#ExposureOfJudicialMisconduct works, somewhat - the 5th Circuit decided to "deepen investigation" of sexual misconduct of Judge Walter S. Smith, Jr. No criminal charges yet, though.

I dedicated several blogs posts to sexual misconduct of judges and the way the system covers up for them.

Here are the judges exposed for sexual misconduct (whether disciplined or not) who I so far covered in my blogs:

No	Name of judge	State	Name of court where the judge works	What did the judge reportedly do	Judicial discipline, if any, Yes/No, what kind	Criminal charges and convictions, if any Yes/No, what kind	Political or familial connections
1	Wade McCree	Illinois	Resigned	Traded sex for judicial decisions, harassed court personnel with shirtless selfies	Was forced to resign, but was not disbarred	No	Son of the first African American judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit Wade H. McCree
2	Donald Thompson	Oklahoma	Resigned	Used a penis pump during criminal trials in front of a court reporter	Was forced to resign	Yes, convicted for indecent exposure, sentenced to 4 years in prison
3	Kevin Moriarty	Kansas	Johnson County District Court, still a judge	Used profanity repeatedly, and continually used and directed the word "fuck" to female litigant, an attorney, talked about litigant’s "panties," discussed her sex life and who she was "boinking." All of these things he did outside the presence of the litigant’s attorney and in front of her ex-husband.	No discipline, whistleblower Kimberly Ireland’s Law license  suspended for two years	No
4	Walter J. Smith, Jr.	Texas	Federal district court	Stalked and sexually harassed a court employee.	Reprimand, recently investigation was re-opened	No
5	Samuel  Kent	Texas	Federal district court	Solicitation and accepting bribes, coercing two court employees in sex over the period of many years, witness intimidation	Yes, taken off the bench	Yes, a lenient short prison sentence, was allowed to plea to much less than the charges
6	Scott Steiner	California	Was just reelected	Had sex in chambers with an intern	Reprimand, not disbarred	No
7	J Michael Eakin	Pennsylvania		Was sending sexist e-mails using court e-mail system	Taken off the bench	None
8	Bryan Hedges	New York	Family Court,resigned	Sexually molested a deaf-mute 5-year-old niece before being admitted to the bar	Taken off the bench after resignation	None

Out of 8 judges in the list, only one is African American, and that African American judge is a son of a judge, bred and raised on ideas of immunity no matter what he does.

So, for all 8 judges the name of the problem is - impunity, privilege and being drunk with unrestricted and unaccountable power.

It is clear that there is a problem in the judiciary - and the problem is that the issue of sexual harassment by judges is not addressed enough because of fear, and exposes the public to sexual predators in courthouses.

The fear of retribution for reporting of sexual misconduct by judges is real - Kansas attorney Kimberly Ireland was suspended for 2 years for reporting sexual misconduct of Judge Kevin Moriarty - who is still on the bench.

Out of 8 cases I reported on the blog, only in two cases judges were criminally prosecuted and convicted, three judges - Walter Smith of Texas federal court, Kevin Moriarty of Kansas State Court and Scott Steiner of California remain on the bench.

Attorney whisteblowers against judges committing sexual misconduct were universally prosecuted by disciplinary authorities.

Kimberly Ireland who reported sexual misconduct of Judge Moriarty in Kansas was suspended for 2 years for "making false statements against a judge", in violation of 1st Amendment.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane who spearheaded the "porngate" investigation which exposed Judge Eakin's misconduct, was suspended, indicted in criminal court, an attempt to oust her in the State Senate was made and there are reports that impeachment proceedings may be commenced against her.

Attorney Ty Clevenger in Texas who reported sexual misconduct of federal Judge Walter Smith, Jr., was turned into disciplinary authorities, had to go through disciplinary hearings, luckily escaped discipline and left Texas to reside in another state.  Yet, attorney Clevenger is not out of the woods with discipline, and reports that, after he repeatedly reported sexual misconduct of Judge Clevenger, as well as misconduct of several other judges, including the Obama nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court judge Merrick Garland, he is now targeted for disbarment.

