Judge in fatal love triangle gets 6-month suspension

December 30, 2001

Chicago Tribune

LANSING, MICHIGAN — The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that a judge accused of steering business to her defense lawyer-lover who later murdered his pregnant wife be suspended for 6 months without pay.
In a 29-page decision Friday, the court revised a proposal by the Judicial Tenure Commission that Warren District Judge Susan Chrzanowski serve a year's suspension without pay.

Her attorney, Brian Einhorn, said he was disappointed but not surprised by the decision.
"It's disappointing that she's going to be off the bench for as long as she will be," he said.
Chrzanowski has been on paid leave since July 2000, when Hazel Park attorney Michael Fletcher was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder in the shooting death of his pregnant wife, Leann.
Chrzanowski is accused of assigning 56 cases to Fletcher during their two-year affair and initially lying to police about her relationship with him.
The court ruled that Chrzanowski's penalty will start Jan. 1 to give her credit for the 17-month interim suspension already served.

Rapist, a privileged Stanford athlete, sentenced to only six months in jail after a judge expressed concern for his future

Stanford Woman Shares The Powerful Letter She Read To The Man Who Assaulted Her

Lilli Petersen
Refinery 29
June 4, 2016

After her rapist was sentenced to only six months in jail for her horrifying assault, his accuser is speaking out.

The woman, who has not been publicly identified, shared a full copy of the letter she read at the sexual assault trial of Brock Turner with BuzzFeed News. In March, Turner was convicted of three counts of felony sexual assault. A former Stanford University student and prospective 2016 Olympic swimmer, Turner faced 14 years in jail on the convictions, according to The Guardian. However, Judge Aaron Persky decided to sentence him to six months plus probation, saying that “a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.”

“Lighthouses don’t go running all over
an island looking for boats to save;
they just stand there shining. Although
I can’t save every boat, I hope that by
speaking today, you absorbed a small
amount of light, a small knowing that
you can’t be silenced, a small
satisfaction that justice was served, a
small assurance that we are getting
somewhere, and a big, big knowing
that you are important,
unquestionably, you are untouchable,
you are beautiful, you are to be
valued, respected, undeniably, every
minute of every day, you are powerful
and nobody can take that away from
you.” 

More links:

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/06/05/3784913/stanford-sexual-assault-dad-letter/ 

http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_29975888/brock-turner-sexual-assault-case-victim-reads-letter

Pennsylvania Judge Sentenced To 28 Years For Selling Black Teens To Prison

Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years In Massive Juvenile Justice Bribery Scandal
Eyder Peralta
Aug. 11, 2011


A Pennsylvania judge was sentenced to 28 years in prison in connection to a bribery scandal that roiled the state's juvenile justice system. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was convicted of taking $1 million in bribes from developers of juvenile detention centers.

The judge then presided over cases that would send juveniles to those same centers. The case came to be known as "kids-for-cash."

The AP adds:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.

Ciavarella, 61, was tried and convicted of racketeering charges earlier this year. His attorneys had asked for a "reasonable" sentence in court papers, saying, in effect, that he's already been punished enough.

"The media attention to this matter has exceeded coverage given to many and almost all capital murders, and despite protestation, he will forever be unjustly branded as the 'Kids for Cash' judge," their sentencing memo said.

The Times Leader, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., reports that the court house in Scranton was overflowing this morning. More than a dozen people who said they had been affected by the judge's decision stood outside, awaiting the sentencing.

Jeff Pollins was in that crowd. His stepson was convicted by Ciavarella.

"These kids are still affected by it. It's like post traumatic stress disorder," Pollins told the Times Leader. "Our life is ruined.

It's never going to be the same... I'd like to see that happen to him," he said.

When a judge gets indicted, it's usually for stealing money, not for sabotaging the lives of the people who appear before her

Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter indicted on criminal charges
LOCAL 12 TV (video You Tube)
Published on Jan 10, 2014

CINCINNATI (WKRC) -- A Hamilton County grand jury indicts Judge Tracie Hunter on eight felony charges Friday. The charges filed against the juvenile court judge include theft in office, tampering with evidence and forgery. Two special prosecutors, Scott Croswell and Merlyn Shiverdecker, have been investigating the allegations against her.Several of the tampering with evidence charges involve the backdating of judicial entries. The theft in office charge alleges Judge Hunter used public funds to pay unauthorized filing fees with the Supreme Court of Ohio. She has been ruled in contempt of court after some media outlets sued for access to juvenile cases.Judge Hunter is also accused of having unlawful interest in a public contract charge in connection to the hiring of her brother Steven Hunter for a job with the Hamilton County Juvenile Court.Judge Hunter will be summoned to appear for arraignment at some point. The special prosecutors also say additional charges may be filed.Click HERE for the Jeff Hirsh story in November.Click on the following links for the documents:page 1page 2page 3page 4page 5page 6

Judge: "Who is she to question my integrity?"

Some judges feel free to violate judicial ethics, blatantly and in full view of fellow citizens, because they believe that those citizens will be ignored by the Judicial Commission and government officials.

And, I suspect, for the most part, those judges are right.

When those citizens are court personnel, the judge figures that they're afraid they'll lose their jobs if they talk. And, of course, they probably will lose their jobs. We'd have a better system if we actually enforced whistle-blower protections.

Previously, Judge Frances Kaiser served as Kerr County Sheriff.












City reviews ethics claims against municipal judge
September 11, 2014
By Jessica Hawley-Jerome
Bandera Bulletin

Citing a hostile work environment and unethical practices, the City of Bandera municipal court clerk has filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct and tendered her resignation.

“The hostile environment within the court offices was created due to the lack of ethical character and the constant chaos and divided factions affected by fear-inducing verbiage and actions by Judge [Frances] Kaiser,” Laura Phipps wrote in her Sept. 8 letter of resignation.

Shortly after she began her employment in May, Phipps said she witnessed numerous questionable activities, including bypassing judicial protocol and allegedly tampering with a jury pool. She documented most of what she said she saw, primarily for her own protection. Phipps said Kaiser discussed ongoing and pending cases with friends and colleagues, and was not objective, making judgments about defendants before their hearings.

“With respect to the position of Judge Kaiser…all defendants and all case files have not been treated impartially or fairly,” Phipps said. “The fundamental elements of a municipal court are that the judge be impartial, ensure that justice is done, and oversee the general administration of the court… Intrinsic to all sections of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct are the precepts that judges, individually and collectively, must respect and honor the judicial office as a public trust and strive to enhance and maintain confidence in our legal system.”

Phipps said she confided her concerns to City Marshal Charlie Hicks, who then approached City Administrator Lamar Schulz and a City Council member. Phipps told Schulz and Mayor Don Clark about her observations and said that Kaiser had created an oppressive work environment in which she berated other city employees.

Phipps said Kaiser submitted her letter of resignation on Wednesday, Aug. 20, however it was not accepted and she was asked to return to work the next week. Schulz denied that claim, stating Kaiser never submitted anything.

“Frances never has never submitted a letter of resignation,” Schulz told the Bulletin, adding Phipps’ complaints are under review. “Right now we are doing due diligence on our side. The allegations are not totally substantiated at this point.”

Schulz said Phipps provided him with some information and copies of certain documents, and they are being reviewed...

Phipps was granted unpaid administrative leave on Aug. 28; her request for paid administrative leave or transfer to another department was denied. In an email to Schulz dated Sept. 4, Phipps asked if City Council members were aware of her complaint and her request for paid administrative leave, and whether there would be a council review. She said has not received a response.

“I refuse to accept the opportunity to return to a hostile work environment and refuse to compromise my moral or ethical values,” Phipps said. “The city population should be outraged at the lack of response by the city administration to these activities.”

Kaiser said she is shocked by the allegations made against her and vehemently denies any wrongdoing. She said she never discussed city personnel with Phipps nor did she violate the Judicial Code of Conduct.

