THE EVOLUTION OF JUDICIAL TYRANNY IN THE UNITED STATES:

"If the judges interpret the laws themselves, and suffer none else to interpret, they may easily make, of the laws, [a shredded] shipman's hose!" - King James I of England, around 1616.

“No class of the community ought to be allowed freer scope in the expression or publication of opinions as to the capacity, impartiality or integrity of judges than members of the bar. They have the best opportunities of observing and forming a correct judgment. They are in constant attendance on the courts. Hundreds of those who are called on to vote never enter a court-house, or if they do, it is only at intervals as jurors, witnesses or parties. To say that an attorney can only act or speak on this subject under liability to be called to account and to be deprived of his profession and livelihood by the very judge or judges whom he may consider it his duty to attack and expose, is a position too monstrous to be entertained for a moment under our present system,” Justice Sharwood in Ex Parte Steinman and Hensel, 95 Pa 220, 238-39 (1880).

“This case illustrates to me the serious consequences to the Bar itself of not affording the full protections of the First Amendment to its applicants for admission. For this record shows that [the rejected attorney candidate] has many of the qualities that are needed in the American Bar. It shows not only that [the rejected attorney candidate] has followed a high moral, ethical and patriotic course in all of the activities of his life, but also that he combines these more common virtues with the uncommon virtue of courage to stand by his principles at any cost.

It is such men as these who have most greatly honored the profession of the law. The legal profession will lose much of its nobility and its glory if it is not constantly replenished with lawyers like these. To force the Bar to become a group of thoroughly orthodox, time-serving, government-fearing individuals is to humiliate and degrade it.” In Re Anastaplo, 18 Ill. 2d 182, 163 N.E.2d 429 (1959), cert. granted, 362 U.S. 968 (1960), affirmed over strong dissent, 366 U.S. 82 (1961), Justice Black, Chief Justice Douglas and Justice Brennan, dissenting.

" I do not believe that the practice of law is a "privilege" which empowers Government to deny lawyers their constitutional rights. The mere fact that a lawyer has important responsibilities in society does not require or even permit the State to deprive him of those protections of freedom set out in the Bill of Rights for the precise purpose of insuring the independence of the individual against the Government and those acting for the Government”. Lathrop v Donohue, 367 US 820 (1961), Justice Black, dissenting.

"The legal profession must take great care not to emulate the many occupational groups that have managed to convert licensure from a sharp weapon of public defense into blunt instrument of self-enrichment". Walter Gellhorn, "The Abuse of Occupational Licensing", University of Chicago Law Review, Volume 44 Issue 1, September of 1976.

“Because the law requires that judges no matter how corrupt, who do not act in the clear absence of jurisdiction while performing a judicial act, are immune from suit, former Judge Ciavarella will escape liability for the vast majority of his conduct in this action. This is, to be sure, against the popular will, but it is the very oath which he is alleged to have so indecently, cavalierly, baselessly and willfully violated for personal gain that requires this Court to find him immune from suit”, District Judge A. Richard Caputo in H.T., et al, v. Ciavarella, Jr, et al, Case No. 3:09-cv-00286-ARC in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Document 336, page 18, November 20, 2009. This is about judges who were sentencing kids to juvenile detention for kickbacks.

Friday, August 25, 2017

Did the sudden "retirement" of Delaware County (NY) Sheriff Thomas Mills due to public exposure of Delaware County Sheriff's Department for starving prisoners in the Delaware County jail as punishment, engaging in raging nepotism, employing abusive and incompetent cops and having his Department concoct fabricated criminal charges against people?

Usually, public officials in Delaware County (New York) sit tight in their positions (appointed or elected) and nothing can upend them.

After all, they are paid, with benefits, whether they are doing their job or not, and they are employing vast clans of relatives and friends to support, so there is a "moral obligation" to those clans to keep on going.

Yet, recently, as I wrote before, there was a tide of "retirements" from appointed and elected public officials in Delaware County - which curiously coincided with:

  • the audit of the county by the New York State Comptroller - around the time of investigation and release of the audit, FOUR public officials that may have been involved "retired":
    • Delaware County Attorney Richard Spinney;
    • Delaware County Attorney Porter Kirkwood;
    • Delaware County Commissioner of Social Services William Moon, and
    • Delaware County Judge and former Assistant Delaware County Attorney for Social Services Carl F. Becker;
  • the investigation by the New York State Commission for Judicial Conduct - the same Carl F.Becker "retired" from his judicial position long before the end of his term and long before his mandatory retirement at 70, after fighting tooth and claw for that "re-election" (documents that he was elected the first time in 2002 were never properly filed, and my law license was suspended when I raised the issue of Becker's legitimacy in court) - while the New York State Commission for Judicial Conduct reported in its annual report that several judges "retired"/resigned during investigation;  Becker had many complaints against him, as I know as a blogger who received tips from people complaining about him;
  • a criminal complaint - Delaware County Clerk Sharon O'Dell
    quickly "retired" in 2016 when I filed a criminal felony complaint against her (which did not result in charges yet) for knowingly filing a false multi-thousand-dollar judgment against me in collusion with attorney (and town justice) Jonathan S. Follender;
  • an FBI investigation - Delaware County Chairman of Board of Supervisors James Eisel.

As a result of a settlement in a lawsuit, in December of 2015 the very Democratic Governor of the State of New York Andrew Cuomo announced that prisoners in New York State prisons will no longer be "treated" to what amounts to a punishment through starvation - the so-called "loaf".

