The judicial bullying of criminal defense attorney #MarcusMumford after acquittal of his client continues - Chief Judge Michael Mosman took request for supporting evidence of his own motion "under advisement" and continues with his illegal prosecution

I regularly write on this blog about tricks courts devise to go after solo independent criminal and civil rights attorneys (and public defenders) for their utmost "sin" - representing their clients properly when the judge already made up his or her mind and considers such representation inappropriate.

Such persecution is usually handled by judges who are former prosecutors themselves, and who are bent to help the prosecution in some media-worthy pending cases.

That's what happened with attorney Marcus Mumford, I wrote about his case here, here and here.

His "sin" was that he demanded the U.S. Marshalls to show him the order of detention of his client when they detained him in a federal courtroom after his acquittal by the jury.

Instead, the U.S. Marshalls manhandled the attorney and tasered him.

On top of that, the U.S. Attorney's office (under the civil rights-loving President Obama) charged Marcus Mumford with a crime, which they later dropped.

But, the "problem" with Marcus Mumford remained that he continued to represent his client in the new federal criminal case where he was initially illegally detained.

And the presiding judge couldn't have it.

So, the judge tried to eliminate attorney Mumford - and help the prosecution - by issuing an "order to show cause" asking attorney Mumford why he shouldn't be sanctioned by having his pro hac vice permission (license for one case in that federal court) revoked.

And, just "coincidentally", the order to show cause was issued while attorney Mumford was on a vacation, and "coincidentally", while the order to show cause cited to the trial transcripts in a criminal case, those transcripts were not provided to attorney Mumford in order to defend himself, while the judge limited his time to answer.

So, attorney Mumford filed - instead of response that he could not possibly filed without having the transcripts - a memorandum asking for extension of time.

The "failures to follow the court orders" that attorney Mumford is charged with in the show cause order from the federal court in the State of Oregon, "coincidentally", comes from a criminal case which attorney Mumford WON, "causing" by his work a jury acquittal for his client.

That is not so different from a disciplinary complaint recently filed - and accepted for investigation and prosecution by the Florida Bar - of attorney Jose Baez who had the "audacity" to "cause" the jury acquittal of Casey Anthony in a highly publicized murder trial of a child.

And, several "sticky" questions arise.

First, according to the case Williams v Pennsylvania decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016, a judge may not be at the same time an accuser and an adjudicator, and court decisions made under such circumstances are VOID (as in "null and void", as in being a "nullity", a "zero", like it never existed).  By the way, Williams v Pennsylvania is a civil case (a habeas corpus petition), same as proceedings for sanctions.

An sua sponte "order to show cause" is a MOTION made by the court itself (sua sponte).  When such a sua sponte motion by the court seeks to punish an attorney, it:

1) puts the judge who has brought the order to show cause in the position of an accuser, thus disqualifying the judge from presiding not only over the motion, but over further proceedings, as the judge demonstrated a bias against one of the attorneys;

2) if the judge does not disqualify himself, his decisions will be void under Williams v Pennsylvania.

Not that the presiding judge cares.

Not that attorney Mumford dared to raise that argument in his memorandum. 

There are interesting details about Chief Judge Mosman's sua sponte order to show cause against attorney Mumford.

3) There is no indication that Chief Judge Mosman was ever assigned to this case, as the docket, from its first day to this date, showed Judge Anna Brown as the assigned judge, and Chief Judge Mosman does not have a liberty to butt into cases over the head of assigned judges without orders of re-assignment:

The order to show cause, Docket # 2069, was issued by judge Mosman on April 12, 2017, more than 6 months after his client's acquittal - while attorney Mumford was on a vacation with his family, and had an expectation that he will never be bothered with anything concerning this case because of the acquittal and consequent loss of jurisdiction by that court.

The order to show cause is contained in just three (3) pages, with a requirement for Attorney Mumford to answer by May 4, 2017 - so attorney Mumford was given by Chief Judge Mosman just 22 days to

• read 549 pages and answer those accusations - while full transcripts of what was happening in those court proceedings were not provided to him, and thus there existed a clear possibility that the charges were plucked out of context;

• Attorney Mumford was still an attorney of record in an ongoing criminal case in federal court in Nevada for the same client who was acquitted by the jury in front of Judge Anna Brown in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon where sentencing of his client was still pending - so judge Mosman's order to show cause interfered with Attorney Mumford's work for his client, as attorney Mumford would be subject to "reciprocal" discipline in federal court in Nevada if Judge Brown imposes sanctions upon him in federal court in Oregon;

• since attorney Mumford's client was acquitted and thus "terminated" from the criminal case on November 4, 2016, the Oregon federal court lost jurisdiction over both Mr. Bundy and his attorney Marcus Mumford after that date, and an order to show cause dated more than half a year after the acquittal, April 12, 2017, is abjectly illegal. 

