Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History

I realize Bahrain– an Archipelago I blogged on herein — is in turmoil, along with Egypt, Yemen, Libya and other countries where Shari’a is an ongoing “business as usual” issue for women. Yes, I touch on that in this blog.

However, I live in the USA, and have lost my respect for the judicial system HERE, and, like many mothers, lost custody of children I’d raised in “less time than it takes to change a tire.” Why?

A good cause might be made for answering that “why” with legislation dating back to 1913. A good cause might be made for understanding that one thing that sparks religious backlash and fundamentalism is ethically morally bankrupt (but financially prosperous) leadership in the primary institutions affecting our lives.

Such as the courts:

This post quotes a section from some recent articles, a larger section from FullDisclosure.Net, and some anecdotal evidence that not all fathers make the best nurturers.

Lest I be criticized for blogging as though there were no upheaval, riots, deaths, and earth-shaking events going on politically (and economically), I’ll begin AND end this post with Words from the Declaration of Independence (USA) in hopes that the Tea Party cannot co-opt the theme, but they are GREAT and relevant words at ALL times, which many have simply forgotten. And a reminder, that int he wisdom of the “founders” checks and balances were put into the government so ours did NOT do what I am documenting, in these pages, it now is doing — head towards tyranny with a long train of abuses. So, if these abuses are worse overseas, still the elected and appointed officials of THIS country owe it to THIS country to stop acting as tyrants to families, particularly parents of young children, and overall particularly towards WOMEN, simply because it’s convenient and desirable to maintain the plantation owner/slave divide after slavery was abolished and women got the vote.

I have been reading think tanks, legislation, family codes, civil rules of procedures, AFCC publications on shared-parenting, grant proposals, websites of grant recipients, and study after study funded by certain foundations to “fix” the rest of us who don’t happen to be running a family foundation and have time to run the rest of the world according to each generation’s new “master plan.” I have sat in on conferences run by mother-friendly, father-friendly, court-professionals-friendly, and SUPPOSEDLY, Children’s rights-friendly organizations and believe that my conclusion that the division is between the funders, the funded, and the studied, who may (or more likely, may NOT) benefit from any trickle-down funds that happen to splash back on them, accidentally.

You can hear it in the tone of the dialogue — condescension, vague generalities, and incessant rhetoric. It makes me sick!

The simplicity of the matter is that a larger populace of manageable consumers is necessary to run world affairs and manage international debt. That’s probably the primary assessment. And those who do not speak up for the travesty that our judicial system has become (long ago) will find fewer people willing to speak up WITH them, after they failed to speak up for others bounced out of home, livelihoods, and any semblance of normality simply for sticking up against and speaking out against oppression and violence perpetrated on them….

These systems cost me and people I love and worked alongside of, years of my life, (while risking mine), my children, future hopes and wasted past efforts. I am seriously considering how to survive and not pay into ANY of it for future waste.

This travesty has now outlived both my parents and my children’s “minority,” and wasted their and my time and talents, dumbed down their educations, and traumatized three generations of family. When FAMILY are the abusers, I learned that there is little recourse then getting the hell away from them, which is not possible if one has given birth, for the most part, and is danged difficult if one’s work has been eroded and lost through trying to get free.

But the process has taught me how our country works, and valuable information for the future, including stop being so gullible, and before engaging in business, work (or for that matter, social) relationships to FIRST check out who is paying whom what, and THEn consider whether I’m interested — which I most likely am not.

OK so here’s a 7,000 word post, but the beginning and end are from the Declaration of Independence…

Please — if nothing else — read the posts on the Virginia Judges, which got me out of blog-silence to make the point.

(My formatting will be improving, soon, but is not a priority issue at this time. Deal with it! Am still learning yet another new software system, and I’m over 15, so give me a break on the learning curve, OK?)

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

NOW, for the Business of the Day:

So please take a moment to read this “Beltway Confidential” about the judges in Arlington County, VA, part of a series by Barbara Hollingsworth. I am not doing a proper post here, but putting up the links:

Virginia’s Judicial Crisis is not lack of Judges.

