Donald Trump Struck Down In Court

The Orangutan In Chief has only been in office for a week, and has already had one of his executive orders overturned in federal court. Judge Ann Donnelly of New York overturned Donald Trump's recent orders to deny entrance into the United States to anyone from Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria. Trump was not concerned about his violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which does not allow discrimination of any immigrant or perspective immigrant based on country of origin or religion. He just created and edict and let it fly. Hundreds of people from those countries were detained at airports until Judge Donnelly set them free. She also reminded those in the courtroom to let her know if those affected were still being detained after her ruling. The stay is temporary, so more court action is sure to follow. Wouldn't it be nice if the United States had a sitting president who was familiar with law?

Affluenza, A Petition From MADD

Remember Ethan Couch, the "affluenza kid"? Now that he has been caught, after Tonya Couch, his so-called "mother", helped him hide in Mexico in order to avoid the constraints of probation for the four murders of which he was convicted in 2013, and is fighting deportation, a judge has the option of transferring his case from juvenile court to adult court. Had he been held accountable for his crimes, or even if he had shown some gratitude for his light sentence and taken advantage of the opportunity to sober up, perhaps so many people would not be outraged at him and his mother.

Among those outraged are Mothers Against Drunk Driving. They have circulated a petition to show Texas how the rest of the nation feels about rich teens who drive drunk, kill people, and get free passes from the judicial system to do it again, while otherwise violating probation. The link is shared here, and it is not only worth reading, but worth signing. Petition To Fight Affluenza

Kansas City Judge Says It's Okay To Drive Drunk If You're A Firefighter

Wyandotte County; Kansas City, Kansas......Firefighter Michael Quinn drove a fire truck, while he was off duty, through the lawns of some unsuspecting people after consuming enough booze to boost his blood alcohol to .09 three hours after the accident! District judge Aaron Roberts may dismiss the case because, while everyone else who refuses a breathalyzer or blood test when suspected of drunk driving, it was unreasonable search and seizure in Michael Quinn's case. Does that sound fair to everyone in Kansas who has been convicted of DUI based upon similarly gathered evidence? Does that sound like it sets a precedent that will encourage safe highways and fewer traffic accidents? Has the honorable Judge Roberts considered that the auto insurance of every driver in Kansas may become more expensive if his obvious favoritism of a government employee sets precedence forcing courts to allow every driver in Kansas to potentially enjoy the same legal privilege? If he hasn't, he should, because at the very least, such a decision will keep the Supreme Court in Kansas busy for awhile.

When Judges And Lawyers Clash

What does one do when one's lawyer and the judge get into a fistfight? On the surface, it appears quite funny, and everyone in this Brevard County, Florida courtroom cheered and clapped when the judge challenged a defense attorney to a physical fight, and the two of them went out into the hallway to settle their differences like kindergartners. Sure, it's amusing, but even though neither of them has been charged with a crime, as of yet, they were separated from each other, kinda like sparring siblings, separated from each other by Mom. That means that a client represented by this particular defense attorney in a case heard or tried by this particular judge had to either hire a different attorney or ask for a change of venue. This could have the unfortunate effect of delay of trials and all other court decisions, as Judge John C. Murphy is now on a temporary leave of absence so he can attend anger management classes, and all of his cases have been reassigned to other judges.

Prior to committing assault, the judge was in the process of scheduling a trial date for someone facing two charges of assault. Won't it be awkward if Judge Murphy encounters a former defendant from his own courtroom at anger management class?

Pennsylvania Judge Tells Mom Not To Breastfeed

A judge in Northampton County, Pennsylvania thinks he knows when a baby should breastfeed, and when a baby should be weaned. After all, aren't all children cookie cutter clones of each other? Shouldn't their development, by and large, mirror image the development of all other children, as they grow to become more and more sheepishly alike? And why would a mom still breastfeed a baby who is ten months old? Shouldn't all babies be on formula by then?