In Judge Kent's case, victims were intimidated, a witness had to leave her job and no attorneys wanted to take her case.

According to the transcripts of testimony of Judge Smith's victim,  the victim's supervisor deliberately exposed her to sexual abuse by Judge Smith, by knowing leaving her when Judge Smith came to sexually harass her. 

Judge Smith's law clerk was pressuring the victim to recall her complaint against Judge Smith, practically accusing the victim of causing Judge Smith's hospitalization because of the complaint.

Yet, likely due to Internet exposure on social media, and persistence of attorney Clevenger, the investigation regarding "patterns" of misconduct of Judge Smith was recently reopened.

#ExposureOfJudicialMisconduct works - and should continue, and be consistent, systematic and unrelenting, despite the threats of retaliation.

Many judges recently were disciplined only because of public outrage in social media.

Criminal charges against whistleblowers in Georgia insinuated by a judge and her former law clerk, now the prosecutor, were dropped because of public outrage.

If the mainstream media does not want to report judicial misconduct, social media and the blogs are forcing the mainstream media, and authorities ultimately, not to sweep the issue under the rug.

The situation is changing rapidly.

 Very recently judicial misconduct was a taboo concept.

Now it is reported in the mainstream and social media on a daily basis.

The judiciary in this country should use a cleanup, and nobody but "we the people" can do it.

The new standard of qualifications for judicial office - a judge should not be a "complete a$$hole", otherwise she is good to preside. The case of #JudgeJeriCollins of Florida

In October of 2015 - just before my law license was suspended for criticizing a New York judge for documented misconduct in motions to recuse - I posted a blog about contemptible behavior of a Florida Judge, #JudgeJeriCollins, who held a victim of domestic violence in contempt and threw her in jail for not appearing at the criminal trial against her abuser.

Good news - judge Jeri Collins was just disciplined.

Bad news - Judge Jeri Collins remained on the bench and was just "reprimanded", which means NOTHING, just a tongue-lashing which the judge can forget and engage in more of the same.

Judge Collins unlawfully sent a victim of domestic violence to jail? No suspension from the bench, no disbarment as an attorney, no criminal prosecution for unlawful detention and violation of civil rights - just a reprimand.

A commentator about the disciplinary case of Judge Jeri Collins mentioned that "a judge should be tough, but not a complete asshole".

It is sad that we have come to this level of judicial qualification:

Not a complete asshole? - Welcome to the bench.

A complete asshole? - still welcome to the bench, with a slap of reprimand, while any non-suspension orders of discipline are clearly ineffective, and are even celebrated by the disciplined judges as a badge of honor, complete with flowers, standing ovations of brown-nosing attorneys and "receiving lines".

If we welcome, or allow the authorities in charge to retain #AssholesOnTheBench - how can we question the quality of decisions they produce?

A slap on the wrist to Florida judge Gregory Holder who advocated out of court for a litigant who appeared in front of him, a former Green Beret who pointed a pistol at a person, uttered a racist slur and urinated at the counter of a Muslim gas station clerk

On June 7, 2016 I wrote a blog about #JudgeGregoryHolder, of Florida, who advocated for a former "Green Beret", over whose cases the judge presided, to the point of writing to a Senator, pleading to a college board not to expel the violent veteran from college and accusing the board of misconduct when they still expelled the former Green Beret.

You can read in the blog that I interlinked above an account of what the Green Beret did - complete with pointing a pistol in the face of a person, uttering a racist slur and urinating on the counter at a gas station.

The Florida judicial authorities just issued a ruling as to Judge Holder's behavior.

The ruling:

"guilty of misconduct", the judge violated 5 canons of judicial conduct.

The sentence:

a reprimand and 5 hours of training in ethics.

Why?