She notes that zero out of 92 legislators saw any reason to question the reappointment of ALL judges, and the vote was all in one bucket (secret) and no names read aloud. Meanwhile, the anecdotal evidence of incompetence and conflicts of interest is mounting, which is why we need good investigative reporters AND Free Press (Remember that pesky “Bill of Rights”? Got news — it’s not self-sustaining!)

I learned about Ms. Hollingsworth’s articles from HERE:

Arlington judge accused of covering up fraud

By: Barbara Hollingsworth 02/08/11 8:05 PM

Legal fireworks went off in Arlington’s Courthouse Square recently when the Circuit Court agreed to hear an emergency motion that accuses a court-appointed guardian ad litem of padding her bill — and the chief judge of Arlington’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court of sealing court files to cover up the fraud. Delores O’Brien has been fighting for the return of her 11-year-old granddaughter since July 22, when the child was seized by Arlington Child Protective Services in Stafford County even though, as Maryland residents, Virginia courts had no legal jurisdiction …

{this is an INTER-STATE Custody napping, it seems… }

WHat’s UP with those judges? Well, read the article; and This one, too:

“Three Strikes for Arlington Judge?”

And here, too:

“Baby Snatching by Arlington Judge”

Get THIS one:

Baby snatching by Arlington County

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By: Examiner Staff Writer 04/18/08 2:00 AM

Examiner Staff Writer

There’s an empty highchair sitting in the kitchen of the Arlington home of Nancy Hey and Christopher Slitor. It’s their daughter Sabrina’s highchair. But it’s been empty for  two years because thieves disguised as Arlington County social workers and judges took her from her parents. She was stolen with no public scrutiny or accountability. Arlington County social workers used unproven allegations of neglect in April 2005 to justify removing then-3-week-old Sabrina from her parent’s home. Her parents were accused – anonymously – of starving Sabrina. And they were deemed unable to care properly for their daughter, even with the frequent help of Nancy Hey’s mother and a full-time nanny. After more than two years of legal wrangling with the county’s Child Protective Services (CPS), Arlington Circuit Court Judge James Almand terminated the couple’s parental rights in June 2007.

But nine months earlier, Sabrina’s parents were completely exonerated by Virginia CPS hearing officer George Walton, who noted in his official report that, despite the baby’s worrisome 10-ounce weight loss soon after her birth by Caesarian section, nothing in the her medical record indicated she had ever been in danger. There was also no evidence, Walton added, that Sabrina’s “failure to thrive” resulted from parental neglect.

In fact, the record showed the opposite: Nancy Hey – who suffers from a developmental disorder that makes it difficult for her to recognize non-verbal signals from others – and her husband fully cooperated with medical professionals and CPS workers throughout their ordeal. In any case, Sabrina was at her proper weight when she was taken away by county officials, two days after her parents told social worker Dana Zemke that they were retaining a lawyer. Arlington Judge Esther Wiggins Lyles signed the removal order with neither Hey nor Slitor even aware of the proceedings, much less being present to contest the decision. Sabrina went to a politically influential local professional couple with no training as foster parents, despite CPS requirements that foster couples be trained before being entrusted with children.**

Judge Almand later used the baby’s inappropriate removal to justify making the separation permanent, saying it would be too “traumatic” to return Sabrina to her natural parents.

{{Where was that line of reasoning when they took her away to start with? I’m sick of this! Who started the series of disruptive custody changes — the parents???}}

So, when Sabrina turned 3 April 3rd, she didn’t blow out her birthday candles in the kitchen where her heart-broken parents still keep her empty highchair. Even after spending $350,000 in legal fees, they have not given up hope. They’ve asked the Virginia Court of Appeals to return their child. Meanwhile, every Arlington County employee involved should be put under oath and questioned in public about their role in this outrage.

(this is the entire article by “Examiner Staff Writer” posted on 2008, note this behavior by the judges has been ongoing).

***I’m not a Virginian. But where is “The Virginian” when you need him, that TV hero that rides in and takes care of the bad guys?