Apparently, Delaware County jail practiced starvation of its prisoners, and that same starvation as punishment continued further - as evidenced by a pro se lawsuit filed in January of 2017 against the Delaware County. 









While the lawsuit was dismissed, it was dismissed without prejudice, and can be renewed, especially that Darryl Bradshaw's conviction was reversed and vacated and he was released from state prison.

 Since Mr. Bradshaw filed his lawsuit from state prison, it is apparent that he was not serving time in Delaware County Jail, but was held there as a pre-trial detainee.

 His lawsuit also mentions that he filed multiple grievances against Delaware County jail, raising the issue whether he was starved in retaliation for those grievances.

 The lawsuit also asserts that "disciplinary starvation" of Mr. Bradshaw was ordered without following the "normal procedure", whatever the "normal procedure" may be for ordering starvation of a pre-trial detainee as punishment.

So, whether the lawsuit is or is not renewed, Thomas Mills' Department was exposed for starving pre-trial detainees.

 Mills' Department was also earlier exposed, in a lawsuit that ended up with a settlement on the eve of trial, for hiring police officers outside of Delaware County (a jurisdictional violation arguably rendering all their arrests legally void), with local kinship and connections to high-ranking employees in Delaware County government substituting for education, training and character fitness.

 Yet another lawsuit against the Delaware County, currently pending, alleges that the Delaware County investigators from Social Services and Sheriff's Departments fabricated a false criminal charge of felony child sexual abuse (a deportable offense) against a Hispanic legal immigrant. which can promise Delaware County taxpayers a hell of a lot of damages to have to pay out, whether the case goes to trial or is settled.

 The fact that the Delaware County's litigation attorney hired by its insurance carrier, the Frank Miller Firm, and chose to remove the case from Delaware County Supreme Court to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, the fact that Delaware County did not trust Delaware County Supreme Court to resolve this lawsuit in its favor (even though it recently fixed for the same Frank Miller firm a lawsuit against a police officer for vehicular assault on a resident of Delaware County, where a criminal case was fabricated against the victim of assault and where criminal charges were also finally dismissed), says that the Delaware County sees the writing on the wall as to how bad the fallout for it may be.

Of course, the Delaware County has filed a motion to dismiss that lawsuit "for failure to state a claim", which is currently pending, but it appears that there is enough in the complaint to survive that motion.

Also, it has been announced in the press back in January of 2017 that the FBI is investigating the former Commissioner of Social Services William Moon - and, consequently, the Delaware County Department of Social Services.

This particular lawsuit alleges, in sum, that

  • Delaware County Sheriff's Department employees participated together with Margaretteville School District Employees, New York State Child Abuse Register and Delaware County Department of Social Services, in
  • forensic interviews of a child without presence, knowledge or consent of her mother;
  • while not using proper interviewing techniques;
  • while not video- or audio-recording MULTIPLE successive interviews;
  • while trying to coerce the child by leading questions to accuse her uncle of sexual child abuse, which the child denied.
Since the uncle is a Hispanic LEGAL immigrant, and the fabricated charges were for a D felony, a deportable offense and a heinous crime that, on conviction, would have required a lifetime registration and loss of multiple civil rights, and being branded as a child molester - which also presented a risk to the plaintiff's life - the lawsuit is pretty bad, and has implications of racism, same as removal of a protestor from the County Fair grounds where the County police was present, on County time, as paid private security officers.

Of course, if the case ever gets to trial, this plaintiff can also use against Delaware County all the documents from the previous lawsuit against Derek Bowie, the Delaware County's "Deputy Sheriff" who was hired simply because his uncle was a longtime investigator for the Delaware County District Attorney, and was not fired until he assaulted, as alleged in respective lawsuits, not just one, but TWO women, and those women, interestingly, looked alike - until the lawsuit by one of the women went to trial (and forced the county to settle right before trial for an undisclosed amount).

Upon information and belief, Bowie was fired from the Delaware County Sheriff's Department, but was readily picked up by the Davenport Police Department, so now people in Davenport need to be aware - and afraid - of a potentially volatile and murderous cop in their midst, see his salary before he was fired in 2016:

and after he was fired mid-2016 and picked up by the Deposit Police force, losing more than 2 times in salary as compared to $51,614 that he's got in his last full year of unlawful employment with the Delaware County:



What tipped the plate of Sheriff Mills to remove himself from his elected position:


  • removed a woman from the fair grounds for "public disturbance" - for photographing merchandise, Confederate flags, which were on public display -


we will, probably, never know.


But, something triggered his resignation, as elected public officials do not SUDDENLY decide to retire, before the end of their terms, unless there is a SUDDEN reason for that.

And there are plenty of reasons for Thomas Mills not to honorable retire, but to be dishonorably impeached and sued for all the misdeeds he allowed his employees to commit under his watch.

Of course, Mills, as well as local government officials - and Mills' friends and supporters - tried to present it as an honorable retirement after a long "public service".









But, the less "public servants" like Thomas Mills we will have, who, among other things: 
the better.




otherwise he feels free to trample it, as long as it suits him and the clans of employees that he employs.

As to the glorious replacement of Sheriff Mills - The Acting County Sheriff Craig DuMond, a "shining star" of integrity and competence, I will run a separate blog.

Stay tuned.






Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)