Jessica Moser was just told by a family law court judge, who isn't named in this article, that she has to stop breastfeeding and put her baby on formula so the baby can spend two nights a week with her non-custodial father. The baby will not take a bottle, and Jessica cannot pump enough for two days. But the judge has mandated that this baby will switch to formula, or he will take all of Jessica's children away from her. Sadly, this kind of crap happens all over the country. In fact, breastfeeding is something women are encouraged to avoid in Northeast Kansas. It seems that the judicial community has found one more brutally effective weapon in it's brutal attack on the American family. Bravo, Northampton County! Today you got famous.

Not every baby can tolerate formula. Celiac disease runs in my family. (this was unbeknownst to me when I had my children) My natural children were all breastfed, and that is probably one of the reasons they are so healthy, and have not exhibited symptoms of celiac disease, themselves, as the autoimmune disease is hereditary. Breast milk, even in perfectly healthy babies, is always better tolerated than formula. One of the reasons that the diapers of breast fed babies are less smelly then the diapers of bottle fed babies is that breast milk is easier for any baby to digest. Also, breast fed babies generally develop more quickly, into more intelligent students who display much more independent thought. Could this be another reason the judge would like to stop this woman from breastfeeding? Hmmm.......Those special education teachers would find themselves unemployed if too many moms breastfed! Also, breastfed babies are less likely to be obese as children or as adults.  Formula simply isn't a match, at all, for breastfeeding; and if a baby won't drink it, the point is moot. Is the Pennsylvania judge going to punish a ten month old by sending her to bed with no dinner?

What's wrong with simply giving the mom six months to wean this baby, since babies usually are not weaned overnight, and starting extended visitation then? In six months, this ten month old will be closer to an age when most babies are weaned, able to eat more of what everyone else eats, and able to communicate via spoken word. Why punish a baby just for being a baby?

 

Make Them Get A Warrent

 

Always make the police get a warrant if they want to barge into your house or sort through your personal belongings. Even if they leave, and actually return with a warrant, make sure they get some practice in going through the motions of explaining the exact reason or need for such a thing to a judge! It's good for them, and it reduces the amount of false bravado with which they will feel so free to entertain the rest of us in the future!

 

 

Another Judge With His Frankfurter Up His Anus

A couple of weeks ago, in Montana, Judge G. Todd Baugh announced that he intends to stay on the bench, despite public outcry and demands for his resignation. The reason for all of the protest is quite simple: in 2008, a teacher at a Montana high school, Stacey Dean Ramboldt, had sex with a fourteen year female old student. The judge insisted upon acting as if the student, rather than the teacher, was on trial. He even stated that the fourteen year old had "control" of the situation. Eventually, the girl committed suicide, eliminating herself as a witness and clearing the way for the defense to garner a very light sentence for Ramboldt......thirty days in jail. Judge Baugh's dingbat apology can be heard in the video below.

Another fourteen year old student was abused in the Midwest. A Frankfort Kansas guidance counselor, by the name of Tom Schroeder, abandoned a female high school freshman along the highway, four miles south of the school and the town of Frankfort. When she got lost, attempting to find her way back to school, she stayed lost all afternoon. Tom Schroeder did not notify law enforcement, or even call the parents. He proceeded to look for her by himself, unsuccessfully. Some young men eventually happened upon the missing high school freshman and brought her back to Frankfort a few hours later. Despite the fact that contracts for teachers in Kansas prohibit the commission of any crime while employed as a teacher, Tom Schroeder's Frankfort parents and other community connections have mattered much, much more than the safety of the children in his charge. The local unified school board, USD 380, went ahead and "unified" into an action to retain the services of Tom Schroeder despite his ineffective presence at school. Because kidnapping and unlawful restraint are very serious crimes, and because Tom Schroeder admitted to the local school board and to the superintendent that he did, in fact, leave a fourteen year old alongside the highway by herself with no authority to do so, (how would any teacher gain authority to do a thing like that?) his contract as an educator was breached. At the very least, he should be terminated as a school employee, and we all know that anyone whose parents did not donate large amounts of money to the unified school district would probably have been charged with criminal actions and tried.