“I’m absolutely astonished and very alarmed,” Kaiser told the Bulletin. “I never had any inkling that [Phipps] was unhappy or there was a problem. I trusted her.”

[Maura Larkins' comment: The judge apparently trusted the clerk to keep quiet about wrongdoing.]

Kaiser said Phipps’ recount of alleged jury pool tampering was misguided. Phipps said Kaiser comprised a selection of potential jurors from a list of city residents, then asked her to shred the original list once entered into the system. Kaiser said it was true that she oversaw the list, but she said she did not choose the final jurors.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Kaiser said, adding protocol in a small-town municipal court is different from county or district court. “My integrity would be very much compromised if that happened…who is she to question my integrity?”...

Read more here.

Brouhaha in Bandera's Municipal Court
By Judith Pannebaker
BCC Editor
2014-09-11

...According to Kaiser, the dispute occurred when she and Phipps were selecting a potential jury pool for an upcoming trial. After receiving a list of names from the city utility department, Kaiser said she randomly highlighted those city residents who would receive jury summonses. "I highlighted the names randomly and methodically. I didn't know anyone living in the city," Kaiser insisted. "However, Ms. Phipps called it jury tampering."

This precipitated the meeting and Phipps' subsequent resignation...

[Maura Larkins' comment: Why didn't the judge simply choose the first names on the list, or every other name? It is simply not acceptable for her to specifically choose names, and then claim that she chose them randomly.]

Lawyers Who Criticize Judges Are Being Punished

Andy Ostrowski points to the Pennsylvania kids-for-cash scandal, where two county judges were convicted of charges involving millions of alleged kickbacks to send children to private juvenile detention facilities, as an example where lawyers failed to do the right thing.  --M.C. Moewe

Will Complaint About Judge’s Evidence Tampering Lead to Criminal Indictment? It Should 
centerforjudicialexcellence.org
July 10, 2014

...The Marin Courts have engaged in questionable behavior for as long as anyone can  remember. The 2006 arrest of Marin’s top court official John  Montgomery on felony conflict of interest charges barely raised an eyebrow. A 2009 shredding party orchestrated by current Marin Court Executive Kim Turner, which delayed an official state audit of the Marin Family Court by more than six months, was justified in a report from the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)...

[Maura Larkins' comment: We can search the archives of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany and ancient civilizations, but we destroy the records of the United States' justice system?  This is hard for me to believe.  Are the documents really destroyed?  Or are they sent to the archives in Sacramento?]

Marin Judge Evidence Tampering
 June 19, 2014
Kathleen Russell
info@centerforjudicialexcellence.org

..MARIN COURT CEO BLOCKED STATE AUDITOR WITH DOCUMENT DESTRUCTION 

Turner’s 2009 destruction of child custody mediation working files, which were frequently subpoenaed when parents wanted to challenge a mediator’s recommendation to the court about child custody, took place while she was serving as a member of the Judicial Council of California.

The evidence destruction sparked a local public protest and a call for criminal investigation. However, the Marin Court stated that the destruction took place with the knowledge and approval of the California Administrative Office of the Courts (the staff agency of the Judicial Council), and both the AOC and the Marin Court argued that the destroyed documents were not “official court records.” Read the 2010 local Marin news article about this here...
 
 ...Ironically, [Kim] Turner was the recipient of the California Judicial Council’s 2013 “William C. Vickrey Leadership in Judicial Administration Award.”  According to the Judicial Council, this award honors individuals in judicial administration for “significant contributions to and leadership in their profession.” In making the award to Turner, the Judicial Council noted that she “has been a very active member of a working group improving trial court records management.”...


Lawyers Who Criticize Judges Are Being Punished — Jonathan Turley

by MCMoewe

Daily Kos

Jul 28, 2014

One is a California family law attorney documenting alleged judicial crimes, the other a Pennsylvania civil rights attorney who has lost his law license for speaking out against judges. Both say they will continue to do what most lawyers won’t.

“They don’t speak up. The reason is you get targeted and you could lose your license,” said Barbara Kauffman of lawyers who witness judicial misconduct. Last month the California attorney contacted state officials alleging that a family court judge in Marin County tampered with court records.
Civil rights attorney Don Bailey had his law license suspended for five years in October by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. “The reason I lost my license is because I criticized judges,” said Bailey, a former Democratic Congressman and state auditor general, in a phone interview last week.
The pattern of attorneys losing their careers or facing hefty fines after speaking out against judges has legal experts worried.

The law professor and legal analyst Jonathan Turley wrote of Bailey’s license suspension, “While some would agree with the case, there is a worrisome line of cases targeting lawyers who criticize judges.”

[Maura Larkins' comment: Pennlive.com notes: "Bailey's attitude is evident from his law firm's website, on which he says he is "well known for taking on the high-profile and controversial cases many attorneys fear..'He refuses to recognize...the harm that he is causing to his clients and to the judicial system,” members of a disciplinary review committee wrote.'" 

It seems that the disciplinary committee is saying that when Bailey criticizes judges, the judges can be expected to retaliate against his clients.  Shouldn't the judges--rather than Bailey--be called to account for such retaliation? 

A justice system that sends kids to private detention so that judges will get millions in kickbacks hardly needs any help from Mr. Bailey to get a bad reputation.  Why didn't someone disbar the lawyers who sat silently while the kickback scheme proceeded?

Many lawyers harm their clients, but as long as the lawyers don't criticize judges, they are in little danger of losing their licenses.]

America’s judicial system is extremely ineffective at removing bad judges, said Kathleen Russell, the founder of the Center for Judicial Excellence, a non-profit that is working to stop family court judges from giving child custody to domestic abusers and pedophiles. “Judges are judicially trafficking children to abusers by ignoring evidence of child abuse. Even when judges behave maliciously, there is no law that holds them accountable.”

Over the past 40 years, court rulings have given judges increasingly strong immunity from civil suits under the principle that judges shouldn’t be sued by anyone unhappy with their decisions in court. Most notable is the 1978 Supreme Court decision Stump v. Sparkman that rejected a suit filed against an Indiana judge who ordered a 15-year-old sterilized without her knowledge.

The Democratic nominee for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 11th District has made a focus of his campaign curbing judicial abuses and protecting lawyers who criticize judges. Andy Ostrowski points to the Pennsylvania kids-for-cash scandal, where two county judges were convicted of charges involving millions of alleged kickbacks to send children to private juvenile detention facilities, as an example where lawyers failed to do the right thing.

“That didn’t happen in a vacuum,” Ostrowski said. “There were lawyers who were in there watching as these children were led into the courtroom in shackles without representation and led out in shackles to prison. They all knew it was wrong. Why didn’t they speak up? Simple — because they were afraid.”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has taken the law license of several lawyers for criticizing judges, as described in a table that follows this story.

Fearful lawyers combined with strong immunity laws keep bad judges on the bench. Even in the kids-for-cash scandal, where the judges were criminally convicted and are serving lengthy prison sentences, experts say that civil suits filed on behalf of the children will likely have a tough time piercing judicial immunity.

In a blog post published on Thursday, Turley described how judicial immunity was used to dismiss a civil suit against a Michigan judge who was having an affair with the wife of a man before him in a custody case. “By any measure, former Wayne County Circuit Judge Wade McCree was a disgrace to the bench,” Turley wrote. “His case unfortunately could embolden other judges who consider abandoning the most basic ethical demands of their office.”

Ostrowski is one of only two political candidates in the U.S. who has signed a pledge to eradicate judicial corruption started by the Campaign for Judicial Integrity, an effort founded by disbarred California attorney Richard Fine, who was jailed for 18 months by a judge who found him in contempt.