From this distance, it seems clear (again, in my OPINION) that when the parents telegraphed they’d found MONEY to fight, the removal was guaranteed. That family had to get soaked. Beyond this, the connections between who adopted and any judge is outrageous.

We need to continue to remember, there are UNALIENABLE rights, NOT granted to us in part from our government, but from which no government has the right to remove from any individual; and any such pattern of tyranny eventually should cause redress, especially if it becomes a long and egregious pattern of behavior, as is described regarding “the King of England” by Colonists a few centuries ago in the Declaration of Independence.

Women in particular need to stick up for our right to be aggressive, independent and NOT overly submissive to authority when our CHILDREN are taken, and whether or not religious groups like this (they don’t, trust me on that), it’s for our own good that we eradicate the concept that a slave- based economy of ANY sort is acceptable in this country.

At some point in time, this has to become a tax revolt, as the taxes are automatically collected to fund public servants, including corrupt ones, grants upon grants upon grants to support dubious programs “for our welfare” — seems like the only part of the Constitution that our presidents (plural, not just the current one) swore to protect which they are actually focused on — and almost ANY program could be “justified” under for the public good, as defined by those allocating funding.

This link HERE shows that one attorney (who got thrown in jail at age 69 for this) is still working with others to confront — just in California, alone — fraud of the taxpayers totally close to a billion ($ 1,000,000,000). The judges were getting paid higher than Supreme Court Justices. The District Attorney was sitting on millions of already-collected child support funds (and the interest accrued from them), not distributing this to the children and spouses. Richard Fine was involved in the exposing of this. Safety measures/environmental measures were short-circuited involving safety of people whose housing was over a methane deposit as the City of Los Angeles issued multiple building permits without environmental clearances. Certain Judges were on dual payrolls, County and (State) while hearing cases involving the county. And that’s not even dealing much with the family law arena…

It’s called, appropriately, ‘The Money Trail.”

“A true story — wrapped up in one man’s personal nightmare.” and see also, my READ THIS FIRST foundational page, “ABCs — Shady, Shaky Foundations of Family Law…” (to the right). The family law frauds are just the tip of an iceberg.

From a related page, “the Best Courts (Your) Money Can Buy”:

You’ve probably never even heard about it, but our LA County Supervisors have been giving local superior court judges an illegal bonus (now an extra $57,000 a year per judge), even though doing so is plainly prohibited by California’s Constitution.  (Judges already receive about $179,000 a year in salary from the State, plus another $30,000 in benefits, and they’ll continue to receive as much as 80% of the packages in retirement benefits.) 

There are letters, reports and memos which prove there were no doubts the givers and receivers all knew and understood that the payments were illegal, but they’ve been doing it anyway for more than 20 years.

Why would the County pay out such a huge amount of money (about $300 million so far) when it didn’t have to?   When it was illegal to?   (And now the County is suffering from a monstrous budget “crisis”, for heaven’s sake!   Might this be a clue as to why?)  They’ve said it was to “attract and keep quality judges”, but that explanation ignores the fact that judges are elected and We The People decide which ones we’ll keep, and it ignores the thousands of qualified lawyers who’d gladly fill the judgeships at the legal base pay rate.  (These LA County judges are receiving far more than any other group of judges in America, even more than the judges of the California Court of Appeal, the California Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court.)   So the reasons given can’t possibly be true, not to mention the glaring fact that we’ve now paid more only to have gotten an entire bench of judges acting illegally.  Whose definition of “quality” are we going by here? 

The Cost of Living Index bears this out:  Los Angeles is rated 147.7 (the “average” city is rated 100.0), yet it costs 14.2% more to live in San Francisco, which is rated at 172.1.  Yet LA judges have managed to get themselves 32% more salary than San Francisco’s judges.

Could the answer instead lie in the 2005-2008 reports analyzing the cost of lawsuits in which LA County was a defendant?  It turns out that not one of those cases was lost by the County when decided by a judge who’d gotten the illegal bonus.   Not one.  (Update with newly discovered report:  It also turns out that the criminal conviction rate has doubled, while the actual crime rate has remained essentially the same.) (Update #2:  LA County Board of Supervisors’ salaries are set to match superior court judges’ salaries, which were supposed to have only been paid by the State.  But since the Supervisors paid them illegal bonuses, the Supervisors’ own salaries also apparently were increased as a result … without the public’s permission.  The law characterizes this as a crime of “embezzlement”.)