All of the "Frankfurters", and others from surrounding towns who make up USD 380, who are on the school board, or who teach or work in administrative positions at the school, have a mandatory responsibility to alert Child Protective Services when someone recklessly endangers or kidnaps a child, and also when someone neglects a child. Child Protective Services, however; had not heard about the incident involving the abandonment of the fourteen year old freshman until her parents made the report. So we know, for a fact, that those who work at USD 380 do not do their jobs completely unless they "feel like it". Judge G. Todd Baugh, in Montana, had a responsibility, as well, to alert the appropriate authorities, especially when he discovered that a child had been sexually abused. Instead, he blamed the child. Even the Frankfurters in Frankfort Kansas blamed the high school freshman for not knowing the area! (she had but recently moved to Kansas) Unfortunately, the list of things that these two travesties have in common does not end at the age of the victims and the reactions of the justice system, but extends to the fact that both teachers are still free to endanger children, with the Frankfurter Kansas specimen benefitting from employers who deliberately cover for him, a crime in and of itself.

Federal Conspiracy Charges

Just a short update here, to this post, about His Former Honor, Michael Thornsbury, of Mingo County, West Virginia: he has been charged with three counts of conspiracy. As it turns out, the Supreme Court has a low regard for judges and prosecutors who abuse their positions by charging innocent people with crimes and prosecuting them when no crime was actually committed. Imagine that! It's AGAINST FEDERAL LAW to go to court and file a complaint against another, when that other did no wrong, and it's AGAINST FEDERAL LAW to conspire and make it look as if an innocent person committed a crime when he or she did not. A dim view of such approaches to justice is especially taken when a judge or a prosecuting attorney gets all jealous or angry and misuses criminal court by committing perjury. Thornsbury even insisted that his secretary's husband be arrested several months after an incident during which someone else, unfortunately someone related to the husband, threatened another person with a gun during a dispute. Because the matter had already been disposed, and because Thornsbury's victim was not the defendant in the case, it became a bit of a sticky wicket for Thornsbury in court.

Where's the eye-rolley when I need it? It's almost like paying a random person to take random pictures of houses and scenery on her cell phone, then having the person take her cell phone to police to say that someone else, entirely, took the pictures; then going to court to say the pictures are somehow illegal. The sticky wicket with that, of course, involves the fact that said pictures were never in the possession of "someone else, entirely", but in the cell phone of the person being paid to take them! Right, McFish?

Filing A Complaint About A Judge In Kansas

Anyone in Marshall County, Kansas who has a complaint about Magistrate Judge Angela Hecke can use this form to write and file a complaint about her. After filling out the PDF form, it should be hard copied and snail mailed to Kansas Judicial Center, 301 SW Tenth Ave., Room 374, Topeka, Kansas, 66612.

Reasons to complain about a judge would include exparte conversations with witnesses or involved parties in a case; religious or other unjust biases; harassment during court, especially about matters unrelated to the case; intrusion into a case after being disqualified or recused; and obvious favoritism between individuals or families. Here's a quote from the Kansas Canon Of Judicial Conduct:

(B) A judge shall not, in the performance of judicial duties, by words or conduct manifest bias or prejudice, or engage in harassment, including but not limited to bias, prejudice, or harassment based upon race, sex, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status, socioeconomic status, or political affiliation, and shall not permit court staff, court officials, or others subject to the judge’s direction and control to do so.

(C) A judge shall require lawyers in proceedings before the court to refrain from manifesting bias or prejudice, or engaging in harassment, based upon attributes including but not limited to race, sex, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status, socioeconomic status, or political affiliation, against parties, witnesses, lawyers, or others.

To continue, the same source also has this to say:

[1] A judge who manifests bias or prejudice in a proceeding impairs the fairness of the proceeding and brings the judiciary into disrepute.

 

Seriously, it's too bad there are so many people in the Midwest who make this claim about Christian doctrine, only to ignore and violate it when they go to work.