Fine’s 2009 disbarment stemmed from court filings he submitted against judges for taking $57,000 in side pay from the county to supplement their state salaries. “Fine has long contended that the charges against him are politically motivated,” the State Bar of California summary of Fine’s disbarment explained. “The cases he filed against judges were not retaliatory, he said, but instead were based on his belief that judges who accept money from a county fund to augment their compensation have a conflict of interest in any matter involving government municipalities. 

 Fine was jailed indefinitely in March on contempt of court charges — for refusing to answer a judge’s questions and practicing law without a license.”

Fine, 74, said he is still not sure why the judge finally set him free after 18 months.  

But Allan Parachini, who was the Los Angeles Superior Court spokesman while Fine was in jail, compared his incarceration to actions more common in authoritarian countries.

“Fine was effectively a political prisoner for a year and a half,” Parachini, who no longer works for the superior court, told Full Disclosure Network in 2012. “This wasn’t about contempt. This wasn’t about getting him to disclose whatever it was he was directed to disclose. It was about getting back at him.”

[Maura Larkins comment: Judges tend to be extremely subjective regarding which attorneys are forced to turn over documents.  I have been amazed at how judges let some attorneys get away with refusing requests for production of crucial documents.]

The California Bar has not opposed three successive motions in the state Supreme Court to set aside the disbarment, but the court has yet to reinstate his law license, said Fine, a former Department of Justice prosecutor. A case to force the justices to restore his license is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

“I understand why lawyers are not speaking up when they witness corruption. They want to protect their income and they want to protect their families,” Fine said. “They took an oath to uphold the laws of the United States. If they did not intend to fulfill the oath and uphold the laws, they should have saved themselves and the public from their hypocrisy.”

Kauffman, the California attorney who notified officials last month of alleged criminal wrongdoing by a judge, said protecting the integrity of the U.S. justice system can be a lonely task. Last year, she filed a lawsuit against a retired Shasta County judge who had been appointed to preside over cases 208 times since 1994, never having to face election to hold the position. “I couldn’t get anyone to serve him. I had to go to his house and do it myself,” Kauffman said. The state barred the judge from serving shortly after she filed the lawsuit.

Losing her law license is not the 58-year-old attorney’s only worry. “I have concerns about safety,” Kauffman said. “For a while my office was getting broken into on a regular basis. For months, each night the alarm would go off. I had a strange man knock on my door and tell me he knew where my kids were playing.”

Being vocal is her best protection, Kauffman said...

Vote in Carla Keehn in place of Lisa Schall for Judicial Office 20, and Brad Weinreb for Office 25, but keep Prager and Popkins

 Update April 2016:

Carla Keehn is challenging Keri Greer Katz, daughter of judge Michael Greer, in 2016 election for Superior Court Judge

 Original post:

Superior Court Judge; Office 9 • Ronald S. Prager

Superior Court Judge; Office 19 • Michael J. Popkins

Superior Court Judge; Office 20 • Carla Keehn: This race receives special attention. Keehn is running against the incumbent Lisa Schall. The problem with Schall is that during her term as judge she has been admonished three times by the state Commission on Judicial Performance. After 30 years on the bench it is time for a change. Vote for Keehn

Superior Court Judge; Office 25 • Brad Weinreb

Brad Weinreb, a state deputy attorney general for more than 20 years, was rated by the Bar as “qualified.” He has extensive experience in major criminal cases and claims one of the highest active caseloads in death penalty cases. He won the endorsement of Goldsmith, Gore, Chula Vista Police Chief David Bejarano, county Public Defender Henry Coker, numerous organizations and some 50 current judges. Both his opponents, Michele Hagan and Ken Gosselin, received the lowest rating of “lacking qualifications” from the Bar. And Gosselin has been accused of misleading voters about his education and experience.

Superior Court Judge; Office 44 • Joseph Adelizzi (SDER choice to replace incumbent Judge Jacqueline Stern)

Judge has been admonished three times
No jurist in the state has a less favorable record
By Greg Moran
U-T San Diego
May 12, 2014

The campaign website for San Diego Superior Court Judge Lisa Schall touts her three decades of experience on the bench, including assignments in every division of law, from criminal courts to probate matters and family law.

What it doesn’t talk about is Schall’s record of discipline with the state agency that oversees judges.

No other active judge among the state’s 1,827 judges on the Superior Court, appeals court and Supreme Court bench has been publicly disciplined more times than Schall has, a review of disciplinary records from the Commission on Judicial Performance shows. She has received two public admonishments and one private admonishment.

Only one other judge, in Contra Costa, has a similar record.

Schall said the record involves three incidents over a nearly-30-year career on the bench, that she has learned from her mistakes, and that her work record has earned her the continuing support of the legal community.

The record shows Schall has been publicly admonished twice, most recently in March 2008 when she pleaded guilty to an alcohol-related driving charge. A public admonishment is the third most-serious level of punishment the commission can hand out, behind only public censure and removal from the bench.

She was stopped while driving the wrong way on Centre City Parkway in Escondido in September 2007 and found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.09. That is just over the legal limit.

The arrest came just months before she was up for re-election to her fourth term and was not made public at the time. Court records show the case was delayed for six months, and Schall pleaded guilty to a lesser offense — one week after the filing period for a candidate to run against her had closed.

Under state election law, if a sitting judge does not draw a challenger during the filing period, they are deemed automatically re-elected to the office for another term.

Both the judge and her attorney, William Wolfe, said she was not given any special consideration and that Schall did not seek to delay the disposition of the case until after the filing period.

Shall said this week she was dealing with a divorce and caring for her elderly parents at the time of the DUI arrest. She said that is not an excuse, and has apologized to colleagues and family since.

“I took ownership of that,” she said. “I didn’t try to hide it or cover it up.”

Schall was also publicly admonished in 1999 for abusing her power and not following the law when she jailed a woman for five days for contempt of court. The woman was disruptive in the courtroom during a hearing on a restraining order and was taken out of the courtroom.

When the woman said to Schall’s bailiff that she would “go off” if not allowed to tell her story, Schall cited her for contempt without holding a hearing or making factual findings — and when the woman was not in the courtroom.

In 1995 Schall received a private admonishment from the commission for what commission records describe as “her embroilment in a juvenile dependency matter.” Schall said during a child welfare case she was told an appellate lawyer for one parent had been revealing confidential testimony from the court proceedings. She held a hearing with the appellate lawyer and others to find out what had happened, and the commission concluded that was wrong.

...The disciplinary commission has doled out public admonishments just 75 times since 1995 to 22 judges, records show. Several judges who received two public admonishments either retired or were removed by the commission after the second...

Christie Aides Don’t Have to Turn Over Bridge Scandal Documents, Judge Rules

A judge appointed by a Republican says emails of public officials must be kept out of investigation.

Christie Aides Don’t Have to Turn Over Bridge Scandal Documents, Judge Rules
By KATE ZERNIKE
APRIL 9, 2014
NYT Now

In a major setback to the legislative investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closings scandal, a New Jersey judge ruled on Wednesday that two of Gov. Chris Christie’s former aides do not have to comply with subpoenas seeking emails and other communications about the closings and attempts to cover them up.

In the ruling, Judge Mary C. Jacobson of State Superior Court in Mercer County criticized the subpoenas as “a fishing expedition” by the State Legislature, controlled by Democrats, which is investigating why Mr. Christie’s allies closed two access lanes at the bridge in September — and what the governor, a Republican, knew.

Judge Jacobson agreed with lawyers for the two aides, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Stepien, saying the subpoenas “clearly violate” federal and state protections against self-incrimination and unlawful search and seizure. She disagreed with lawyers for the legislative panel who had argued that Ms. Kelly and Mr. Stepien were required, as public employees, to turn over their records.

“The fundamental problem with the subpoenas is that they are overbroad,” she wrote.

Judge Jacobson left open the possibility that the Legislature could compel the aides to testify by offering them immunity from prosecution. But that could significantly tie the hands of the United States attorney who is conducting a separate inquiry into the closings and allegations that emerged in the wake of the scandal — about misuse of Hurricane Sandy funds and the politicization of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the bridge.

