The fourth day of the Senate trial for United States District Court Judge Thomas Porteous starts today. Yesterday, we called Timmy Porteous, son of Judge Porteous and one of the judges who pleaded guilty in the Wrinkled Robe investigation. The latter was a House witness who was dropped at the end of their case in chief.
Some this testimony will center on Article IV of the impeachment. I have attached our motions to dismiss Article Fourth and our general summary if you are following the case.
Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr.’sMotion to Dismiss Article IV
Porteous Pre-Trial Statement
Porteous Pre-Trial Statement – Exhibits
The conduct of the judge before he became a federal judge, while not to be considered in the impeachment trial, clearly reflects poorly on his character. Accepting cash and other items of value from those who have business in your court is a conflict. The office of judge is first and foremost before friendships.
As I remember it, in California when I lived there in 1990 there was an undercover expose of State reps and they agreed on tape to take bribes and change votes for only $500. I read about other bribes that involved use of a vacation home for one week.
My theory is that certain foreign insurance companies sell casualty insurance and even insurance to fix cases after a case is filed. I think these insurance companies pay monthly protection to state attorney regulators, state insurance regulators, and state and federal court clerks and that the clerks control how the cases are assigned and distribute the funds to the judges. I have a paper trail to support that. In my lawsuit, the attorney bills discuss “case assignment issues” and a fax they sent about that. Then six months later my case was reassigned and sent directly to former judge Nottingham, who was already hanging out in strip clubs and having prostitution appointments at least once a week. It wasn’t reassigned by the court clerk. The assigned judge reassigned it to Nottingham and didn’t explain why he had a conflict. Nottingham was a client of the Denver Players brothel which also had the credit cards of many lawyers according to reports on a federal warrant against Microsoft for the brothels hotmail records.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206904692
It seems to me likely that in pro se cases a minimum bribe is needed to get a dismissal. In my case, Nottingham adopted a disputed magistrate’s report, after the defense counsel billed for long distance conference calls with the magistrate that we weren’t otherwise privy too, and Nottingham didn’t even issue a memorandum report. He just dismissed my case without saying why and he ordered me to pay law firms that didn’t even appear in the action. One of them hadn’t even filed w the Colorado Secretary of State as existing yet and the person who they claimed was their client filed a notice of appearance that he was pro se.
When there is bribery in the context of a brothel, then there could be blackmail too.
As an Englishman, I trust readers will appreciate I am not conversant with impeachment proceedings in the US. However, it seems to me that a congressman is arguing that a State Judge can be “bought” for $40-$50 per week and that $2,000 – $3,000 is sufficient to “buy” a judgment in a multi million dollar case.
Am I misunderstanding the thrust of Congressman Schiff’s argument?
All the rules are made with the assumption that lawyers and judges are more honest then other people. But as I understand it, lawyers and judges get divorced and commit adultery at least as much as the national average, possibly more. I think they have a high rate of alcohol use problems too. Maybe they are more likely to indulge because they think they have job security or maybe the power goes to their heads.
If you assume that even 1% of federal judges are taking bribes or incompetent because they are dishonest or addled and distracted by drinking, gambling, using prostitutes etc. then the number of people adversely or possibly affected, the criminal defendants and civil litigants in their courtrooms are huge and there are also secondary effects. For instance, I am totally convinced that David Engle died in a fire because former judge Nottingham didn’t issue a memorandum opinion in my case. I am convinced that my civil defendants’ lawyers and insurance companies paid for former judge Nottingham’s prostitutes and strippers.
That doesn’t mean that I think that lots of judges should be tried and impeached. I do believe there is a value to having some judges with job security, even though the magistrate don’t. The problem of how litigants can receive procedural due process in a process with imperfect and even criminal judges can be treated as a systems question.
I think the judiciary committee should ask the Supreme Court, USCourts administration, and the ECF design team, to testify as to how they think that the rights of citizens to a fair hearing on the merits should be protected when the judges behavior is clearly not reliable 100% of the time. For instance,ECF could require a separate memorandum opinion and require statutory citations in it and ECF could not enter a judgment without one. In my case, D of Colorado 02-cv-1950 document 455 is a one page order dismissing my case, taking away my first amendment rights, and fining me $104,000 K without a hearing or opinion. In addition to not being allowed a memorandum opinion, I was jailed by DOJ for 5 months without an arraignment. ECF could have required an arraignment before a commitment order. ECF could have required a US Attorney motion for a warrant before recognizing the warrants USMS used to “kidnap” me and for summary imprisonment. ECF could have required Rule 11 c. 6 orders before allowing the entry or what was later claimed to be a $104,000 Rule 11 judgment.