Many years prior to these discoveries, Richard Fine, a gentleman and attorney with a very distinguished career as a taxpayer advocate, had forced LA County to stop stealing from kids after a client discovered that the County was holding up child support monies it collected before paying them over to the parent who was supposed to receive them, illegally keeping all the interest while callously depriving millions of helpless children in the process.  (In some instances, the support monies were not being paid over at all.)  Mr. Fine also forced the County to stop overcharging residents on their sewer bills (obtaining $85 million in refunds).  There are many more examples from over the years, but perhaps the worst of all was the relatively recent discovery that County leaders are striking sweetheart deals with developers which practically give away taxpayer-owned land (OUR public land) to them, in exchange for campaign donations and who knows what else.  This practice alone has and will continue to cost us hundreds of millions in lost tax collections, money that we’ll all have no choice but to make up elsewhere, because judges have dismissed all the lawsuits that were filed trying to recover the lost tax value of at least $700 million dollars.

This is no exaggeration. 

Mr. Fine realized that very strange things had happened in several recent cases he’d filed against Los Angeles County.  Knowing that cases were mysteriously being dismissed for nonsensical and bogus reasons,

{{WOW — Katie Tagle in CA, Cabrillo in MD, Dawn Axsom in AZ, much? Women’s attempts to renew or maintain a domestic violence restraining order, or to help protect their children from IDENTIFIED instances of child abuse, and having their concerns be blown off, repeatedly, by judges…?? I just mentioned three cases that resulted in deaths — the first two, of the child/ren in question, and the last, of Dawn and her mother. What about the Leichtenburg twins in Illinois, or others? The list is absolutely ongoing. Want a more recent one? Here’s one from California — a baby in his father’s care:

And — why I hate researching some of these articles — usually three more similar ones surface in the search. …

Here’s one from Boston, 2009. 36 year old Dad, boy on child support

And one from Florida

Toddler on life support, custody clouds the issue (FLORIDA, 2/4/2011)

This one apparently an underage (17 yr old) mother, “Scott” had her own mother die, putting her into foster care, and probably precipitating the removal of the child from her home. The child was given to the father, who THREW the 16 month old (for crying) resulting in brain injury and a criminal case, landing the 23 year old father in jail. Wonderful. Oh yes, and he had a prior arrest for misdemeanor battery as an 18 year old. Great person to give custody of a young son… But, in the interests of a child, a married couple in Virginia with a full-time nanny and clean bill from CPS gets THEIR infant daughter removed — because they have money to fight back with??? ??

“The health of the child is a private decision,” Seidel said.

Poole, 23, was arrested Tuesday night on an aggravated child abuse charge and is being held without bail. Police said he threw his son on a bed as punishment for playing near an electrical socket; Ronderique’s head hit a dresser or wall.

{{Let’s review this again. Bush, Clinton, Obama, and HHS all agree, as do many others in on the funding: There’s a fatherlessness crisis in the land. Oh yes, and we need more abstinence (not for us presidents, of course…. or Legislators….), and more marriage promotion. We need fatherhood commissions, initiatives, training, funding, and so forth — and we GOT them. Well, how’s that turning out?

This father, then, got back in his son’s life, and came close to ending it — for playing near an electrical socket. Can we Puh-LEEZ start supporting MOTHERS again, let them nurse and hold their kids, even if some Dads continue to cry “not fair — WE can be nurturers, too!”}}

Scott doesn’t live with Poole. She said Ronderique was removed from her care when she was placed in foster care after her mother died.

Although Poole was given custody of his son, Scott retained her parental rights, said Jeff Rainey, chief executive officer of Hillsborough Kids, which contracts with DCF to provide foster care services.

{{There’s the financial connection in THIS case — Hillsborough Kids / DCF / Foster care services. }}

Poole was convicted of misdemeanor battery and sentenced to 14 days in jail following a November 2005 fight, records show. He was 18 when he got in the fight in a hallway at Bloomingdale High School in Valrico, deputies said.