The court’s decision is likely to renew calls, among even Democrats in the Legislature, to shut down the investigation and defer to the United States attorney, Paul J. Fishman.

Judge Jacobson, who was appointed by a Republican governor, Christie Whitman, is widely praised for her evenhandedness, and ruled against Mr. Christie last summer in a case that established a right to same-sex marriage in New Jersey. But in this case, she was harsh on the investigators in the Legislature, repeatedly emphasizing that the subpoenas had overreached.

“A blanket subpoena calling for a fishing expedition without the promise of immunity calls for a blanket response,” she wrote.

Ms. Kelly, a former deputy chief of staff to Mr. Christie, sent an email calling for “some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” the town at the end of the bridge that was gridlocked for four days as a result of the closed lanes. Mr. Stepien held the job before her, and managed Mr. Christie’s campaigns for governor.

The bipartisan investigative committee was formed in January after legislators learned that Ms. Kelly and the governor’s allies at the Port Authority had worked to shut down the lanes soon after the mayor of Fort Lee declined to endorse Mr. Christie for re-election.

Republicans have criticized the investigation as a partisan witch hunt against the governor, whose overwhelming re-election victory last year had put him among the expected leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

In recent weeks, Democrats have begun to worry they are overplaying their hand against a weakened governor — and trying the patience of taxpayers, who are paying Mr. Christie’s lawyers ($650 an hour) as well as the special legislative counsel ($350 an hour).

Mr. Christie’s popularity has dropped significantly since the scandal. He has told allies that he can rebuild his national prospects by isolating the bridge scandal as the work of rogue aides.

State Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Democrat who is co-chairman of the legislative committee, said on Wednesday that he was confident the committee could continue its work despite the judge’s ruling.

“There is more than one method for the committee to pursue the information that it seeks,” he said. “We’re going to continue to explore all those resources to get to the fundamental question of why Bridget Kelly sent the email she did and who authorized her and how this abuse of power could have happened in the first place.”

Kevin Marino, a lawyer for Mr. Stepien, said the judge’s ruling was “a complete vindication of Bill Stepien” and called into question Mr. Christie’s decision to sever ties with him.

Ms. Kelly’s lawyer, Michael Critchley, said, “To all those naysayers who doubted our position and our desire to protect our client’s constitutional rights, I suggest Judge Jacobson’s opinion as a free tutorial on what the Fifth Amendment means.”

Is the public served when attorneys and litigants do favors for judges? Let's take the politics out of choosing judges

See blog post: Chief Justice John Roberts: Judge Brent Benjamin doesn't have to recuse himself just because of a measly $3 million campaign contribution

Electing judges is a bad idea, but appointing judges is almost as bad. Why not create a pool of highly-rated attorneys, created by the Bar Association (we don't want to eliminate politics completely, right?), and then use a lottery to choose judges from that pool as positions become available?

Seriously, why not? The only reason not to do this is to keep politics in the courtroom.

But for now, we're stuck with judicial elections in San Diego. Let's choose the best candidates. Federal prosecutor Carla Keehn is running against Judge Lisa Schall in June 2014.


MATT TAIBBI'S NEW BOOK ABOUT OUR TWO-TIERED JUSTICE SYSTEM



The Divide
American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap
Matt Taibbi and Molly Crabapple
PBS
April 6, 2014

...On how he discovered 'the divide'

I was covering these gigantic Wall Street white-collar-criminal scandals, and I became interested in the concept of why nobody was going to jail, why we didn't have criminal prosecutions. And then it occurred to me that it's impossible to really talk about the gravity of that problem unless you know who is going to jail in the United States, and how those people go to jail and how that works.

What I ended up finding is that it's incredibly easy for people who don't have money to go to jail for just about anything. There's almost an inverse relationship between the ease with which you can put a poor person in jail for, say, welfare fraud, and the difficulty that prosecutors face when they try to put someone from a too-big-to-fail bank in jail for a more serious kind of fraud.

On media coverage of white-collar crime

Over time I think a kind of Stockholm Syndrome develops, it's kind of the same thing that happens with campaign reporters and candidates: You start to sort of sympathize with the people you cover in this weird subterranean, psychological way.

'A Very Sordid Story'

Matt Taibbi On The Fairfax Financial Case

In this audio clip, NPR's Kelly McEvers asks Matt Taibbi about the most salacious case in his book, The Divide. Taibbi tells and the short-sellers who Fairfax alleges took revenge when a deal didn't go through as expected. The company sued in 2006.

Taibbi says it's a great example of the judicial divide between the rich and poor. It's easy to think hedge fund managers can't be criminals, he says, because they're often seen as polite and refined.

"[But] in many cases, they're really not," Taibbi says. "I mean, in this case, they're just as streety and gross as any other kind of criminal."

I think what ends up happening is these stories get written about, but they get written without outrage, or without the right tone, and they are also not written for the right audiences. They're written for Wall Street audiences who want to find out how this lawsuit turned out. They may not want to see those people thrown in jail, they just might be interested in seeing how far the government is willing to go this week in putting white-collar offenders in jail.

On comparing banks and people

The HSBC case was . This is a bank that admitted to washing over $850 million for a pair of Central and South American drug cartels. They admit to this behavior, they pay a fine, no individual has to do a day in jail. All I really wanted to say was, here are our actors at the very top of our illegal narcotics business who are getting a walk from the government, a complete and total walk ...

I went to court that day, I asked around and said, "What's the dumbest drug case you saw today?" I found an attorney who was willing to put me in touch with a number of people who had been busted and thrown in jail for having a joint in their pocket...


Retired Judge Linda Quinn is working with school attorney Dan Shinoff
of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz on a fundraiser for Judge Lisa Schall.

See all posts re Judge Lisa Schall.

See all posts re Judge Gary Kreep.

'Birther' judge Gary Kreep banished to traffic court

Gary Kreep

'Birther' judge banished to traffic court
Leader in questioning Obama's citizenship is reassigned
By Greg Moran
SDUT
Oct. 11, 2013

San Diego Judge Gary Kreep, a conservative legal activist who led a failed fight to challenge President Obama’s citizenship, has been exiled to traffic court after several Superior Court rulings favoring defendants’ constitutional rights.

Kreep, 63, was reassigned on Sept. 9 from the downtown San Diego courthouse to a Kearny Mesa facility that handles traffic offenses and small claims.

The move came after prosecutors from the City Attorney’s Office began to boycott his courtroom over his legal approach.

For instance, Kreep often declined to take away a defendant’s 4th Amendment rights against search and seizure — something prosecutors can legally request at various points during the criminal process.

No official reason was given for Kreep’s reassignment. Presiding Judge Robert Trentacosta said through a spokeswoman that the court doesn’t comment on judicial assignments.

Where should elected Judge Gary Kreep serve?
Superior Court 23% (378)
Traffic Court 3% (53)
Supreme Court 13% (213)
No court at all 61% (1019)

1663 total votes.

Kreep did not respond to numerous requests through the court and by email to comment for this story. San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith also declined to comment on Kreep’s reassignment or what role his office had in it.

On a recent morning in Kearny Mesa Department B, Kreep worked through two dozen traffic cases — speeding, driving on a suspended license, busted taillight, windows too heavily tinted. All of the people appeared without lawyers, which is not uncommon in traffic court.

Most of the Kearny Mesa facility is staffed with court commissioners, who lack the prestige of a judge and are paid $152,000 a year. Superior Court judges, who are elected or appointed by the governor, earn an annual salary of $178,789.

Judges will occasionally fill in for a few days in traffic court, but it’s virtually unheard of to have a Superior Court judge assigned indefinitely to the Kearny Mesa facility.

Apparently Kreep earned the ire only of prosecutors. The Public Defender’s office, which handles the majority of the cases in Kreep’s former courtroom, said its lawyers had no problem with the judge. Private lawyers had the same view.

