatening and harassing tactics of local, law-abiding immigrants. To expose the "Minutemen" and there antics, a local woman began to videotape them when they appeared at day labor sites to harass the workers and their employers.

The leader of the Minutemen became enraged by the observer's actions, and published false statements on the internet about the observer, referring to her as a prostitute, using vulgar language. They even posted a photograph of the observer calling her a “skank who beds down with those little brown border hoppers.” A jury awarded Gilleon's client $135,000 against the Minutemen's leader and the court issued a separate judgment against a co-conspirator for an additional $200,000.