After Ronderique was placed in his father’s custody, case managers went to Poole’s home to check on the child’s welfare, Gillespie said. There were no prior reported problems with Poole’s care, and no history of violence involving Poole or Scott and their son.

But in light of Poole’s arrest, DCF is reviewing its decision.

“We do believe already with what we’ve seen that mistakes were made in choosing the father as the placement for the child,” Gillespie said.

The damage is done to the young boy — he’s on life support. Now they are arguing about who gets to pull the plug, or not. Great policy, folks… Wonder if any fatherhood funding played a role in THIS one …

Here’s a father who abused a two-month old, and his wife, and another two-month old, who eventually sent to child support, and DIED. And some of the case history:
Antioch, California: (NB: home of the infamous Dugard/Garrido kidnapping, hostage, rape, father two kids, and all while on probation case: cost to taxpayers to settle — last I heard and on including prosecution costs — $20 MILLION)….

MARTINEZ — A 2-month-old boy from Antioch has died from injuries he got when his father punched him in the face, compounding the man’s violent history that includes allegations he abused his older son when he was an infant in 2009, a Contra Costa County prosecutor said.

Sigifredo Lua, 23, was charged Friday with three felonies that allege abuse on his two sons, including the infant who until Friday had been brain dead in the hospital, and his wife.

He is charged with murder and assault on a child resulting in death for punching his 2-month-old on Tuesday at the family’s Antioch home, deputy district attorney John Cope said.

Lua is also charged with willful injury to a child for assaulting his now-2-year-old son when that boy was 2-months-old on April 15, 2009, Cope said. He is charged with corporal injury on a spouse for assaulting his wife, the mother of both children, on Feb. 7 this year, Cope said.

Lua was watching the two boys on Tuesday night when he called his wife at her workplace and said the infant was injured, police said, and she called 911. Lua allegedly later told police that he punched the infant in the face to stop him from crying.

{{Just a reminder, that children in FEMALE-HEADED HOUSEHOLDS are supposedly at highest risk. This man was abusing his wife also. … caused HER injury, how likely is it that the same activity towards an infant might kill the infant? My argument — men are not constitutionally set put to handle crying infants. Perhaps this is why they don’t have wombs, except in an occasional movie involving Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito… No matter how much pay-per-view “evidence” federal funds amass, I think there is simply something to the fact that little kids belong with Moms… And that men who HIT Moms don’t belong in the household…}}

The infant was in a vegetative state Thursday night. . .

Now let’s continue to look at why some judges don’t give a damn and what they DO seem to give a damn about, and get worked up about — like some upshot attorney upholding his ethical, professional oath, and in the process confronting financial conflicts of interests (aka bribes by any other names) and how they humbly repented of their oversight and quickly corrected the “errors.” Yeah, right…

(i.e., back to the FULLDISCLOSURE.net site)

he [Richard Fine] investigated and uncovered the County’s illegal payments to judges and the reports showing that the County was no longer losing lawsuits when judges determined their outcome.

In trying to right the further wrongs being done to taxpayers, Mr. Fine insisted that judges being paid by the County should have revealed that fact on their mandatory financial disclosure forms and, if any party to a lawsuit objected, the judge should voluntarily step aside and not determine the outcome of cases in which the County was a party.  As an officer of the court, Mr. Fine was obligated by oath to raise these issues.  He made it clear that any other course of action looked suspicious, and reminded them that judges are required by the law to disqualify themselves automatically when there was even an appearance of impropriety.  Mr. Fine insisted that the judges disqualify themselves and allow the cases to be ruled over by unbiased judges.