The reassignment came soon after prosecutors deployed the legal tactic known as a peremptory challenge to keep cases from Kreep’s court, according to defense lawyers and courthouse sources.

Under state law, each side can exert one such challenge to the judge assigned to their case. They don’t have to state a reason. Prosecutors can create a so-called “blanket challenge” by issuing the peremptory challenge for every case assigned to the judge.

“They (prosecutors) are so used to getting their way,” said Heather Boxeth, a criminal defense lawyer who represented many clients in front of Kreep. “But they blanket-challenged him over simple misdemeanors.”

One example was how Kreep handled petty theft cases. Often defendants were given a deferred prosecution deal: plead guilty and in six months — if they had attended classes, not been arrested again, and repaid the store — the pleas would be wiped out.

Kreep would often dismiss these cases long before the six-month period, after the defendant had only attended a session or two, several lawyers said.

He also would release defendants without bail on minor charges if they had a history of showing up at court appearances, Boxeth said. And he was reluctant to impose orders of protection against individuals who had yet to be judged guilty.

Kreep was elected to the bench in an upset win last year. His campaign attracted national attention because of his prominent role in the so-called “birther” movement questioning the constitutional soundness of Obama’s birth certificate through his Ramona-based U.S. Justice Foundation.

The local bar association gave him the lowest rating of “lacking qualifications” in his race against a veteran prosecutor, and Kreep edged out a win by about 1,000 votes. Instead of trumpeting his decades of work as a conservative activist, he ran a campaign as an outsider, challenging the downtown legal establishment.

When he was on the bench downtown, several lawyers said, Kreep would occasionally make inappropriate comments, such as mentioning the appearance of a female lawyer. He could be short tempered and condescending, too, according to two lawyers who did not want to be identified.

Ironically, it may have been the defense bar that had the most concerns about Kreep before he arrived on the bench. Instead, Boxeth and other lawyers said they appreciated his adherence to constitutional principles in the often minor cases that were assigned to his court.

“None of this crazy stuff we were all concerned about would come out, ever did,” Boxeth said. “He’s been good at apologizing when he crossed a line. I found him for the most part to be very professional, and by the book.”

It’s unknown how long Kreep will be assigned to the Kearny Mesa courts.

Judge says no prison for child rapist because he “will not fare well” behind bars

CREDIT: Shutterstock

Rich Heir Rapes His 3 Year-Old Daughter, Gets No Jail Time Because He ‘Will Not Fare Well’ In Prison
By Ian Millhiser
Think Progress
March 31, 2014

Robert H. Richards IV does not work. He doesn’t have to. The great-grandson of Irénée du Pont, the chemical magnate who provided much of the financial backing to a failed effort to defeat Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the 1930s, Richards lives off a trust fund in a 5,800 square foot mansion he bought for $1.8 million. When he is not staying in his mansion, he might be found in his beach home “in the exclusive North Shores neighborhood near Rehoboth Beach.”

Richards is also a child rapist.

In 2005, Richards started sexually abusing his three year-old daughter. The abuse ended two years later when the girl told her grandmother that she didn’t want “my daddy touching me anymore.” When Richards’ former wife confronted him this abuse, Richards admitted to doing so but claimed “it was an accident and he would never do it again.”

And yet, Robert Richards, who raped his own child and then told her not to tell anyone so that it could be “our little secret,” will likely not spend a day in prison. Although Richards was originally charged with two counts of second-degree rape of a child — counts that carry a mandatory 10 year prison term — the prosecutor offered him a plea bargain just days before the trial. Richards admitted in open court that he abused his daughter, and he plead to a single count of fourth-degree rape, a much less serious crime with no mandatory minimum.

Though the maximum sentence for fourth-degree rape is 15 years in prison, the prosecution recommended that Richards only receive probation. And Judge Jan Jurden largely agreed. Though she sentenced Richards to an eight-year prison term, she immediately suspended the term in favor of probation. Richards, Jurden wrote in her sentencing order, “will not fare well” if he is sentenced to prison.

Teen Kills 4; Judge LITERALLY Lets Him Off Because He is Rich!

Judge Jean didn't concern herself with rehabilitation and well-being when it was a 14-year old black kid who punched a guy who fell down and died. 10 years. Updated: Teen Kills 4; Judge LITERALLY Lets Him Off Because He is Rich!
by SemDemFollow
Daily Kos
Dec 11, 2013

...16-year old Ethan Couch was driving drunk at THREE times the legal limit and had Valium in his system. He plowed into four people going 70 miles per hour in a 40 mile per hour zone, killing them. Other victims are severely injured; one has severe brain damage. Even after he killed and maimed those people, he was uncooperative and combative with the emergency services and walked away from the police saying "I'm outta here".

He pleaded guilty, of course. But Ethan's parents are very wealthy. (We are talking the 1%.) They hired an attorney that brought on a psychologist to say Couch was "a product of wealth" and was used to getting "whatever he wanted". Because he was so affluent and accustomed to never having consequences, the attorney argued that he should get therapy as opposed to jail.

This was the argument, mind you, used in the defense:

He said Couch got whatever he wanted. As an example, Miller said Couch's parents gave no punishment after police ticketed the then-15-year-old when he was found in a parked pickup with a passed out, undressed 14-year-old girl.

Miller also pointed out that Couch was allowed to drive at 13. He said the teen was emotionally flat and needed years of therapy. At the time of the fatal wreck, Couch had a blood alcohol content of .24, said Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson. It is illegal for a minor to drive with any amount of alcohol in his or her system.

Prosecutors tried to get 20 years. The Defense argued for therapy and probation.

Texas State District Judge Jean Boyd bought the inane "I'm too rich for consequences" defense and actually sided with the Defense and gave him probation:

(Video of the breaking news report. Includes talk with a victim's family member.)

The kid is not remorseful in the slightest. I'm sure he always expected to get off. He always has before. Meanwhile, the victim's families are devastated.

Tell me again how there are NOT two Americas and two sets of rules.

Look at this lady, this young man, and this poor kid. Notice a theme?

Does anyone for a second think if this kid was poor and black he would not be facing death row?

After all, Texas executed this guy even though he was mentally retarded. Yet that's never been a legitimate defense in Texas.

But apparently, if you are white and superich, "affluenza" now is.

Disgraceful.

2:18 PM PT: The father is owner/president of Cleburne Sheet Metal, the truck the kid was driving was a company truck "entrusted" to this kid by his dad. What makes this story even worse is that apparently they built a lot of their wealth with taxpayer money/government contracts. The local representative is Kay Granger. Let her know NO More Government Contracts for this company! (Zip code is 76135 to leave a message).

6:12 PM PT: Judge Jean didn't concern herself with rehabilitation and well-being when it was a 14-year old black kid who punched a guy who fell down and died. 10 years. H/t Ivycompton.

7:33 PM PT: CNN picked up the story and as usual, left a lot out. Nothing of his action at the scene, or since, or his past history. As a result there are several comments expressing sympathy for what he must be going through. At least they covered it finally unlike other outlets.

Prosecutor withholds evidence, destroys innocent lives, allows killer to kill again, becomes a judge--then spends three days in jail

THE CRIMINAL IN THE PROSECUTOR'S CHAIR: Prosecutor Ken Anderson. It's about time the legal system took some action against prosecutors and judges who knowingly destroy innocent lives.

Innocent man: How inmate Michael Morton lost 25 years of his life
By Josh Levs
CNN
December 4, 2013

...A few years ago, a group of attorneys, working pro bono on Morton's behalf, managed to bring the truth to light. Not only was Morton innocent, but the prosecutor, Ken Anderson, was accused of withholding crucial evidence.

The little boy, Eric, had seen the attack and told relatives that daddy was not home at the time. He described the man who did it. Neighbors had described a man parking a green van behind the Mortons' house and walking off into a wooded area. A blood-stained bandana was found nearby. None of that evidence made it into the trial.