 

Ethics Complaint About A Judge

 

Amazing. One would expect a circuit court judge to be mature enough to find an eligible bachelorette with whom to spend time after work, or at least be discreet when he has an affair with someone who is not a bachelorette; but not the "Honorable" Michael Thornsbury. What an embarrassment to Mingo County, West Virginia, where he served, until recently. Judge Thornsbury not only had an affair with his married secretary, but apparently was so forlorn and upset when she changed her mind about dating him that he decided to get even with her husband, simply for being her husband! He tried to get a friend to plant drugs in the man's vehicle, but the friend decided against it at the last minute, leaving the unsuspecting man not in possession of illegal drugs, rather than in possession of same, for the planned drug bust, which did not go as planned. Next, His Honor successfully convinced a state trooper to arrest his secretary's husband on bogus theft charges. The charges have since been dismissed, but it is still, always, an unpleasant surprise when a prosecutor or judge has a silly-assed personal problem with an unsuspecting, innocent constituent and abuses his or her position to play a sophomoric game of "get-backs". Is it any wonder that the American people are losing respect for all parts of the judicial system?

 

 

Another Stupid Prosecutor

What is going on with stupid prosecutors these days? In Colorado, there is a young and inexperienced prosecutor named Todd Risberg, who requested discovery of all the evidence in possession of all parties involved in a case he tried. Everyone complied, but Risberg still felt somehow cheated, so he filed a motion about it. During court, the judge ruled that the prosecution had all the evidence it needed, and that the defendant's attorney did not have to supply the prosecutor with any more so-called "evidence"; which, in this case, was a penned letter to one of the defendant's friends. Had the judge ruled otherwise, and had the defense still refused, someone would have been in contempt of court then and there; but no one was in contempt of court, because all of the judge's orders were followed. So what does Risberg do? He files criminal charges against the defense attorney for not handing over the letter the judge said he did not have to hand over! He feels that this step is necessary to "send a message" to defense attorneys in his area. Where's the eye-rolley when I need it?

I do not believe Risberg's dumbass case will go anywhere. No defendant, represented by an attorney or not, has a legal obligation to fork over evidence, including written or oral statements, to help the State prosecute a case. The fourth and fifth amendments to our Constitution are quite clear about this. Many of the defense attorneys in Risberg's area are in solidarity against this case, and against these tactics, and it will not surprise me a bit if the case is dismissed with prejudice. Sadly, it will also not surprise me a bit if Risberg finds a way to take his nonsense to civil court, when criminal court fails to give him his own way.

This is the kind of stuff about which ethics complaints are written to Bar Associations. And I would certainly write one if I were involved in this case.

 

 

Kansas Judge Talks To Witness, Ex Parte

A judge in Marysville, Kansas, has a case on her docket. The two parties involved in the case, the defendant and the witness for the prosecution, have been ordered to leave each other alone and keep their amounts of personal contact to a minimum. But the witness for the prosecution still perceives reasons to hound the defendant, asking him for personal information for purposes involving her own affairs. Instead of waiting for defendant to contact his attorney and go through the proper channels for all contact and information necessary to the existing situations in the lives of all involved, the witness for the prosecution decided to call the courthouse and complain that the defendant was keeping his distance from her, as ordered. So what happened? A secretary transferred the prosecution witness's phone call straight to the chambers of the judge scheduled to try this case. The judge proceeded to converse with the witness, behind the backs of the defendant and his attorney.

This kind of behavior of the part of a judge is highly inappropriate. In fact, according to the Judicial Code Of Conduct for judges in the state of Kansas, an ex parte communication is extremely unethical. How can a judge remain unbiased when her secretary transfers phone calls directly to her from witnesses for the prosecution? There really is no way, and this never should have happened. The Supreme Court in Kansas will certainly hear about this, and the next time Judge Hecke runs for the bench, the incident will be common knowledge in Marshall County, Kansas.

 

Stuff Not To Do In Court

This girl thought it was somehow in good taste to flip the bird at a Florida magistrate judge. He held her in contempt, and gave her thirty days in jail. Her public defender probably got the sentence reduced...but still.....wouldn't it have been easier to just keep the fingers unextended long enough to get bailed out of jail?