{{What about in family law cases, where Judges presiding over custody decisions in a context that ENCOURAGES (by federal grants incentives — Access/Visitation payments, I mean — “parenting education” “supervised visitation” and “mediation” alternatives to get the (fathers — aka “noncustodial PARENTS”) more visitation time, in exchange for abatement of child support arrears — whether it was reasonable, or unreasonable — and child support can be either, and is… What about as in the Arlington, VA cases, above, or in the PA Kids-for-Cash Scandal of Luzerne County, which I also posted on…}}

But the judges, who all feared having to repay that money and who faced prison time for accepting it, closed ranks and refused to disqualify themselves.  They put on the false front that there was no problem whatsoever.   Mr. Fine’s clients were not happy, of course, and encouraged him to stop them from getting away with it.  So he fought back. 

To make a long story short, the judges managed to take away his license to practice law, charging him with “moral turpitude” for questioning the courts’ neutrality.  (This issue is what’s currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.  Update:  State Bar files waiver of right to respond, meaning Mr. Fine’s appeal is unopposed.)

They even held a hearing about Mr. Fine without notifying him (which they later admitted), and issued orders in his absence without giving him any opportunity to object or respond. 

{{in other words, they treated him like an average mother might be treated in any contested custody case, or parents MIGHt be treated if CPS gets wind of some money in the family and an adoptable child, for which it’s known there are just about bounties in the foster care/adoptions fields.}}

He is now being forced to sit in jail on a false contempt charge because he refuses to pay sanctions of $47,000 which were imposed to punish him for causing them trouble and prevent him from continuing.   Judge Yaffe even acted as a witness in the contempt “trial”, improperly putting himself in the role of judging the truthfulness of his own testimony.  (There are so many laws against this kind of thing, it’s stunning it was even tried, much less that they’ve been able to keep Mr. Fine behind bars for months with an “order” which was generated under false pretenses and under color of law.)   To prosecute the contempt charge, Judge Yaffe and the attorneys for developer Jerry Epstein agreed that Epstein’s attorneys would prosecute the case.

The judges are so scared that they’re keeping Mr. Fine in jail despite knowing that the California Court of Appeal issued a decision late last year in a case brought by Judicial Watch called Sturgeon v. LA County which left no doubt that it is absolutely illegal for the County to make these payments to judges. 

However, rather than conform to the law as the Sturgeon decision commanded, those involved got together and, guided by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George, hired expensive lobbyists (paid with public funds?) to manipulate the State Legislature into literally sneaking through a midnight bill (called “SBX2-11”) at the peak of this year’s budget crisis.  Our laws were thus changed to not only make the payments  appear to be “legal” and authorized to continue, everyone involved in the giving and receiving of them has been granted retroactive immunity from criminal prosecution.  (Immunity is never given when no crime is involved.)   (UPDATE:  The paragraph of SBX2-11 concerning the retroactive immunity was not put into the official Code like the rest of the bill.  Why are they hiding this pardon of over Ten Million Felonies from the public?  Also, and luckily for taxpayers, it turns out that SBX2-11 does NOT grant immunity to county supervisors who paid themselves matching bonus.  Looks like they’ll be facing some time behind bars for their greed blinded by stupidity.  Now, if only we could find an honest prosecutor.)

SBX2-11, however, is an ex post facto law.  Its immunity provisions will ultimately be repealed.

Mr. Fine currently has an appeal for release before a higher court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,  and new ammunition:  a brand new decision by the U.S. Supreme Court was issued on June 8, 2009 (in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co.) which confirms the no-brainer holding confirming that judges must disqualify themselves from presiding over cases in which they’ve received money from a party to a case before them.

Also, a bright star on the horizon is the news that a preliminary injunction is being sought on July 13th by Judicial Watch to stop the bonus payments to judges from the Los Angeles County Supervisors (one of whom was actually caught some years back phoning a judge on behalf of a campaign contributor to try to influence the outcome of a case being heard at the time).   (UPDATE:  Protecting his fellow judges (for now), Judge Richman has dismissed the case,  ruling that SBX2-11 now authorizes the payments.  The case is again up on appeal before the California Court of Appeal (which ruled in Sturgeon’s favor after the first round), with oral arguments scheduled for sometime in October, 2010.) 

