That's what I was talking about. He actually takes it that he's a limited purpose public figure in the hearing, but in the verdict, he just says "public figure". There's massive discrepancies between what Chupp says and does in the hearing and what he renders in his written verdict, even with all the bench rulings standing.
Another example is him saying that he'd probably consider the unsworn declarations, letting Ty refer to the unsworn declarations without interruption by virtue of employing inadmissible evidence, and then in the verdict proper saying that he didn't consider the unsworn declarations.