The only other person whom I have actually seen in the act of flipping the bird at a judge was my ex husband, during a hearing about a restraining order. The subject of child support came up, and when he was told how much he should pay every month, he extended his policeman finger to the judge. So she upped the amount, and kept doing so until he calmed down. Later on, he got the same judge for a criminal matter. She threw the book at him then, too.
 

 

Karma, Conflict, And Judge Wade McCree

Can you say "conflict of interest"? Or "karma"? Or just "McCreep"? Judge Wade McCree, in Detroit, heard a child support case, after which he threw the defendant in jail, only to boff the plaintiff and eventually have an ongoing affair with her. But then.......she got pregnant! At which time, the affair became a lot less fun. So now, she is suing him for child support. And her other ex is suing him over the conflict of interest. And Detroit is thinking that there may be judges with better judgement out there who can take the honorable Wade McCree's place on the bench. And any divorce proceedings, as his honor is married, will also require equitable division of property. What will happen to Judge McCree if he can't pay his child support?
 

I Wonder If Jeremy Irwin Is Getting Nervous Part Two

A couple of days ago, I posted about the Missouri case of Jeremy Irwin, father of one year old Lisa Irwin, who was reported missing early on October 4. He and Rasleen Raim, the mother of his oldest child, are in a custody battle now, because Rasleen Raim is nervous about the alleged kidnapping, and the ramifications to the safety of her child. I don't blame her at all, but the attorneys for Debbie Bradley and Jeremy Irwin still think a mom should feel secure about her child being in Debbie Bradley's care. Shortly after Ms. Raim filed suit, a Washington judge gave Solomon Metalwala, the father of two year old, missing, Sky Metalwala, custody of Sky's older sister Maile. Now, a Florida judge has reversed a custody decision in the case of Michelle Parker, missing since last month, and Dale Smith's three year old twins. This apparently happened yesterday, after lots of public outcry about Dale Smith, Michelle's fiance and the primary suspect in her diappearance, initially got custody. It is not clear if this happened because of a bad act on the part of the father, more findings about his care of the children, or if evidence concerning the disappearance of the childrens' mom was discovered in his home, but it seems that suspects and defacto suspects in mysterious disappearances of other people are not always seen to make good primary custodians of children. Need I even mention Terri Horman? She does not have custody of any of her children right now, either.

What's likely to happen if custody to Jeremy Irwin's oldest child transfers to the mom? Well....let's see; Debbie Bradley will no longer be able to collect food stamps, using this child as one more member of the household. She no longer has little Lisa, and losing another child would leave her ineligable, which, in turn, means that she would have to get a job. What else would happen...one less deduction at tax time for Mr. Jeremy! ( I hope those unpaid taxes from a couple of years ago are paid, now, Jeremy!) Also, since Jeremy probably makes more money than his son's mother, he will probably have to pay child support. That would certainly be a bummer for Debbie and Jeremy.

What else might happen? A little boy might become reaquainted with his mom. A mom who may very well have been threatened or initmidated by a drunk and criminally inclined Debbie Bradley. He also may finally have a chance to learn about his mother's culture, and who he is. I doubt that Jeremy has gone to any great lengths to explain life outside of his own narrow sphere to any of his children. Also, it is an opportunity for this child to learn another language or two.

Something else might happen, too. It's a something that probably bothers the heck out of John Picerno and Joe Tacobella. It goes straight to the core of why I think Debbie and Jeremy MIGHT (!!) be hiding a few things from law enforcement. Not only have they given several different accounts of what happened on October 4 and admitted that Debbie drinks too much; Debbie and Jeremy have worked incredibly hard to block testimony from both of Lisa's older half brothers. But if they did not live with Debbie or Jeremy, who would stop them from giving statements to the police or testifying? Tacobella has no control over family court in Missouri, and Picerno is a criminal attorney, not a family law specialist.

Taco and Pico can spread as many lies as they wish about the situation. Just as surely as eleven minus eight equals three, both of those little boys will grow up one day. And there is no statute of limitations on murder.