Meanwhile, Mr. Fine has been locked in solitary confinement under horrendous circumstances and conditions since March 4, 2009.  He’s been in what the ACLU has said is absolutely THE “worst” jail in all America  …  Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, home to 20,000 inmates.  Things were bad enough as he was kept from sleeping because of bright overhead lighting being purposefully left on all night, and he was not allowed outside for fresh air and exercise, or even a moment to see the sunshine.  The judge’s malice was clear from the beginning, however, inasmuch as he ordered that Mr. Fine be denied paper and pencil with which to petition a higher court … a basic civil right of ALL incarcerated persons, even mass murderers.  Reporters were also not allowed to interview him.    Mr. Fine is not allowed to post a bail or have any kind of hearing, nor does he have access to a law library or any legal materials; simply put, he is ordered to remain in jail until he relents and acknowledges the void “order” as being legitimate.  (For this to happen, Richard Fine will be forced to violate his oath,  one deeply held and honored throughout the life of his productive career.  But eighteen months later and counting, we can’t help but wonder how much longer any human could hold out.)

{{He has since been released, but the incarceration was an outrage to start with…}}

At the present time, even though the (all-volunteer) support team was able to have some of the jail restrictions relaxed a tiny bit, Mr. Fine continues to be prevented from earning an income and the financial consequences have been devastating.  As a taxpayers’ advocate, Mr. Fine never lived a life of opulent luxury.  Now he is literally on the brink of losing everything.  (One judge even took money directly from a client settlement fund of Mr. Fine’s, forcing him to pay for the cost of the judge’s attorneys to defend his receipt of the illegal payments.)

Richard Fine worked tirelessly for all of us, but now has nothing left beyond the hope that you, the decent citizens of California and elsewhere, will return a small part of the favor and support efforts to restore and enforce our Constitution. 

How can you help?  Consider voting against all incumbent superior court judges and LA County Supervisors in their next elections.  Consider voting against all California State Senators and Assemblymen who voted in favor of SBX2-11 while it was in committee. (See Footnote 1)  And consider voting against all those who’ve refused to get involved here with the excuse that it’s “a judicial matter” like Congressmen Brad Sherman and Adam Schiff, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (who also signed off on SBX2-11).

The details of this story are very complicated, so drafts have been written and put online — one for lawyers which contains legal details, and a shorter one for those who don’t have the interest in slogging through it all.  (Both are works in progress.)  If you’re interested in learning the details, you will find the lawyers’ version at http://sites.google.com/site/freerichardfine/Home/the-money-trail and the shorter version at http://sites.google.com/site/freerichardfine/money-trail—edited-version.  (If you are interested in staying updated, please see our blog at RightTrumpsMight.blogspot.com .)  …

But lawyers still tell us they cannot afford to get involved publicly.  They have to work before these judges, and they know very well that what is happening to Mr. Fine could also happen to them if they make waves.   So it’s up to us.

Your support, in whatever form, will make a difference.  Monetary donations would certainly help tremendously (the cost of filing just the one petition with the U.S. Supreme Court was almost $3,100).  The larger picture, however, involves protecting ourselves and our futures from those we cannot trust who have managed to get into office. 

But we’re only a small group of dedicated people in a fight against 500+  …  and the robed robbers have a tremendous amount of power. 

However, WE have the decency and good intent they sorely lack.  If you join us, someday you too will be able to look back with pride in the knowledge that you played a meaningful part in history … that you helped save an entire state from massive corruption, getting it back on track to becoming a great place to live, where justice is dispensed fairly, once again

Beyond freeing Richard Fine, the following issues will be addressed and changes implemented with immediacy to undo damage done and right wrongs committed to date:

*     Demand will be made upon judges to return all monies that were paid to them illegally, and any judge so tainted who may remain on the

        bench is forbidden and will be prevented from ever presiding over any future lawsuits involving the County.  (The costs of providing

        additional judges to handle County-related matters will be deducted from tainted judges’ State salaries.)

 *      All lawsuits against the County of Los Angeles and/or members of its Board of Supervisors filed in LA Superior Court while its judges were improperly receiving payments will be reopened and examined by a neutral judicial body, after which settlements will be entered into with any wronged parties, and judges who improperly dismissed cases or otherwise acted dishonorably will face impeachment, disbarment and indictment.