4) Since attorney Mumford's client was acquitted, there was nothing to revoke - attorney Mumford's pro hac vice admission in that court was OVER as of the date of acquittal on November 4, 2016.

See attorney Mumford's order of admission pro hac vice for representation of his client only.  That representation was over on the date of acquittal, November 4, 2016, more than 6 months before the order to show cause was filed by Judge Mosman:

5) Since attorney Mumford's client was acquitted and Judge Brown's court in Oregon lost jurisdiction on acquittal, Judge Brown was without power to make any rulings in favor of his further detention, and judge Mosman, who was never assigned to the case in the first place, could not assign himself AFTER THE ACQUITTAL and make sua sponte motions based on events after the acquittal and loss of jurisdiction by the court.

6) After the acquittal of attorney Mumford's client and loss of jurisdiction by the court over attorney Mumford and his client, any "motions" regarding future preclusion of attorney Mumford from future cases has no authority, as such a case must be brought not by the court, but by its disciplinary committee.  In this case, the court equates itself with a prosecutor, disciplinary committee in seeking a future preclusion from future cases 6 months after attorney Mumford's pro hac vice admission expired with acquittal of his client.

Yet, here is the order, in its full "glory":

Here is the memorandum of law of attorney Mumford, once again, where attorney Mumford, unfortunately, does not raise the issue of the court's total lack of jurisdiction to issue its sua sponte order - maybe, he will raise it later on when he files his response.

The post-acquittal sua sponte motion by Judge Mosman against attorney Mumford after the court lost jurisdiction over him produced these peculiar filings:

Note that the filing by attorney Mumford personally in a motion for sanctions aimed at him personally, 7 months after his client's acquittal and thus 7 months after loss of jurisdiction by the court over Ammon Bundy, Ammon Bundy continues to be named as the "filer" and continues to be named as a criminal Defendant.

Note that there are TWO judges operating in this case, a complete violation of federal court procedures: 

• Judge Anna Brown who continues to handle sentencing of the remaining defendant, and
• Chief Judge Mosman who is not even on the docket and who is acting in lieu of a disciplinary committee in trying to revoke a pro hac vice admission that ended 7 months ago and to preclude future pro hac vice admissions, which is a completely speculative action for which Chief Judge Mosman has no jurisdiction or standing

On May 8, 2017, the self-assigned post-acquittal sua sponte movant judge Mosman granted attorney Mumford an extension of time, but took "under advisement" the necessity of giving him proof (full trial transcripts) that Judge Mosman used to accuse attorney Mumford of misconduct.

There are no appeals from acquittals, and normally, these transcripts will not have to be produced.

But, because Chief Judge Mosman simply could not put to rest the court's grudge against attorney Mumford for "causing" an acquittal for his client in that court, a completely illegal bullying of the attorney continues, at the expense of federal taxpayers. 

Think of the cost of full trial transcripts in a multi-defendant federal criminal case - that's what the court, as a matter of due process, will have to produce for Attorney Mumford so that he could prepare his defense in this completely illegal persecution against him.

And, of course, Judge Mosman, the lookalike of SCOTUS judge Gorsuch, is a former career prosecutor - now helping out the U.S. Attorney's office in eliminating a federal criminal defense attorney who showed he is capable to win a criminal trial despite huge negative publicity against his client.  That is obviously the main purpose of Judge Mosman's motion, to help his former "brothers", the prosecutors, in total violation of his oath of office.

While I totally sympathize with attorney Mumford's plight and understand what is at stake for him and why he may be overly cautious in not bringing up certain glaring issues of judicial misconduct in this case, I think it is a wrong strategy to address the merits of the case without addressing the "elephant in the room" - the total illegality of such proceedings on many levels.


Chief Judge Mosman should be impeached for his abuse of power and his illegal actions.

Stay tuned.

No discipline for SCOTUS Justice Kavanaugh: good or bad? The Trump litmus test continues

I have written on this blog many times that the election of Donald Trump has so far worked, and continues to work, as a litmus test for many ways of how the American government works, on federal and state levels.

Certain things which the law permitted the previous administrations to do, somehow becomes not permissible under this administration.

Certain things that were wrong - but not noticed - under the previous administrations, became more visible just because Trump is doing it.

