West Virginia meets New York - retaliation against attorneys for making motions to recuse continues

In February 11, 2015 it was reported that a judge of Supreme Court of the State of West Virginia Robin Davis not only refused to recuse from a case where the opposing counsel bought a jet plane from the judge's husband for 1 million dollars, but turned the attorney who made the motion to recuse in for a disciplinary violation, and that's not the only appearance of impropriety and conflict of interest of that judge, as revealed by investigation by journalists, as reported here.

Judge Davis did not disclose the conflict of interest, and ducked journlists' attempts to get her to reveal her position on the matter.  Then, she made a statement that there was nothing improper and no conflict of interest, and no need to disclose the plane sale.

And, of course, the judge decided for the side whose attorney bought the plane from  her husband, decided with a big-time multi-million recovery.

But, in West Virginia, at least a mainstream media investigation was conducted - and aired.

In New York, journalists have their heads in the sand whenever issues of judicial misconduct are raised - unless, of course, a judge is convicted of a crime, which happens very rarely, if at all.

In New York, I was suspended from the practice of law on November 13, 2015, exclusively for sanctions imposed by Delaware County (now retired) judge Carl F. Becker for making motions to recuse him based on established misconduct.

As to West Virginia, some legal ethics professor have a problem as to appropriateness of the judge's obvious retaliation against the attorney who made the motion.

As to New York, journalists are simply afraid to investigate judicial misconduct.

My numerous requests to journalists for similar investigations of judicial misconduct of Judge Becker (who quickly "retired" from the bench before the end of his term, obviously to avoid being booted for misconduct) were stonewalled or ignored, since 2011.

Finally, in 2014, I went public with my own blog and told my own story of judicial misconduct myself.

That led to criminal charges to be brought against me for going public with statements of about prosecutorial and judicial misconduct (charges were dismissed, but not before they were used to oust me out of the State of New York).

When I share this information with people who do not yet know my story, they do not believe this is happening in America.

Yet, it is happening.

In West Virginia, while the underlying civil case settled out of court, as of July 2015, the disciplinary case against attorney Mark A. Robinson still continued, that was the disciplinary case initiated by Judge Robin Davis in retaliation for his motion to recuse that revealed and made public the purchase of the jet plane by the opposing counsel from her husband during the pendency of proceedings.

I found no further information so far that the case was dismissed, so it still continues.

I wonder when states will start disciplining judges for abusing their power and engaging in retaliation against attorneys for making motions to recuse, which one of New York Appellate courts recognized to be an attorney's 1st and 14th Amendment right to do.

I will post a separate blog about that case, decided in 2009 in New York, stay tuned.