What should be done with Otsego County DA John Muehl: rehab or/and impeachment?

A reader has tipped me off about this article in the newspaper "The Daily Star", of Oneonta, NY, reporting dismissal of the 14-count grand jury indictment in Otsego County, regarding charges for alleged sex crime against two underage girls, ages 11 and 15, based on misconduct of the legal advisor of that grand jury, Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl.

Now, I wrote on this blog about misconduct of John Muehl in several cases:

• about the recent reversal in People v Michaels, 
• about the massive misconduct of John Muehl in Anthony Pacherille's case (see my blogs "Anthony Pacherille's story", I did not finish reporting that case yet), 
• about routine ex parte communications of John Muehl with County Judges John Lambert and Brian Burns, 
• about intentional draining of financial resources of criminal defendants by ordering their counsel into an endless string of unnecessary pre-trial conferences, at which the criminal defendants are not even allowed to be present, as required by law;
• about filing false felony charges to indulge racist dislikes of certain people by the now-deceased Oneonta mayor Dick Miller, and attempting to intimidate that particular criminals defendant that if he does not cave in and accept a felony plea, he will be reindicted for more - of course, when he did not accept that plea, and the trial was coming, Muehl had to cough up the confession that he did not have the witness and withdrew all charges, without being sanctioned by his former subordinate judge Lambert, who was likely in on the fraud.   

I wrote on this blog that Muehl's, let's say, facial color and glassy eyers, behavior and prior reports of leaving the scene of the accident before he even became a DA suggests that Muehl is a raging drinker who should not be handling criminal cases at all.

Of course, after I reported all of that, Muehl was appointed a "special investigator and prosecutor" to handle a so far botched-up investigation by the corrupt Delaware County District Attorney Richard Northrup into burglary, attempted arson and attempted witness intimidation at our own home in Delhi, NY.   

I guess, New York court system practically requires a succession from one corrupt prosecutor to another.

He is usually appointed as a very special prosecutor to fix cases wherever misconduct of a public official is involved.

He did not find anything inappropriate in a case against an assistant U.S. attorney Craig Benedict - in a case involving (gasp!) allegedly serving alcohol to minors.  John Muehl! Alcohol!  a very appropriate topic for him to review.  How can John Muehl The Drinker not forgive any powerful public official for anything involving alcohol.  Unthinkable.

In May of 2015 John Muehl, as a very special prosecutor, fixed the little feud within the Delaware County establishment claiming that top cops in Delaware County Sheriff's Department did nothing wrong, in answer to criminal allegations of Delaware County DA Dick Northrup's investigator Jeff Bowie (note that John Muehl cannot conceal his blushing color even when a picture is taken for a newspaper - of course, it would have been more appropriate on a mug shot, but we know that criminal prosecutors in New York are never criminally prosecuted, no matter what they do, especially that John Muehl recently ACD-d an Assistant U.S. Attorney).

Note that the little brawl in Delaware County that John Muehl was appointed to fix was started on allegations of Jeff Bowie, investigator for Delaware District attorney Richard Northrup.

That is the same Jeff Bowie to whom Richard Northrup is giving Barbara O'Sullivan's head on a silver platter, in order to save Jeff Bowie's nephew for from prison for vehicular assault, battery and attempted murder of the same Barbara O'Sullivan.  

Punish the victim!  Especially when she dared to stir up the marshes and filed a lawsuit against the beloved nephew in his individual capacity, for intentional misconduct, not covered by any insurance policies - and yet, Delaware County is using taxpayers'  money to oppose that lawsuit.

Yet, that case is too precious for John Muehl-The-Fixer to be appointed to fix it, so Dick Northrup, the now judge-elect of Delaware County Court, is holding onto that case for the dear life.

All this prosecutorial misconduct going on in the neck of woods in the rural upstate New York - Otsego and Delaware County - is not surprising.

After all, Propublica.org recently ran a series of articles that prosecutorial misconduct is not addressed in New York.

After all,  there was massive testimony on the same topic before the recent NYS Commission for Attorney Discipline that was not called to change anything rather than to create a "legacy" for the departing buddy-of-a-felon Judge Lippman.

After all, a bill for a separate Commission for attorney discipline, specifically for prosecutorial misconduct, is being promoted by NYS Senator DeFrancisco through the Senate, which would not have been necessary had there not been a selective policy of non-prosecution of prosecutorial misconduct by the existing attorney disciplinary committees.