I am planning a detailed overview of this phenomenon, but in this particular article I wanted to point out one extraordinary feature of the "Trump litmus test":  it has shed a light on the U.S. Supreme Court and what is very wrong about its operation over the last 100 years.

First of all, with the death of Justice Scalia (and unlawful filibustering by the Republican Senate of a nomination to SCOTUS by President Obama) and retirement of Justice Kennedy, Trump has got to fill two seats so far on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Same as President Obama, same as all presidents before him, President Trump has avoided as a plague in fitting the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, the last resort in death penalty cases - candidates with criminal defense background.

The only people who have criminal law experience on that court are former prosecutors.  

Of the 9 current justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, 

1. Stephen Breyer;
2. Clarence Thomas;
3. John Roberts (The Chief Justice):
4. Ruth Ginsburg;
5. Samuel Alito;
6. Neil Gorsuch;
7. Sonia Sotomayor;
8. Elena Kagan;
9. Brett Kavanaugh,

the only U.S. Supreme Court justice who does not have prior experience as a prosecutor is Ruth Ginsburg, and yet, Ruth Ginsburg's experience as a law professor and general counsel for ACLU between 1973 and her nomination to the bench in 1980 is not the equivalent of a background in criminal defense, since the ACLU has never undertaken criminal defense, and Ruth Ginsburg in particular did not work as a criminal defense attorney.

I thoroughly dislike Hillary Clinton and did not vote in the previous presidential elections because I did not see good presidential candidates in either of the candidates running in 2016.

Having said that, I did defend Hillary Clinton, during her election campaign, in August of 2016, in my blog article when she was bashed for her actions as a criminal defense attorney and a public defender.

And, I have stated on this blog that President Obama did a disservice to this country when he nominated Merrick Garland, having bypassed a courageous female judge Jane Kelly with a public defender background, who continued to work as a public defender even after she was attacked and left for dead, because of her public defense work.

President Trump, so far, also disappointed, having nominated to the court 2 white males, both former prosecutors, having so far confirmed the trend portraying background in criminal defense or civil rights litigation as a disqualification for public office (only one justice on the U.S. Supreme Court has a qualification in civil rights litigation, and NONE - in criminal defense).  Once again, this court handles criminal cases, and, especially, death penalty cases.

With NO justices having prior experience in criminal defense, while 8 justices having experience (and indoctrination) in prosecution, and the mentality of people having "enjoyed" prosecutorial immunity - which corrupts prosecutors' minds and drives them to score convictions, without regard whether the law is followed, with an eyes on the prize, career advancement.

For 8 out of 9 U.S. Supreme Court justices, prosecutorial positions did bring a career advancement, to the top of the American government, a lifetime appointment to a position where there are no job requirements, no accountability and an unlimited power over life and death (literally), people's fates, property, and over setting the law in the entire country - without authority for doing that in the U.S. Constitution, but by "well-settled" custom.

Since 1925, SCOTUS has asked - and received - from the U.S. Congress the gift of not having to review all petitions filed with the court, on the merits.

A SCOTUS judge is the only position where the judge does not have to preside over court cases other than impeachment of the President (applicable only to the Chief Judge of SCOTUS) and does not have to discharge functions other than administrative (swearing in highest officers of the U.S. Government).

Otherwise, there is no minimum of cases to review per year for SCOTUS.

If SCOTUS chooses no cases for review in a given year, they have a right to do that, too.  Nobody can make them accountable for refusing to review the absolute majority of cases (7920 out of 8000 filed, and then, we do not have official statistics of how many cases are REALLY filed published by the U.S. Supreme Court, only approximate numbers).

Cases that SCOTUS does take for review "coincidentally" are filed predominantly by 70 attorneys, the so-called "Echo Chamber", most of them having some kind of connection to the court (former clerks etc.).

Nothing too crooked.

Judges accept gift from parties and attorneys - for themselves and for their law clerks.

Periodically scandals flare about particularly corrupt gift-taking, but no impeachment of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice occurred on that ground so far, and the U.S. Supreme Court does not have a code of judicial conduct, but does have a code of silence for its clerks and a code of PERSONAL loyalty of clerks to justices, which has nothing to do with the U.S. Constitution that gives to justices their power, within its strict boundaries.

Justice Scalia was "found dead" at a remote Texas ranch with personnel speaking only Spanish, the ranch belonging to an individual who has had prior litigation with the U.S. Supreme Court that ended up in his favor.