I think that a lot of lawyers and judges went to law school instead of studying a different major because they were weak in technology and computer science. I really think computer science can fix a lot of the courts procedural due process problems and make it a lot more difficult for a judge, lawyer, court clerk or insurance company to fix cases by limiting discretion.
eniobob,
I saw some footage from your area on the Weather Channel this morning. Scary weather, my friend. Glad you made through unscathed.
eniobob, When I saw your email I asked my husband ‘do they have tornados’ in New York because I didn’t think they got that far north-east. I was amazed when I read some of the accounts. When I was reading about it they were talking about big trees being lifted out of of the ground and deposited on peoples cars and large branches broken off, lifted, ‘spun’ around and deposited 60′-70′ away but thy were calling it “tornado-like”. That was a tornado. I’m glad you’re OK.
LK:
Thanks for the “shout out” things are back to normal.
Heres some info on the storms that came through the metro area.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/nj_damaging_thunderstorms_wind.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/16/2010-09-16_fastmoving_storm_packing_tornado_conditions_tears_across_new_york_city_with_wind.html
Will catch up later,going to traffic court with middle son this morning for moral support,these courts don’t want Absolut or Shrimp.They want cash,they have no shame in their game.
Blouise, I’m now getting an opportunity to watch the trial committee footage from today and Gardner is up. He is fiesty and that is starting to come out now.
The earlier postings dealing with the cross and the committee browbeating Pardo is spot on. Everyone was trying to impeach his testimony. There isn’t even a pretense by the committee that they aren’t attempting to browbeat Pardo to elicit answers that would shade his earlier testimony.
Gardner is now up and I feel almost sorry for House counsel for trying to question him. That’s not to say paying him or he taking the money to join the case isn’t a problem ethically but I suspect that he just knew what was up with the invitation to join the hospital case on Lifemark’s side, it wouldn’t work, and he could outsmart any question about it- he could play the game better than any opposer.
LOL, Gardner is a beast on the stand, they just can’t control his testimony at all. He’s good! He acts almost folksy but that’s just to lull his pray into coming closer. “Release the Kraken!” is a phrase that comes to mind while watching him 🙂
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5NliHNSroE&fs=1&hl=en_US]
Correction: “with are very concerned with the state of affairs within our nation and our (are) liberal leaning”
Returned from dinner feeling much better after enjoying many jovial remarks at the expense of the Senators and Representatives.
Many of the people I socialize with are very concerned with the state of affairs within our nation and our liberal leaning. The group tonight were generally more incensed than even we on this blog with the manner in which this Committee is conducting the hearings.
The Judge is, I believe, getting far more sympathy than he might otherwise enjoy thanks to the very biased conduct of the Senators. Hatch is the only one given credit for exhibiting fairness.
I was particularly taken with Mr. Gardner as an individual caught up in this mess and I really appreciated his feisty resistance to the Prosecutor’s questioning. The experts were strong thus engendering what is becoming a predictable response from the Senators who are following the lead of their Chair.
I suspect that much of the temperamental behavior we are seeing from members of the Committee is brought about by their frustration with the weakness of the House’s case and the rather shabby manner in which that case is being worked by the Managers. I also think they are intimidated by the Prof’s team and the witnesses being presented knowing full well that the defense’s strength is going to continue to grow.
I wonder if there is any One or any Body to whom the Prof may appeal this absurd form of justice being visited upon his client by the members of the United States Senate. This is an injustice that should not continue, should not go unrecognized and should not be permitted to ever happen again. The Senate needs to develop a code of ethics covering its role in the impeachment process.
lottakatz,
M_ “_” ke_ will not work, it is funk_. I will tr_ to repl_ to _ou tomorrow.
I have a high-end gaming lighted ke_board and ke_s will just start repeating themselves for ever and then drop out until I restart m_ computer, which does not alwa_s help.
Thank _ou for the l_rics compliments.
Goodb_e