It took years of fighting, but Morton's attorneys finally got the bandana tested for DNA. It contained Christine Morton's blood and hair and the DNA of another man -- a convicted felon named Mark Norwood.

Norwood had killed Christine Morton. And since no one figured that out after her death, he remained free. He killed another woman in the Austin area, Debra Baker, in similar circumstances less than two years later, authorities say.

Norwood has now been convicted in Morton's killing, and indicted in Baker's killing. A documentary details how Michael Morton -- with help from the Innocence Project -- proved he didn't kill his wife.

Morton was freed in October 2011. He was 57 years old. "I thank God this wasn't a capital case," he said.

Morton's story, told in the CNN Films' documentary "An Unreal Dream," shines a spotlight on wrongful convictions in the United States. More than 2,000 wrongfully convicted people were exonerated between 1989 and 2012, according to data compiled by the University of Michigan Law School.

But Morton's case has paved new ground that could affect cases nationwide.

Last month, Anderson -- Morton's prosecutor who in 2001 became a judge -- pleaded no contest to criminal contempt for deliberately withholding exculpatory evidence.

Anderson's punishment pales in comparison to Morton's experience. The former prosecutor stepped down from his position as a judge and agreed to 10 days in jail. He then served only five of those days, under Texas laws involving good behavior behind bars.

He also agreed to a $500 fine, 500 hours of community service, and the loss of his law license, according to the Innocence Project, a legal clinic affiliated with Yeshiva University's Cardozo Law School.

It's "an extremely rare instance, and perhaps the first time, that a prosecutor has been criminally punished for failing to turn over exculpatory evidence," the Innocence Project said.

The "historic precedent demonstrates that when a judge orders a prosecutor to look in his file and disclose exculpatory evidence, deliberate failure to do so is punishable by contempt," said Barry Scheck, the project's co-director.

The organization is working with the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the Innocence Project of Texas to coordinate a review of Anderson's cases.

Anderson, meanwhile, has not publicly acknowledged any personal wrongdoing. In court, he said he couldn't remember details of the case, and that he and his family have been through false accusations over it.

"I apologize that the system screwed up. I've beaten myself up on what I could have done different and I don't know," he said, acknowledging Morton's "pain."

Morton asked a judge to "do what needs to be done, but at the same time to be gentle with Judge Anderson."

In prepared remarks outside the courthouse, Anderson repeated that he wanted to "formally apologize for the system's failure to Mr. Morton and every other person who was affected by the verdict."

Judge beleives that disturbed 14-year-old who later killed herself was "as much in control of the situation" as male teacher who had sex with her

Does this look like the face of a person with the sexual sophistication of a fourteen-year-old? This teacher, and the judge in his case, apparently agreed that since 14-year-old girl had already had sex, the teacher wouldn't be causing any more harm by getting a piece of the action. Others think the teacher took advantage of a disturbed child who ended up killing herself. I wonder if he could have made a difference if he had involved himself in her life in a more positive way.

UPDATE: New opinion piece by Meteor Blades

Unfit judge rules rape victim who killed herself 'was as much in control of the situation' as rapist
by Meteor Blades
Daily Kos
Aug 28, 2013

Outrage is growing against a Billings, Montana, judge who handed down a 30-day sentence to a rapist teacher and said the victim, who had killed herself, "was as much in control of the situation" as the teacher—35 years her senior at the time—because she was “older than her chronological age.” Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence in the case, with 10 years suspended. District Judge G. Todd Baugh imposed a 15-year sentence and suspended all but 31 days of it, with one day credited for time already served. The judge noted that the crime "did not warrant a lengthy sentence."

Whatever other rulings the 66-year-old Baugh has made during his time on the bench, that one makes him unfit to serve a single day longer.

The outrage began when the girl's mother, Auliea Hanlon, upon hearing the judge's ruling, stormed out of the courtroom repeatedly screaming "You people suck!" She had testified that the sexual relationship between her 14-year-old daughter and high school teacher Stacey Dean Rambold, then 49, had been a major factor in the girl's suicide a few weeks before her 17th birthday. Talk of the case on the internet and coverage in various traditional media have multiplied Hanlon's outrage far and wide.

Organizers plan a rally and protest for Thursday in a park next to the Yellowstone County Courthouse against District Judge G. Todd Baugh. A petition seeking his removal from the bench has been post online.

The case began in 2008 when Stacey Rambold, now 54, a high school teacher who four years earlier had been warned not to touch or be alone with female students, was discovered to be having a relationship with Cherice Morales, a 14-year-old student. He was arrested and initially pleaded guilty to a single felony charge. He was placed on paid leave from his teaching job, soon resigned and was forced to give up his teaching credential. In October 2008, he was charged with three counts of sexual intercourse without consent. The age of consent in Montana is 16. But before the case came to trial, Cherice killed herself, complicating things for the prosecution.

A settlement was reached. Rambold was granted deferred prosecution and ordered to complete a sexual offender treatment program after which the charges would be dropped. He finished the first two of the program's three phases. But then he stopped coming to sessions. It was learned that he was having unsupervised visits with minors and had begun a sexual relationship with an adult without telling the program's supervisors. "The violations were serious enough when taken together to kick Rambold out of the program, although it was learned that the minors Rambold was visiting were family members." Of course, sexual offenders never ever prey on family members...


Former teacher in Montana gets 30 days in jail for raping student who later committed suicide
By Associated Press
August 27, 2013

BILLINGS, Mont. — A former Billings Senior High School teacher who pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old student who later killed herself has been sentenced to 30 days in jail by a judge who said the victim was “older than her chronological age” and “as much in control of the situation” as the teacher.

District Judge G. Todd Baugh sentenced Stacey Dean Rambold to 15 years in prison for sexual intercourse without consent, with all but 31 days suspended. He gave Rambold credit for one day already served, The Billings Gazette reported (http://bit.ly/1dmuHZo ).

The girl’s mother repeatedly screamed, “You people suck!” and stormed out of the courtroom Monday.

Rambold, now 54, was charged in October 2008 with three counts of sexual intercourse without consent alleging that he had an ongoing sexual relationship with Cherice Morales, starting the previous year when she was 14.

Morales took her own life in February 2010 while the case was pending.

In July 2010, Rambold entered a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors that said the charges would be dismissed if Rambold completed a sex offender treatment program and met other conditions, including having no contact with children. He also admitted to one rape charge.

The case was revived last December when prosecutors learned Rambold had been terminated from the sex offender treatment program.

Treatment provider Michael Sullivan said Rambold started missing meetings in August 2012, but Sullivan said he met with Rambold and he appeared to be back on track with his treatment.

Rambold was terminated from the program in November when it was learned that he had been having unsupervised visits with minors, who were family members, and did not inform counselors that he had been having sexual relations with a woman.v Defense attorney Jay Lansing said Rambold has since continued his treatment with a different program and an evaluation found him at low risk to re-offend.

Baugh said he was not convinced that the reasons for Rambold’s termination from treatment were serious enough to warrant the 10-year prison term prosecutors recommended.v The judge said he listened to statements given by Morales before her death and believed that while she was a troubled youth, she was “as much in control of the situation” as Rambold and was “older than her chronological age.”

Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he would not appeal the judge’s sentence.

“We respect the court’s sentencing decision. We obviously disagree with it, based on the recommendations my attorneys made, but it appears to be legally permissible,” he said.

Asked about Baugh’s reasoning that a 14-year-old girl below the state’s age of consent had an equal share of control of the relationship, Twito declined to answer directly.

“The judge’s reasons are his reasons and his reasons alone. He has broad authority under state law, given the proper criteria,” Twito said.

The case resulted in a $91,000 wrongful death settlement between the school district and Morales’ family.

Rambold reached a confidential settlement with the girl’s family.