The judicial qualification panel was afraid of another claim for millions of dollars in attorney fees by Judge Holder - in case the decision about his reprimand is overturned on appeal - like the one he made in 2005 when he was accused of plagiarizing a research paper when in the Army?  And the case was dismissed because the original of Judge Holder's paper "could not" be located or produced.

How coincidental.

#TheMokaySaga continues: fraudster attorney Richard Harlem is unhappy about the "tenor" of argument accusing him and Judge Robert C. Mulvey of fraud and corruption - based on documentary evidence

Today my husband received some pleadings from attorney Richard Harlem in the continued Mokay saga, see my blogs here, here, here, here and here, plus you can enter the word "Mokay" in the search window to see all my blog dedicated to this case.

In short, son-of-a-judge attorney Richard Harlem of Oneonta, NY, the hero of #theBlandingSaga, commenced a lawsuit against my husband in 2007, on the basis of a non-existing cause of action (interference with prospective rights of inheritance camouflaged as fraud upon the court), on behalf of initially five purported plaintiffs:

1. Daniel Mokay;
2. Andrew Mokay;
3. David Mokay;
4. Patricia Knapp, and
5. Christine Reed,

 adult children of my husband's deceased client Andrew Mokay (senior).

Even though Richard Harlem claimed, on behalf of those 5 purported plaintiffs, that my husband defrauded them IN COLLUSION WITH THE PLAINTIFF'S OWN FATHER regarding their father's own will, Richard Harlem later joined the Estate of their father Andrew Mokay (senior) as a co-Plaintiff in the action instead of a co-defendant (since he allegedly colluded and participated in the fraud plaintiffs were claiming against my husband and their stepmother Connie Mokay) and continued in that conflicted representation, with a blessing from several courts, until the ex parte trial on damages in April of 2015.

After the ex parte trial where I was threatened to be bodily brought into the courtroom despite my documented medical leave, and where the trial was still held in my own and my husband's absence despite my documented medical leave, by a judge who was my subpoenaed hostile witness in the case, the court engaged in stalling my access to trial exhibits and got rid of the exhibits without documenting their release.

In November of 2015, after 8.5 years of litigation, one of the purported plaintiffs, David Mokay, came forward with an affidavit where he stated under oath that he has never sued my husband, never hired Richard Harlem or his law firms to sue my husband, that whatever retainer with his signature Richard Harlem is showing to the court is a forgery, and that he confronted Richard Harlem about the forgery, and Richard Harlem disregarded it and proceeded prosecuting the case on his behalf.

Of course, Richard Harlem has a personal financial interest in the case, because all of the damages claimed in the case is his two law firms' attorney fees.

Yet, under New York law, an attorney forfeits the entirety of his fees if he commits misconduct in the case.

David Mokay's unsolicited affidavit confirms Richard Harlem's misconduct, turning $300,000 in "damages as legal fees" awarded by Judge Kevin Dowd under the following suspicious circumstances:

1. Judge Dowd was assigned to the case by Judge Mulvey who has a history of requiring judges to decide the case the way he wants the case to be decided, and demoting judges if they disobey, see my blogs here and here;
2. Judge Mulvey was the subordinate of Judge Coccoma, both Judge Mulvey and Judge Coccoma were sued by my husband multiple times for fraud and corruption, who escaped liability only by invoking absolute judicial immunity for malicious and corrupt acts, and who recused from the Mokay case in 2007;
3. it was reported to me by the person who Mulvey tried to bribe that Mulvey tried to bribe a litigant into complaining about me, and when he refused, retaliated by an unfair and harsh decision not based on the law or record of the case;
4. Judge Mulvey claimed and received immunity from a federal court in Bracci v Becker, based on his "judicial acts" in assigning judges to several court cases, including the Mokay case;
5. Judge Mulvey was the "legislative counsel" of Richard Harlem's powerful tenant of many decades, Senator James Seward and had to know Richard Harlem personally;
6. Judge Dowd who Mulvey assigned to the case, was my husband's hostile subpoenaed witness for the trial for damages and was disqualified from presiding over the case;
7. Judge Dowd gave to Richard Harlem adjournments of the jury trial for the asking, because of the alleged illness of his trial counsel James Hartmann, husband of law clerk to Delaware County Judge Gary Rosa (elected in 2015 and who immediately started to retaliate against me and members of my family, so far issuing two adverse decisions after documented ex parte communications);
8. Judge Dowd rejected my documented medical leave and thus engaged in practicing medicine without a license, rediagnosing me as not ill at all, and allowed his law clerk to threaten me with an arrest for not appearing in court during my medical leave, see also my blog here;
9. The law clerk who threatened me with an arrest was criticized by me before she made a threat, for favoring her Facebook friends with job assignments (stenographers), attorney assignments and, likely, court rulings;  after my blogs were posted, the law clerk, #ClaudetteNewman, made the list of her Facebook friends private and inaccessible to the public;
10. Judge Dowd quashed subpoena against himself as a witness, which he had no authority to do;
11. Judge Dowd held an entire ex parte trial in the Mokay case, an act of judicial misconduct for which judges are taken off the bench;
12. Judge Dowd had the court personnel mislead members of the public to inform them that the trial that was conducted by him without a jury behind closed doors in ex parte manner, was not happening and was adjourned;  I have an affidavit of a member of the public who tried to get into the courtroom, and was thus misled;
13. Judge Dowd had the ex parte trial covered by stenographer Brenda Friedel who was Facebook friend of  his law clerk Claudette Newman, who was also a subpoenaed hostile witness in the case;
14. Judge Dowd's law clerk Claudette Newman (who I saw carrying Judge Dowd's robe to the courthouse and flicking dust pecks off Judge Dowd in an intimate way) is so dear to his heart that Judge Dowd has recently engaged in an act of violence against a pro se litigant who dared to make a motion to recuse Judge Dowd (a motion that Judge Dowd granted) because of the law clerk's out-of-court interference into a child custody case, specifically, inviting the litigant's children to her home and posting pictures of that visit on Facebook;  Mr. Neroni made a motion to recuse Dowd and subpoenaed Dowd and Newman as hostile witnesses, to testify about their own misconduct at trial - so Newman retaliated by a threat of arrest when I was disabled, and Dowd retaliated with an ex parte secret trial, a $300,000 verdict based on boxes of evidence submitted without review that later disappeared from the record;
15. Judge Dowd quashed trial subpoenas served upon his own law clerk and secretary;
16. Judge Dowd allowed Richard Harlem's trial exhibits, allegedly certified court records, to be kept in possession of Richard Harlem, an interested witness in the case, and not have them filed and kept with the court, as the rules and the practice of Delaware County Supreme Court requires;
17. Judge Dowd admitted the alleged exhibits in bulk, at a lightning speed, without reading them;  the transcript of the ex parte trial reflects that Richard Harlem provided Judge Dowd with a "Readers Digest" of what was in the exhibits, which was similarly not entered into the record and now disappeared;
18. Judge Dowd blocked my efforts as Mr. Neroni's appellate attorney to review the exhibits when the appeal was filed and ordered their release, over our objection, to Richard Harlem, an interested witness in the case - without creating a paper trail in the court with any identifying information reflecting what the exhibits actually were;
19. Brenda Friedel, Facebook friend of Judge Dowd's law clerk and the stenographer at the ex parte trial, did not create a list of exhibits as part of the transcript and did not identify exhibits she accepted and entered;
20. My law license was conveniently suspended before I was able to file the appeal on my husband's behalf in November of 2015 - for criticizing a judge in pleadings which was unconstitutional regulation of political speech based on its content, in violation of the 1st Amendment;
21. Judge Mulvey who claimed and received immunity for assigning judges to the Mokay case, and who has a history of retaliation against judges who do not want to decide assigned cases the way Mulvey wants them to be decided, was quickly promoted to the Appellate Division in time to kill my husband's appeal, and did "conditionally" dismiss my husband's appeal, allowing the appeal only if my husband can produce copies of trial exhibits which were no longer in the court record;
22. My husband provided to the Appellate Division the affidavit of David Mokay clearly stating under oath that Richard Harlem was not and has never been his attorney, and that the case was based on a forged retainer agreement;
23. Richard Harlem failed to provide, and is still refusing to provide to the court the original of the retainer agreement as evidence that it was not a forgery;
24. In May of 2016 Richard Harlem filed before Judge Dowd in Delaware County Supreme Court a motion to withdraw from representation of David Mokay - while
1. David Mokay stated under oath that Richard Harlem NEVER represented David Mokay (and there was, thus, nothing to "withdraw" from), and while
2. Richard Harlem continued to claim to the Appellate Division that he represents David Mokay and all other plaintiffs;
25. At the same time, Richard Harlem also provided to the Appellate Division an affidavit of his client Daniel Mokay accusing Richard Harlem's purpored client David Mokay of perjury which required an instant disqualification of Richard Harlem from representation of ALL parties in that case because he pitted his purported clients against one another, 
26. Richard Harlem insisted to continue to represent David Mokay in the appellate court against David Mokay's will, against David Mokay's claim that Richard Harlem never represented him and despite Richard Harlem's own motion to withdraw in the court below;
27. Richard Harlem obtained a conditional dismissal of my husband's appeal in the appellate court from Judge Mulvey and Mulvey-tainted panel based on his claim that the appeal is from a final judgment, and that my husband's appellate record did not comply with rules of the court pertaining to final judgments, when Richard Harlem was the reason why the judgment was not final because:
1. the case against Co-Defendant Connie Mokay was not resolved - which was within control of Richard Harlem to do;
2. Richard Harlem asked, and was granted, permission by Judge Dowd to come back for more damages - making the decision on damages not final, and
3. Richard Harlem made a motion to withdraw from representation of David Mokay in May of 2016 while claiming to the Appellate Court that Judge Dowd's decision made in June of 2015, a year prior, was a final decision, which means that no further proceedings other than for enforcement of that final judgment, could be  held, and thus the motion to withdraw should have been rejected as without jurisdiction, and Judge Dowd did not reject the motion.