*       A citizens’ oversight committee will be established to monitor activities occurring on behalf of the County, especially those involving the leasing of public land.

*      In all future cases, every judge must disqualify himself upon request from any party before him, with no requirement that any reason be given, after which the case should be turned over to the judge whose name follows next alphabetically in the roster.

*       Thorough Federal investigation of all dealings between Supervisors and developers will be expanded and completed.  Audits will examine the County’s use of all Federal funds ever at its disposal.

*  Immunity will be revoked, then criminal indictments brought and prosecutions begun against all persons who committed what would have been considered a crime prior to passage of Senate Bill SBX2-11.

*      The current provisions tying salaries of County employees to percentages of judges’ salaries will be immediately repealed.  (i.e., innocent employees will not suffer because of judges’ misconduct.)

None of these will be a breeze to tackle, much less accomplish … but they are what we will see is accomplished because they are all the RIGHT things to do.   And when it’s all over, we’ll have an honest system again … the bare minimum we can allow ourselves to accept … and we’ll have lower taxes to boot!

Our forefathers wisely crafted founding documents which were intended to create a system of justice by which we could all live under the rule of law.  Our current leaders and judges, however, have callously subverted our rights and subjected our taxpayer funds to rampant theft with, apparently, no fear of consequences.  If that isn’t changed … soon … California will be overrun by corruption forevermore.   Since there’s no other moral choice other than that somebody must do something about it, we will.

Make no mistake about it, we’re coming.  And if a reader is guilty of any part of the corruption, you’re a felon, we all know it, and we’re coming for you.  We’ve given the powers that be several months to do the right thing as we’ve painstakingly collected the evidence.  Now the case is in place and no one’s done anything beyond hunkering down further.  So be it.  Soon, the world will know what you’ve done because we WILL NOT STOP until FULL justice is obtained, not only for Richard Fine, but for ALL decent citizens of Los Angeles County and the state of California. 

See HERE for updates.  MANY surprising events have occurred since the above was written months ago.  Also, check the blog Right Trumps Might for commentary on critical events as they occur.

If you’ve read this far, you know the situation is dire.  So donate, why don’tcha?  There’s a PayPal link on the home page for just that purpose.  The volunteers’ time is all free, but it’s costing us an average of $350 a week in hard expenses to keep this critical ball rolling.  If we have to quit for lack of funds, we all may as well pack our bags and leave the state. 

Footnote 1:  The “yes” votes on SBX2-11 in the California Senate Committee were cast by:

Ducheny Alquist Calderon Cedillo

Corbett DeSaulnier Florez Hancock

Kehoe Leno Lowenthal Liu

Negrete McLeod Oropeza Padilla Pavley

Romero Simitian Steinberg Wolk

Wright Yee

P.S.  To anyone having access to the Sustain** system, if it’s not illegal to do so, we sure would appreciate receiving an anonymously-sent copy of whatever secrets it contains regarding the Fine cases, especially 09-56073 and 09-80130 (9th Circuit) and 09-cv-1914, 08-cv-2906, and 09-mc-00129 (USDC).   Please email to FreeRichardFine@gmail.com.

{{** it’s now “out” though not widespread enough, that there is a DUAL system of California Docketing, and one which appears to compromise the legitimacy of court rulings — in other words,rulings can be filed electronically without proper court seal — not to mention the fact that the PACER (?) Public general access system may be so inaccurate and the SUSTAIN one is only accessible to certain levels. For more on this, search on my blog (and/or google) Joseph Zernik, who looked into it. }}

“One man with courage makes a majority.”  ~  Andrew Jackson

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Don’t measure your life by what you’ve attained in terms of your desires…

but those small moments of integrity, compassion… rationality, even self-sacrifice. 

Because in the end, the only way that we can measure the significance of our own lives…

is by valuing the rights of others.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 IN RECOGNITION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY, JULY 4th:

Here are the words that shook the thrones of tyrants and haunt the days of despots:

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.  …”

“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.”

[More at above link.]

2009 © All Rights Reserved. Free Richard I. Fine™

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