Mont. judge apologizes for comments in teen's rape
By MATT VOLZ and MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press
August 28, 2013

ILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana judge apologized Wednesday for saying a 14-year-old rape victim was "older than her chronological age" and had as much control of the situation as the teacher who raped her — remarks that prompted protests and a petition for his resignation.

District Judge G. Todd Baugh made the comments Monday while sentencing former Billings Senior High School teacher Stacey Rambold to a 15-year prison sentence then suspending all but 31 days and giving him credit for one day already served.

...Faced with backlash over his comments and the sentence that protesters considered too light, Baugh wrote an apology in a brief letter to the editor to The Billings Gazette. The newspaper provided a copy of the apology to The Associated Press.

"I'm not sure just what I was attempting to say but it did not come out correct," he wrote. "What I said is demeaning of all women, not what I believe and irrelevant to the sentencing. My apologies to all my fellow citizens."

"I will add an addendum to the court file to hopefully better explain the sentence," he added.

A protest scheduled for Thursday outside Yellowstone County Courthouse will go on despite the apology, said organizer Sheena Rice, stressing that it's important for the community to show it is not going to stand for victim blaming.

"I'm glad he apologized, but he should have known better as a judge," Rice said. "The fact that he said it makes me think he still believes it."

A petition will be circulated at the protest calling for Baugh's resignation. An online version of the petition had more than 8,500 signatures by Wednesday morning.

If the petition and protest aren't enough to force Baugh's resignation, protesters will shift to defeating him in the 2014 election, Rice said.

He was first elected to the bench in 1984 and has been re-elected every six years since then without an opponent.

Rambold was charged in October 2008 with three counts of sexual intercourse without consent after authorities alleged he had an ongoing sexual relationship with Cherice Moralez, starting the previous year when she was 14. Moralez killed herself in 2010 at age 16 while the case was pending.

The girl's mother, Auleia Hanlon, said in a statement to the Gazette that she no longer believes in justice after Baugh's sentence and remarks about her daughter.

"She wasn't even old enough to get a driver's license. But Judge Baugh, who never met our daughter, justified the paltry sentence saying she was older than her chronological age," Hanlon said. "I guess somehow it makes a rape more acceptable if you blame the victim, even if she was only 14."

Under state law, children younger than 16 cannot consent to sexual intercourse.

Former prosecutor, now a judge, is facing investigation: innocent man spent 21 years in jail

Attorney testifies in Texas inquiry of former DA
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press
February 7, 2013

GEOGRETOWN, Texas (AP) — Attorneys representing a former Texas district attorney accused of prosecutorial misconduct in a wrongful murder conviction are trying to raise doubts about what occurred during the original trial.

Testifying Thursday is Bill Allison, a defense lawyer for Michael Morton.

Morton served nearly 25 years in prison for his wife's slaying — but was freed on DNA evidence in 2011.

Ken Anderson was the case's prosecutor but is now a judge. Morton's attorneys allege he withheld evidence indicating their client's innocence.

Anderson is now facing a court of inquiry on the matter. Allison detailed not receiving police case notes and other information at trial.

But Anderson's attorneys questioned whether he might have sought that evidence only after the fact.

Allison wavered. He eventually said: "You can't remember that which didn't happen."

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/texas/article/Attorney-testifies-in-Texas-inquiry-of-former-DA-4258506.php#ixzz2KF5txZwE

Judges don’t reveal relationships; fairness questioned

Judges don’t reveal relationships; fairness questioned
By Jeff Chirico
CBS ATLANTA
Oct 29, 2012

A CBS Atlanta News investigation revealed some Georgia judges fail to disclose relationships they have with attorneys in open court. It raises questions about how fairly the judges dispense justice.

In August, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane awarded custody of Usher's two sons to the Atlanta-based singer and actor. The decision stunned Usher's ex-wife, Tameka Raymond, according to her attorney, Lisa West.

Since the decision was rendered, West said she learned Usher's celebrity attorney, John Mayoue, may have helped Lane get reelected in 2008. According to campaign finance reports, Mayoue's law firm donated $1,000 to Lane's campaign and hosted a fundraising reception that raked in thousands of dollars. According to West, Mayoue also sat on Lane's reelection committee.

"I would classify the relationship as a special relationship," said West.

West said she believes Lane should have disclosed that relationship in open court so she has asked for a new trial and for Lane to recuse herself.

Georgia law allows for attorneys to contribute to judicial campaigns but judges have a heavy legal burden to avoid even the appearance of being biased.

Lane isn't the only judge accused of not revealing special relationships with attorneys. Lane's colleague, Judge Gail Tusan, also failed to tell Ed Dort that his ex-wife's attorney, Robert Boyd, sat on her reelection committee.

"The final judgment and divorce decree basically financially buried me," Dort said.

According to records, Boyd donated to Tusan's campaign days before Dort's wife filed for divorce.

"There's no question she was influenced by the attorneys," Dort said.

Joanna Shepherd Bailey, a professor for Emory University School of Law, said money does influence judicial outcomes.

Shepherd Bailey conducted an extensive study of more than 21,000 State Supreme Court cases and found a strong correlation between judicial campaign contributions and judges' decisions.

"A $1,000 contribution will increase the likelihood of a judge voting in a particular way by, depending on the case, between 1 percent and 7 percent increase in likelihood," Shepherd Bailey said.

Some are calling on judges to be more transparent in open court about contributions they receive and relationships they have with attorneys arguing before them.

"There's no harm in laying all your cards on the table," said Charles Hall, representative of the Justice At Stake Campaign, a group fighting against money's influence on courts.

Hall recommends judges be up front about connections they have with parties involved in a case. If there's any question whether a judge can be fair, then he or she should step aside, Hall said.

Tusan, the judge who presided over Dort's divorce, denied that she is influenced by contributions to her campaign or attorney's efforts to help her get elected.

Tusan said she is in full compliance with state law and discloses all campaign contributions as required by state law.

But after Dort launched an online petition calling for Tusan to step aside, she recused herself.

If there's any question that attorneys know contributions can influence judges, Ken Sullivan of Forsyth County said he has proof.

His divorce attorney, Margaret Washburn, sent him an email in 2010 discussing strategies for their case.

The email suggested, "We find who [the judge's] campaign manager or treasurer was, hopefully an attorney, and add him/her to the team ASAP."

Sullivan said he believes Washburn was suggesting that he contribute to the judge's campaign.

"I don't think padding the judge's campaign manager should have any bearing on the outcome of your case," Sullivan said.

Campaign finance records reveal Washburn, who is also a municipal court judge, has contributed more than $15,000 to judicial campaigns in the last six years.

Washburn emphatically denied she recommends clients make campaign contributions to curry favor with judges.

She claimed the email was intended to help Sullivan find a new attorney.

San Diego Judges keep car perks

Judges shouldn't have their compensation cut. There is no fat to cut in the courts, but slabs of it are kept out of sight in other agencies. The State Parks and Recreation Department was caught sitting on $54 Million in extra funds while 70 state parks across California struggled to stay open. Since the Parks Department only had a $22 million budget shortfall, that leaves $32 million that could be given to the courts. Furthermore, I think judges' pay should be raised; then we could replace some of the floundering judges with more competent jurists.

Judges keep car perks
By Dave Maass
City Beat
Sep 25, 2012

Through a summer-long media blitz, San Diego County Superior Court officials warned the public about drastic, near-cataclysmic reductions in services on the horizon.

“The cuts envisioned by our budget reduction plan will affect every judge, court employee and ultimately the litigants, court users and citizens in San Diego County,” Presiding Judge Robert Trentacosta said in a June statement. “These cuts will significantly reduce or eliminate access to our court system and are devastating to those of us who have worked so hard to convince the Governor and Legislature that such cuts threaten the stability of our third branch of government.”