This is a SHORT account of shenanigans of son-of-a-judge Richard Harlem in the Mokay case.

It is apparent that any attorney who is not related to a judge and who is not a tenant to a State Senator would long be disbarred and criminally prosecuted for a fraction of what Richard Harlem did.

Actually, recently, an attorney was, in fact, convicted of a federal crime for adding a non-existing party to a lawsuit.

Yet, when all of those well documented shenanigans of Richard Harlem which are relevant to the case because they invalidate "damages as legal fees" since attorney fees in the case must be forfeited due to misconduct, the court system rushes to the defense of the judge's elderly baby and tries to protect him from the bad wolf Mr. Neroni.

And, Richard Harlem complains to the appellate court about the "quality and tenor" of Mr. Neroni's arguments.

"Quality and tenor".

Apparently, it is inappropriate to raise the issue of Richard Harlem's misconduct - or the issue of rampant judicial misconduct that this case has been "blessed" with for 8.5 years.

Apparently, only a federal grand jury can be expected to be fair in the situation where ALL public officials who have ever dealt with this case, pull wool over their eyes as to the fraud committed by a judge's baby Richard Harlem and disregard ANY law that favor Richard Harlem's opponent.

And, submission of a case to a federal grand jury can be forced by the victim through a court mandamus proceedings.

At this time, Mr. Neroni filed a motion to vacate the conditional order of dismissal of his appeal based on issues of:

1) quorum and tainting participation of Judge Mulvey in the case;
2) participation of Richard Harlem on behalf of David Mokay who is a non-party in the case, which the Mulvey-tainted court disregarded when dismissing the appeal;
3) fraud of Richard Harlem which the Mulvey-tainted court disregarded when dismissing the appeal;
4) that the appeal is an intermediary appeal because Richard Harlem ASKED judge Dowd to make the judgment not final and was thus estopped from arguing to the Appellate Division, for purposes of tossing the appeal because the record does not comply with court rules regarding appeals from final decisions.

