And some of these judges are criminally prosecuted - even though they are criminally prosecuted not by state prosecutors (who would prosecute the judiciary that "regulates" your own law license?). Usually, it is the feds who prosecute state judges for anything, and then judges do not usually get prison time, or much prison time (with the exception of the major scandal in Pennsylvania in Kids for Cash and in Chicago in the Greylord cases).
Let's count.
Judge Bryant Cochran - convicted and sentenced to 5 years in federal prison for offering to exchange leniency for sexual favors.
Judge Cochran is not a member of Georgia State bar, even though I found no record of his disbarment.
Judge Cochran is not a member of Georgia State bar, even though I found no record of his disbarment.
No such charges were brought by the feds against Judge Wade H. McCree in Michigan. He was taken off the bench, yes, but not disbarred and not criminally prosecuted.
Former Judge Williams was charged with "lying about a drug court sentence during a 2011 investigation by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission."
Former Judge Williams remains a member of Georgia State Bar in good standing with no record of public discipline.
Former Judge Williams remains a member of Georgia State Bar in good standing with no record of public discipline.
The specific lying was about the indefinite sentences Judge Williams gave to a woman who was prohibited to see her family, put in indefinite solitary confinement and tried to commit suicide.
New Yorkers, think how many judges can be indicted for lying about contents of public records - I can name quite a few from memory, I am sure you can, too, judging from my feedback to my blogs about "intellectual dishonesty" of judges.
But now we see that such lying is actually criminally prosecutable - but is usually not prosecuted, when it should be.
And the reaction of a chief judge of the Georgia Supreme Court to these criminal prosecution is reportedly like this:
It is unclear what is the "it" that puts a black cloud over the judiciary - that they committed crimes they are charged with or that somebody dared to charge judges with crimes.
It is interesting how this surge of judicial discipline - and even criminal prosecutions - can be used to eliminate judges who actually do their jobs, and specifically do their jobs presiding over criminal cases of public corruption.
Do you know of any other such "agreements" where a defendant can go free by simply agreeing to be a good boy/girl and not do something again? And absolved of a prosecution for a potential past felony?
I tend to side with Judge Cynthia Becker (imagine me supporting a Judge Becker - surreal) in this case - not about her alleged "lying" to the judicial qualification commission, but about her right as a judge, not to "honor" (accept" an agreement of probation for a corrupt public official.
When a criminal defendant pleas guilty, the sentencing authority still remains with the judge, and if the judge does not agree to the sentencing that prosecution "agreed upon" with the defendant, the case simply has to go to trial.
Since the case in question that Judge Cynthia Becker was burned for involved public corruption, Judge Cynthia Becker was in her own right to not accept the plea deal.
Judge Cynthia Becker sentenced the corrupt public official to a year in jail and refused him bond pending motions.
Of course, a criminal defendant was entitled to make a motion to withdraw the plea of guilty if he entered it based on promised probation while he got jail time. Yet, the judge does not have to "honor" agreements as to sentencing between the criminal defendant and prosecution, and does not have to agree to bonds pending such motions to vacate a plea.
It was wrong for Judge Cynthia Becker to misstate that the defendant never asked for bond, but whether the defendant did or did not ask for bond, it was Judge Cynthia Becker's authority to deny it.
For sticking to her authority and principles, Judge Cynthia Becker was forced to resign from her judicial position, and, through intimidation by prosecutors (clearly in retaliation for her not "honoring" the prosecution's deal with a corrupt public official) she now agreed not to seek judicial office. So, as part of the sweep against bad judges, a good judge was thrown out, too.
Another Georgian judge, Paschal English, resigned amid revelations that he had an affair, involving intimate relations in a parked car, with a public defender who had cases in front of him.
The scandal forced retrial of old cases, the judge's misconduct caused at least 5 re-trials.
Judge Johnie Caldwell Jr. resigned in 2010 after accusations "he made rude, sexually suggestive comments to a female attorney".
As bad as making rude and sexually suggestive comments to a female attorney is, judges usually are not forced to resign over such conduct.
And, there are issues in my mind as to this judge though, whether Judge Caldwell's was forced to resign in connection with his sentencing of a county employee for sexual battery that happened two days prior to his resignation.
Two years after his resignation, that particular judge won a seat in the State House and is now a legislator in the State of Georgia.
Judge Frank R. Cox resigned in 2015 "citing undisclosed health issues".
Yet, according to a transcript "widely circulated in legal circles", Judge Cox "aggressively questioned an alleged victim of domestic abuse about her heritage and why she wasn’t married to a man with whom she has four children", which prompted two attorneys to file complaint against him with disciplinary authorities, shortly before his resignation.