The California budget crisis has trickled down to the local justice level, with the San Diego County court looking to make up a $33-million shortfall in what had been a $190-million budget. The court was ordered to drain its rainy-day reserves—roughly $22 million—leaving $11 million left to slice in the coming fiscal year, with even bigger cuts predicted in the next cycles.

As fall arrives, the court has begun shutting down outlying courtrooms, shortening hours, laying off some employees and furloughing others.

But the Superior Court did not cut one line item: nearly $1 million per year in transportation allowances set aside for judges and executive managers.

San Diego judges each receive $572 per month ($6,864 annually) in car stipends, while the presiding judge, assistant presiding judge and supervising judges each collect $674 per month ($8,088 annually).

Between the 126 current judges, that’s $903,427 per year in vehicle allowances. Nine administrators collected a combined $59,472 per year, bringing the figure to $962,899. Another $8,281 was reimbursed for out-of-county travel.

The 24-year-old practice is particular to San Diego County as a carryover from when the county government paid for the courts and the benefit was tied to the Board of Supervisors’ compensation package. Now, the state funds the court, and there’s no mandate from Sacramento to provide these vehicle allowances...

Crazy county judge makes Lubbock a national laughingstock

Gov. Rick Perry shakes hands with County Judge Tom Head. Note Head's Bugs Bunny tie. (Photo: dangerousminds.net)

Missed the video that started this “war”? Here it is.

‘Crazy county judge makes Lubbock a national laughingstock
Rick Dunham
Chron.com
August 2012

That'll be the day...

Where is Buddy Holly when you need him?

Instead of one of the greatest Texas singers of all time, Lubbock is now known nationally (and internationally) for the words of a local Republican politician who declared that President Obama’s re-election might trigger a civil war and a United Nations invasion of Texas.

There were two basic reactions to the words of Lubbock County Judge Tom Head, which became a YouTube sensation after he uttered them on a local Fox TV affiliate: Did he really say those things? (Yep!) And what should we do about it? (Dunno.)

“It’s really up to Judge (Tom) Head to do the right thing and resign and stop embarrassing Lubbock County,” Lubbock County Democratic chair Kenny Ketner told CNN. “I wish we were getting worldwide attention for something better than a crazy county judge. But what are you going to do?”

If you’re the Texas Democratic Party, you definitely know what to do. State Democratic chair Gilberto Hinojosa issued a blistering statement questioning, among other things, the county judge’s “mental competency.”

“Judge Head’s statements on the United Nations invasion raise serious questions about his mental competency to hold elected office,” Hinojosa declared. “[Senate nominee] Ted Cruz is clearly in good company. Republican crazies have now taken over the Lubbock County courthouse.”

Hinojosa said Head’s talk is “not only ridiculous, it’s dangerous. It’s crystal clear that Judge Head should resign.”

In case you haven’t been near a computer, Head became a household name from Dallas to Dubai when he predicted a United Nations invasion of the Lone Star State if Barack Obama wins re-election this fall.

“I’m thinking the worst,” he told Fox34. “Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war, maybe. And we’re not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations. We’re talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy.”

In response to Head’s warnings, Lubbock lawyer Rod Hobson adorned the outside of his Lubbock office with U.N. flags to express his horror (or sense of humor).

“”Well you can either laugh or you can cry. When I saw the story I thought, once again, Lubbock is going to be the laughingstock of the entire nation,” Hobson told Fox34. “It’s like the light’s on, but no one is home. … I’d just like to think he’s off his meds.”

Meanwhile, Texas Democrats (suffering perhaps from Todd Akin overload) shifted their sights to Texas’ own Republican embarrassment.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions here,” Texas Democratic chair Hinojosa continued. “Does Judge Head expect the United Nations to come in riding a couple of combines? Does Lubbock also need an Air Force? A Navy? Will the revenues from this tax increase be put into a dedicated account to fight the U.N. invasion? Will the money be returned to taxpayers if the U.N. army doesn’t make it into Lubbock County? What will happen if the Sweetwater militia defeats the vicious blue-beanie peace-keepers before they reach Lubbock?”

Head, meanwhile, tried to clarify his views at a Wednesday meeting of his commissioners court.

“My remarks yesterday, worst case scenario in my opinion, and how do you prepare for it,” he said, according to Fox34. “Do I think those are going to happen, probably not.”

...Hinojosa couldn’t resist a low blow aimed at fair-and-balanced Fox News.

“I guess this is what happens when you get all your information from Fox News,” the Democratic chief concluded. “This would be truly funny if it were a skit on SNL. The fact that these were serious utterances by a supposedly responsible elected official make the entire episode horribly sad, but unfortunately, not even slightly unusual in today’s Republican Party.”

Police Won't File Charges Against Texas Judge Caught on Video Beating Daughter

This undated image provided by the Aransas County, Texas Court-at-Law webpage shows Aransas County Judge William Adams.

Police Won't File Charges Against Texas Judge Caught on Video Beating Daughter
November 03, 2011
Associated Press AP

A Texas family law judge whose daughter secretly videotaped him savagely beating her seven years ago won't face criminal charges because too much time has elapsed, police said Thursday.

Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams likely would have been charged with causing injury to a child or other assault-related offenses for the 2004 beating of his then-16-year-old daughter, but the five-year statutes of limitations expired, Rockport Police Chief Tim Jayroe said.

"We believe that there was a criminal offense involved and that there was substantial evidence to indicate that and under normal circumstances ... a charge could have been made," Jayroe said. He said the district attorney determined he couldn't bring charges, and that police would discuss the case with federal prosecutors even though he doesn't believe federal charges would apply.

Hillary Adams, now 23, posted the 8-minute clip on YouTube last week that shows her father viciously lashing her with a belt and trying to force her to bend over her bed to be beaten despite her wails and pleas to stop. The clip had received more than 2.4 million hits as of Thursday, and police began investigating Wednesday after hearing from concerned citizens.

GRAPHIC WARNING: Click here to see the video

William Adams, 51, issued a three-page statement Thursday saying his daughter posted the clip to get back at him for telling her he would be reducing the amount of financial support he gives her and taking away her Mercedes. The statement did not include an apology for the beating, but he told Corpus Christi television station KZTV on Wednesday that the video "looks worse than it is," that he had already apologized to his daughter and that he was just disciplining his child for stealing.

Hillary Adams says her parents were angry because she had downloaded pirated content online, and that she turned on the camera because she sensed something was going to happen.

William Adams, who presides over child abuse cases, is still being investigated by the state's judicial conduct commission and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which on Thursday requested that he be removed from its cases until the investigation concludes.

Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the agency, declined to elaborate on the exact nature of the investigation. But he said that in general, the agency would only investigate a case in which a suspected abuse victim has already reached adulthood if there are still children in the home who could be at risk. Adams was granted joint custody of his 10-year-old daughter in his 2007 divorce.

There are no allegations of alleged abuse by Adams against his younger daughter, who primarily resides with her mother, Hallie Adams. Crimmins declined to say whether his agency is investigating the parental fitness of Hallie Adams, who lashed Hillary once during the 2004 beating.

Crimmins said his agency ordinarily wouldn't disclose that it is investigating someone, but that it did in this case because the investigation is the reason it requested that William Adams be taken off its cases.

Jayroe said that police did not interview the younger daughter, but asked both Hallie and Hillary Adams about it and there was no indication of abuse of the younger daughter.

In his statement Thursday, Adams said he would "respond" to all investigations. As Aransas County's top judge, he has dealt with at least 349 family law cases in the past year alone, nearly 50 of which involved state caseworkers seeking determine whether parents were fit to raise their children.

County officials confirmed that Adams will not hear cases related to Child Protective Services for at least the next two weeks. And the top administrator in Aransas County cast doubt on whether Adams could credibly return to the bench.

"I would think it would be very difficult," said Aransas County Judge C.H. "Burt" Mills Jr. "Personally I don't see how he can recover from this."...