The duck-hunting trip of the same Scalia with a party in litigation also did not result in discipline for Scalia.

Scalia's friend on the court Justice Ginsburg, while spewing open hatred to the current President, and having done so since before his elections, continues to preside over cases where he is a party, without recusal.

As reported by an extraordinary lawsuit of an attorney out of California, Linda Shao, SCOTUS Justices not only refuse to recuse from a case involving an organization that judges ask to "sponsor" their law clerk for annual free month-long trips to London with VIP treatment by the British judiciary, but hide certain materials from Linda Shao's docket on the court, and do that systematically.

While President Trump is being investigated for "Russian collusion" by a special counsel, nobody investigates SCOTUS justices when they travel or lecture while paid by foreign governments.

In 2015, foreign sponsors paid (bought) U.S. Supreme Court justices for the following:

Roberts - lectures in Japan;

Ginsburg - lectures in South Korea; Switzerland

Kennedy with spouse - Austria;

Kagan - Israel;

Breyer - Great Britain

Ginsburg and Alito were paid by lawyers' organizations to travel abroad in 2015,

Ginsburg - to the Great Britain (paid for by the American College of Trial Lawyers), 

Alito - to the Dominican Republic, paid for by the Federal Bar Council - 

by organizations of attorneys APPEARING in front of these judges.

SCOTUS judges who reject the majority of incoming petitions, have time for side jobs.

For example, in 2015, the following side jobs were reported by SCOTUS judges (I summarized this information from justices' releases obtained by a watch-group on a Freedom of Information Request),  I have printouts of  copies of justices' actual financial disclosures for 2015 are on file.

Anthony M. Kennedy	McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific	$                   12,500.00
Anthony M. Kennedy	Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Clarence Thomas	Horatio Alger Association
Clarence Thomas	Creighton University School of Law	$                   15,000.00
Clarence Thomas	George Washington University School of Law	$                   10,000.00
Clarence Thomas	J. Reuben Clark Law School - Brigham Unviersity	$                      2,225.00
Clarence Thomas	The Daily Caller	Salary
Clarence Thomas	Liberty Consulting, Inc.	Salary and benefits
Ruth Ginsburg	Trust Article Fourth U/W Martin D. Ginsburg, Trustee
Ruth Ginsburg	University of Michingan - Tanner Lecturer	$                   10,000.00
Samuel Alito	ABA Advisory Committee on the Law Library of Congress
Samuel Alito	Member Honorary Board of the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in the United States
Samuel Alito	University of Kentucky	$                      6,000.00
Samuel Alito	Duke University Law School	$                   15,000.00
Elena Kagan	Harvard Law School
Elena Kagan	President and Fellows of Harvard College	$                   15,000.00
Stephen Breyer	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Stephen Breyer	The Pritzker Architecture Prize
Stephen Breyer	Penguin Random House LLC, Royalty Income	$                 116,774.61
Stephen Breyer	The authors Registry, Inc; Royalty Income	$                         384.93
Stephen Breyer	Penguin Random House LLC, Nonemployee compensation	$5,000

Note that, when SCOTUS Justices are paid lecturers in colleges and universities, they were disqualified from hearing immigration cases where colleges and universities were claiming standing and injury from Trump administration's "travel ban".

None of them recused.

And none of that became a burning issue in the American media or for the American public.

No "emolument clause" was invoked, no demonstrations held in the streets, no lawsuits filed and no criminal or impeachment investigations commenced.

In fact, complaints against U.S. Supreme Court justices die on filing - because NOBODY "under the law" in the United States may discipline a SCOTUS justice.

As was shown in the case of Justice Kavanaugh.

One might say that complaints against Justice Kavanaugh were politically motivated - since he was on the federal bench for 12 years, from 2006 to 2018, with no complaints filed against him.

The trigger for the complaints was not the judge's behavior, but him having been nominated by President Trump who certain people want to filibuster no matter what he does.

From that point of view, complaints against Kavanaugh, likely, did not have merit and were unfair.

But, that is not the point I am making here.

The point I am making is that the complaints, fair or unfair, meritorious or not, were not even REVIEWED by federal judges - BECAUSE Judge Kavanaugh has become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh, and as such, unreachable by judicial discipline.

He (and his 8 associates) have a job that has

1. no requirements of a minimum caseload;
2. a marble palace and a practically unlimited budget - for 9 people to review court cases, for which the same court had, initially, a single room in the Capitol building;
3. plenty of time to go, during business hours, to 
1. talk to law students;
2. talk to bar associations (all expenses paid for travel and accommodations);
3. write books, sell them and advertise them;
4. lecture for money;
4. an ability to allow themselves to accept gifts in money and in kind for themselves and for their personnel from parties and counsel in litigation, and from foreign governments and entities - 

with NO ACCOUNTABILITY whatsoever.