The blessed State of Georgia!
When now retired Judge Carl F. Becker in New York brought a teenager to tears in the courtroom claiming that she was unlikely to be college material, NYS Commission for Judicial Conduct did nothing but send a copy of the complaint to Becker who retaliated against the complainant (myself).
Becker made that outrageous statement in protection of his own former client of 27 years, the Delaware County Department of Social Services when it was clear that the Department that held the female teenager in foster care did not comply with the requirements of federal law to put her on track towards high school diploma and college education, as she and her father wanted, and instead put her on the IEP (individual education plan) track for an IEP diploma which is not accepted by NY colleges for admission.
So, when I brought the argument that IEP diplomas are not considered full high school diplomas for purposes of college admission - and provided documentary proof of that - Becker bluntly said in front of the girl that "she is unlikely to be college material", and then had the transcript of that hearing fabricated so that it does not show the girl's appearance at the proceedings.
None of that was considered judicial misconduct by the NYS Commission for Judicial conduct, and the Commission refused to take Becker off the bench when I asked for it in December of 2010.
Instead, Judge Becker was immediately elevated in January of 2011 to the position of Acting Supreme Court justice, was allowed to get himself assigned to all cases of the complainant (myself), to sanction me in those cases, to turn me into the disciplinary authorities based on those sanctions, and the disciplinary authorities, as good boys and girls, suspended my law license without a hearing based exclusively on those retaliative sanctions. This is how it works in the State of New York.
But let's return to the blessed state of Georgia.
Judge Shirley Wise was taken off the bench and prosecuted in 2012 for theft of vital records and a kickback scheme "involving a county services contract".
Such prosecution is not possible in New York against Judge Carl Becker.
Since the Delaware County in New York does not keep records of contracts and refuses to disclose contents of public contracts on FOIL requests (even of those contracts that were recently audited by the NYS Comptroller), it blocks investigation of whether Judge Becker was involved in public corruption, and the local prosecutors will never prosecute him because the Acting District Attorney is his former law partner John Hubbard and already refused to prosecute him for filing a fraudulent certificate of 2002 elections in 2011, and the county judge is the newly elected Richard Northrup who was elected based on Becker's political and financial support and is willing to violate the law to the point of allowing retired Judge Becker to impersonate a sitting judge and accept Northrup's oath of office.
Judge Shirley Wise, on the other hand, "was sentenced under the First Offender Act to seven years probation, fined $1,000 and ordered
to pay $5,500 in restitution. She also agreed not to seek or accept
appointment to public office".
How about Judge William F. Lee Jr., who was reportedly "one of Georgia’s longest-serving Superior Court judges when he stepped down in 2012. Lee, who served 37 years, said at the time he was leaving office on his own terms. But he was facing an ethics investigation for cutting a deal for a convicted sex offender without notifying the victim or the prosecution".
Tell that to Barbara O'Sullivan and Alecia Bracci of Delhi, New York.
In 2010, Judge Richard Gumo (later censured for misconduct) allowed a perpetrator of a death threat against Barbara O'Sullivan, a then-U.S. Marine Ryan Adams, now, upon information and belief, of Columbus, Ohio, to escape with an Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal, not only without seeking the victim's consent to such a disposition, but after the prosecutor John Hubbard specifically deceived Barbara O'Sullivan as to the time of such a hearing where she announced to John Hubbard she wanted to come and testify against such a disposition.
As a result, Barbara O'Sullivan came to court after the disposition was already granted, and prosecutor John Hubbard defied her accusations of misconduct against him by irrelevant claims that Barbara O'Sullivan should not have hired me to represent her daughter Alecia Bracci in a custody proceeding against Ryan Adams.
Needless to say, the same judge Richard Gumo bent over backwards to instead help Ryan Adams and John Hubbard to instead have both Barbara O'Sullivan and Alecia Bracci prosecuted on contrived criminal charges, and failed to recuse from either of the cases, instead engaged in falsely pretending to sign false arrest warrants, refusing to dismiss legally insufficient cases and repeatedly assigning ineffective counsel.
Back in Georgia, in 2012, judge David Barrett resigned after he offered his pistol in a "rhetorical jesture", offering an "uncooperative witness" to kill her lawyer.
And, of course, Pullen was not forced to resign. The only person who asked him to resign, according to Pullen, was Mrs. Pullen.
Right.
No, they don't.
It is us who are too timid to complain loudly enough and publicly enough who allow this kind of misbehavior to continue happening for years and decades.
It is us who are too timid to complain loudly enough and publicly enough who allow this kind of misbehavior to continue happening for years and decades.
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