After all, yet another prosecutor that was responsible for egregious misconduct of her subordinates in office and for massive violations of constitutional rights of criminal defendants (a blog will follow), Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore, was just nominated by the NYS corrupt Governor Andrew Cuomo to succeed the New York State Chief (corrupt) Judge Jonathan Lippman, buddy of the newly convicted felon Sheldon Silver.   I dare to suppose that our corrupt Governor Cuomo expects something from Janet DiFiore in return for the appointment, the way he got an instant return from Judge Leslie Stein after he appointed her while she as reviewing a case of Cuomo's subordinate the Department of Environmental Conservation.  I turned Cuomo and Stein into a criminal investigation by Assistant U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in October of 2014.  In return, in November of 2015 New York State suspended my law license and now Leslie Stein will hear my appeal from the suspension.   How appropriate.

But, back to our glorious John Muehl.

It is interesting to mention that the judge who tossed the 14-count grand jury indictment was not either of the local County judges, not Brian Burns, the former Otsego County Assistant District Attorney, and not John Lambert, the former Otsego County Chief Assistant District Attorney.   

It was judge Joseph Cawley who tossed the indictment blasting misconduct of John Muehl, but did not take John Muehl off the case for misconduct, which would be the next logical step, and gave John Muehl instead "on option" to present the case to the grand jury yet again, while knowing that John Muehl is not an impartial prosecutor in this case as he is supposed to be.

Reportedly, Judge Cawley was perturbed and tossed the indictment, I repeat, a 14-count grand jury indictment alleging sex crimes against two children for the following reasons:

1. because John Muehl presented to the grand jury, according to the Daily Star (I will try to obtain the actual text of the order of dismissal, it is a public record) extensive testimony from the girl’s mother — testimony that produced 41 transcribed pages — even though she had “no personal knowledge of the charges set forth";
2. because "the volume of inadmissable evidence presented and its prejudicial effect is significant", Judge Cawley reportedly noted, which is an understatement of the century.  It is 41 pages of hearsay from a witness who should never have been put on the stand in the first place;
3. because John Muehl injected his personal beliefs into the proceedings and to vouch for the credibility of witnesses - and after that John Muehl was still allowed by Judge Cawley to proceed on the case.  Sweet.

Usually cases regarding alleged sex crimes against children are not so easily tossed.

What happened in the grand jury must have been pretty bad.

The problem is, though, that usually the defendant and his/her counsel never gets to see that testimony unless it is presented as the so-called "Rosario" material when the same witness testifies at a pre-trial hearing or at the trial.

Judge Lambert (former Muehl's subordinate) always claims in response to motions to review grand jury minute that it is unnecessary to give the criminal defense attorney a right for such a review, because HE THE JUDGE reviewed it and did not find there anything inappropriate - because that is a way of the system to coerce people into pleas, drum up wrongful convictions, profess being "tough on crime" and being re-elected and promoted - both for the judge and for the prosecutor.

Judge Cawley, at the very least, did not have the stomach to allow this travesty of an indictment to proceed - as Lambert is doing with, as an example, indictment against Barbara O'Sullivan in Delaware County advanced by the corrupt Delaware County District Attorney Richard Northrup in a case where:

Delaware County Deputy Sheriff Derek Bowie, nephew of Richard Northrup longtime investigator Jeff Bowie is the alleged victim (while Northrup already prepared for submission at trial false evidence, as reported to me, I have documents showing that on file).  

That is going on when the same Northrup refuses to prosecute the same Derek Bowie for vehicular assault, battery and attempted murder against the same Barbara O'Sullivan.  How sweet.

Does the tossing of the indictment, with such a rare, scathing criticism of John Muehl, mean that John Muehl's career is coming to a lull?

Maybe, just maybe, the system is getting wary about corrupt prosecutors - at least, about those whose actions are put on the spot through blogs?

Maybe, John Muehl needs to check himself into a rehab?

Maybe, then he will not be putting on the stand in front of the grand jury witnesses who have no personal knowledge of the case.

Maybe, after getting cleaned up, Muehl will not be then arresting and putting people in jail and ruining their lives by allegations that could not even withstand a motion to dismiss?

Was John Muehl drunk in presenting the witness without personal knowledge - something that a 1st year law student knows cannot be done?

Will authorities finally look into John Muehl's "errors of judgment"?

Repeated, bad errors of judgment, violating people's constitutional rights, ruining lives, repeatedly, time after time?

And, ladies and gentlemen, if John Muehl's, let's say, erratic judgment, is not attributable to his use of alcohol, that is even worse.

An alcoholic can be cleaned up (at least, theoretically).

You cannot change a corrupt mind.

In which case the only remedy for a corrupt prosecutor is impeachment.