And, Harlem opposes this appeal as - gasp! - attorney for David Mokay.

Again!

After he already moved to withdraw in the court below based on David Mokay's affidavit saying that David Mokay never sued my husband, never hired Richard Harlem and that the retainer agreement with his signature (where Mr. Neroni and I as his then-counsel were only allowed to see a copy) was a forgery.

Richard Harlem also made an interesting argument that "judicial acts" of Judge Mulvey in the Mokay case for which he was given immunity by the federal court are not the same as "judicial decisions" requiring Mulvey's disqualification from presiding over the appeal of the Mokay case.

I will post a separate blog about that particular piece of Harlem's theory distinguishing

• a "judicial act" subject to immunity from
• a "judicial decision on the merits" disqualifying the judge from presiding over an appeal from the same case where he made "judicial decisions" in the court below.

Of course, Harlem offered no support for his theory other than his complaints about "quality and tenor" of arguments, including arguments accusing Judge Mulvey and himself of misconduct, based on documentary evidence.

I will also scan and post the choice pieces from Harlem's argument, with comments, at a later date.

As of now, a piece of advice as to how to succeed in the legal profession based on our documented experience with the son-of-a-judge Richard Harlem - get related to a judge.

Marry a judge.

Be born into the family of a judge.

That's your ticket to do anything you want and to hell with the laws.

"Hahahaha. 'Trying to kill me'. Dude... You didn't uncover the Manhattan project, you harassed some local chips". Facebook comments 5 days before whistleblower about police misconduct #AdamRupeka was murdered

I mentioned Adam Rupeka as a whistleblower of governmental misconduct who was likely murdered by the police in Mexico, together with his girlfriend - after repeatedly exposing misconduct of New York police, having criminal charges against himself tossed, a police officer fired for misconduct and obtaining a monetary settlement from the police, see my blogs here and here.

Adam Rupeka fled to Mexico for his life after he was charged with an unsinkable charge causing instant hatred in the media - sexual assault on a child.  See my blog about Facebook comments regarding a person charged with burning a child with hot water - the person was still covered with presumption of innocence at that time and was charged, not convicted.  Police, the target of Rupeka's investigations, was, of course, aware of this reaction on social media once a person is charged with a crime against the child, especially a sexual crime, so publications about Rupeka charged with a sex crimes asserting that he IS, not alleged to be, the perpetrator, were meant to bring harm upon him.

By the way, exposing a person charged with a sex crime to harm is a frequent tactic by the government - and a tactic that recently brought a multimillion jury verdict in federal court to Julian Wendrow who, after having been improperly charged with a sex crime against the child in Michigan, was thrown in jail, made to sleep for 4 days on a concrete floor, and was placed in general population of convicted criminals, exposing him to harm - I quote documents of that case I obtained from Pacer.gov.

In Adam Rupeka's case the name of the victim is unknown, whether anything happened is also unknown, since Rupeka died, the case is closed and will not be available for review on FOIL, but Rupeka's name as a whistleblower of governmental misconduct is marred, which was the whole purpose of the charges.

At this time, after the Dallas events, there is a backlash on Facebook where anybody who says anything against the police misconduct are rolled into asphalt for being disrespectful to the memory of the fallen officers.

I am not disrespectful to the memory.

But, the fact that police officers were shot in mass protests against police misconduct does not undo the fact that police misconduct exists in this country, is rampant and, until the advent of the era of the Internet and smartphones, was not addressed and was repeatedly covered up by the government.

I firmly believe that Adam Rupeka was murdered, and was murdered by those who would benefit the most by his death - those whose misconduct Adam Rupeka repeatedly exposed, the police.

As the story of Adam Rupeka unfolded, I was collecting comments about him on Facebook.