The "phenomenon" of no discipline for a U.S. Supreme Court Justice BECAUSE he is a U.S. Supreme Court Justice was caught by the media because the complaints were against a Trump-nominated Justice.

But, the same applies to all other judges of this court.

Isn't it time to demand from the newly-elected democratic House in the U.S. Congress to stir up this sinecure that has nothing to do with the authority given to this court (a limited authority, mind) by the U.S. Constituion, and to re-establish this court the way it was planned by the "Founding Fathers" in the first place - 

not as a lifetime graft-making sinecure without any accountability and unlimited power, 

but a court of law that must resolve ALL incoming petitions on the merits.

If they do not have enough justices to review all incoming cases - expand the court.

If we have 150 justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, and if they have a strictly enforceable code of conduct, limited terms and a prohibition on making laws, and on accepting gifts of ANY KIND from the public and especially from foreign governments, entities and individuals - maybe, then, we will look the way we declare ourselves to be, a democracy?

Because the way SCOTUS is set up now smacks of a monarchy.

#CriminalDefenseAttorneyLivesMatter - where are the security videos of how DA Investigator Dillon Alley beat the criminal defense attorney James Crawford IN THE COURTHOUSE?

On February 25, 2016, California criminal defense attorney James Crawford obtained a retrial for his client in a criminal case where the judge ruled the unfair use by the Orange County police and prosecution of a jailhouse informant has robbed the defendant of a fair trial. 

The use of jailhouse snitches by the Orange County police and DA's office has hit the press long prior to that, and became a media scandal.

On March 9, 2016 attorney James Crawford who won the retrial of Henry Rodriguez, was reportedly beaten up, severely, IN THE COURTHOUSE by the Orange County District Attorney investigator Dillon Alley, right under the security cameras.

That happened just before the jury selection in another criminal case where Mr. Crawford came to advise a witness.  

Even though the brawl was clearly in front of court security officers, no arrests for the brawl was made - and the initial report on the brawl clearly raises an issue of selective non-enforcement of laws against the DA's investigator, because had the defense attorney been the initiator of the brawl, he would have been arrested for sure.  

On March 17, 2016 it was reported that the prosecution is claiming that their investigator was acting in "self-defense" and that the defense attorney - just before he was about to start picking the jury - punched the investigator in the face first.

Of course.

If that happened though, the defense attorney would surely have been arrested.  The court security officers though did not want to arrest their "brother", the DA investigator.

Not to mention that the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the same Department that is in charge of the jail where informants were illegally used, are also in charge of courthouse security.  Talking about conflicts of interest.

And, prosecutor's and defense counsel's stories "significantly differ".

Now, all of this was happening IN THE COURTHOUSE.  

Are we living in the 19th century?

Do they not have security cameras in the courthouse to verify what exactly happened.  Why do they have to rely on verbal accounts that "significantly differ"?

Or, did security officers from the Orange County Sheriff's Department make sure that the tapes are overwritten, not available, equipment broken, is not working - etc., that's the usual excuses of New York Court Administration not to provide security video tapes from courthouses when such videotapes can reveal misconduct of public officials in New York.

I recently wrote an article about being criminal defense attorney as a disqualification from public office and as a danger to the attorney's life.

Being a criminal defense attorney, especially a good one, is somehow considered a disreputable profession in the United States - even President Obama caved in and did not nominate a female federal judge, former federal public defender, when #JudgeJaneKelly was viciously - and falsely - attacked verbally in a smear campaign for doing her job.

#JudgeJaneKelly was also viciously attacked physically in the middle of her 19-year career as a public defender, and left bleeding and unconscious in the park.  

Only that was in the park, with nobody around to see the attacker (and, obviously, the government did not try to knock themselves out to find the attacker, the attacker is still not found).

Here, whether Investigator Alley attacked Attorney Crawford or whether, as the prosecution now claims, the Investigator acted in self-defense, should be clearly visible on security tapes.

Using witnesses to verify what happened under court security cameras (operated by individuals with a distinct conflict of interest in the matter), as it is reportedly planned now in the forthcoming hearing, as I understand, verifying whether the DA's office should be disqualified from the case, is completely inadequate. 

Once again - where are the court security videos?

#CriminalDefenseAttorneyLivesMatter