I remind my readers of the deadline.  Adam Rupeka was found dead in Mexico on April 6th-7th, 2016.

These are comments on Facebook from April 1, 2016, when he and his girlfriend were running for their lives.

By the way, Rupeka posted on YouTube that he is running to Canada, obviously trying to deflect those following him - see the comments about Rupeka's posts regarding fleeing to Canada.

Yet, he was still tracked and murdered - in Mexico.

Tell me, who has the ability for such tracking but the government?

 

Comments:

These interesting comments, for some interesting reason, comment on Adam Rupeka's whistleblowing activity exposing police misconduct.  While commenting about criminal charges for a sex crime against an unknown child brought against Rupeka by those same people whose misconduct he repeatedly exposed.

5 days after these comments, Adam Rupeka was permanently silenced in Mexico.

Jessica Fowler's dream - see the last comment - came true.  We will never see one of his new videos again.

The videos about police misconduct that Adam Rupeka made during his lifetime are available on YouTube though.

They are afraid of exposure - charges dropped against the publisher and his attorney for seeking public records in Georgia

On July 3, 2016 I posted a blog covering the latest efforts by various members of the government in the United States to punish in various ways people who seek public records and use them to expose misconduct in the government.

On the same day, July 3, 2016, I published a separate blog highlighting a specific example of the above sanctions, the recent arrest in Georgia of a publisher, Mark Thomason, and his attorney Russel Stookey in Georgia.

Mr. Thomason and Mr. Stookey were arrested by the DA on a complaint from a judge whose court records were sought by Mr. Thomason and Mr. Stookey, under the interesting circumstances that the DA was the judge's former law clerk, and the records sought could expose judicial misconduct and misuse of funds in the court operating account.  Specifically, the records sought to verify whether the court system, with knowledge and/or approval of the complaining judge Brenda Weaver, has paid $16,000 in legal fees to private attorneys of a stenographer who counter-sued Mr. Thomason when Mr. Thomason, with the help of attorney Stookey, was trying to get an audio tape of court proceedings that, in its own turn, could show that the presiding judge (who quickly retired) used the "N-word", not reflected in the transcript, in calling discussing an African American criminal defendant in open court.

So - the publisher and his attorney sought records that would prove (1) racism of a judge;  (2) that the transcript was cooked.

When that lawsuit was squashed by the court system, without releasing the audio, and the stenographer had the audacity to seek attorney fees against Mr. Thomason and his attorney despite the fact that she withdrew her counter-claim, Mr. Thomason and his attorney sought copies of court records to prove that the fees in question were already paid from another source - the court operating account.

And for that they were arrested by the judge's former law clerk turned DA, charged with three felonies and thrown into jail.

Now it has been announced that the charges were dropped - after a campaign in the media and social media.

It is good that the system is afraid of exposure of misconduct.

It is good that justice and common sense prevailed - this time.

Yet, nobody can undo for Mr. Thomason and Mr. Stookey time spent in jail, the indignity and stress of arrest and criminal charges, the threat of disbarment for Mr. Stookey, an attorney charged with 3 felonies for doing his job for his client.

And, the case was dismissed not because it was unlawful and unconstitutional, but because the alleged "victim", Judge Brenda Weaver, the District Attorney's former employer, asked the DA, her own former law clerk, "after conferring with individuals who the judge greatly admired", to drop the charges.

So, the judicial system managed to turn even dropping of unconstitutional charges into a farce.

And, I hope that Mr. Thomason and Mr. Stookey will now sue Judge Brenda Weaver, DA Sosebee and those who helped them in this shameful mess - just like attorney George Galgano recently did in New York, after two full-blown criminal felony prosecutions, complete with ransacking his law office, because he also happened to investigate corruption in the local government, including police and prosecution, as part of his job.

I will dedicate a separate blog to the disgraceful letter of Judge Brenda Weaver asking to drop the charges against Mr. Thomason and Attorney Stookey.

Stay tuned.