The Michigan Supreme Court voted yesterday 5-2 to remove Wayne Family Circuit Judge Deborah Ross Adams from office for lying under oath and other violations of judicial ethics. In removing Adams, the court found that a 180-day suspension recommended by the Judicial Tenure Commission was manifestly too low for a judge lying under oath.
The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission charged Adams with professional misconduct in 2012. She was accused of lying to Oakland County Circuit Judge Mary Ellen Brennan about repeatedly calling her office concerning her divorce from former Detroit Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams. She then allegedly forged her lawyer’s name to a court document. The commission also accused Ross Adams of lying when it confronted her about both incidents.
The Commission clearly viewed the subject of the lie — making calls to chambers — had bearing on the punishment. It reminds me of the defense of Bill Clinton who suggested that lying under oath about an affair is different from lying about something related to his office. I testified in the impeachment hearings against such a relativistic interpretation.
Do you believe that removal was appropriate in this case?
Source:CBS
Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, backed by a 5-2 Republican majority Michigan Supreme Court, are gunning for marginally performing judges who are Democrats. The media appears only to dwell on Judge Adams’ own divorce case where Judge Adams was (only?) untruthful in testimony before JTC about her own personal, testy divorce, with no references to any other violations.
In the same Wayne County court, the JTC sites misconduct in nine felony cases saying “Respondent (Judge Morrow who is a Democrat) has engaged in conduct that demonstrates a lack of impartiality, failure to follow the law, an abuse of judicial power, and violations of the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct.”
Conversely, in the same Wayne County Court, Judge Halloran, who is a Republican, has violations identical to Judge Morrow, “engaged in conduct that demonstrates a lack of impartiality, failure to follow the law, an abuse of judicial power, and violations of the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct.” Also, Republican Judge Halloran affected over 60 families by delaying over 30 divorce cases so that his favored attorneys could charge higher fees. Republican Judge Halloran was reprimanded with “only” a 14 day suspension by JTC on July 2, 2010, MI SC139830, where 3 of 7 Supreme Court Justices stated Judge Halloran should have been “reprimanded further” for his “false statements,” (lying), otherwise condoning his actions does nothing to “preserve and maintain a judiciary of the highest professional and ethical standards.”
Judges generally do worse than the run of the mill politicians and public officials and govt employees because they can. Every now and then something happens (and in this case it looks like it happened because Adams’ ex-husband had as much or more power than she had) that knocks one of these petty potentates off their invulnerability-platform, but in general if they keep their victims among the more easily hurt, they do fine. I frankly do not know of any judges who do not lie often and routinely. But most of them, if they are going to fix something, do it in a smarter way than calling the presiding judge in CHAMBERS so everyone finds out about it.
It also occurs to me that most if not all of what is said about Adams could be false. If she did something that someone much more powerful sought to punish her for, the facts we find so dismaying could well be untrue.
But this judge was probably dumber than she needed to be, which is saying a LOT. The more power you’re playing with and the more unscrupulous you are in throwing your weight around, the less it matters what you do or how smart you are about your transgressions.
Gilbert K. Davis, the lawyer who started all the BJ trouble for Clinton, was himself a philanderer, a boozer, and a [fill in the blank] whose conduct was less “successful” than Clinton’s because he was not a handsome man. He was the subject of plenty of complaints to the Virginia Bar Association but he beat them all because he had enough friends in high enough places to shield him from the consequences of his own actions. He took eleven (11) extensions on a brief in federal court for some imprisoned moonshiners while the US attorney allowed it so as to avoid a habeas corpus based on ineffective assistance of counsel. At the same time as he was failing to meet his filing deadlines, he was devoting all his time to “trying to defeat Obamacare” with some of his fellow tea-partiers.
The whole thing is a sham. Davis preaching morality to a sitting president — it’s absurd. And telling the TRUTH? Does he subscribe to that? Don’t make me laugh. A video went viral showing him, from the waist up, shirtless, drinking a highball while telling a client of his — in a hotel room — “Go ahead take off all your clothes, that’s what you want to do” and it cost him the election when he was running for Virginia’s AG. He told people he was gonna be AG, then Governor of VA, then run for President, so his plan included being the hero of an impeachment of a Democrat. Makes me want to barf. Now, not even the prominent tea-partiers in VA keep him close. And one of his favorite quotes is: “There are good lawyers and there are bad lawyers, but the BEST lawyer is the one who knows the judge.”
Many of these kinds of things — truth, judges, politicians, scandals — are just like this. Whoever does whatever for the sake of getting whatever they want without doing whatever they don’t want to do.
Perhaps Judge Adams has hurt a thousand little people who have no power and perhaps her reign in the court was a scandal in itself; THAT we will not know. Nothing will be checked, checked ON or re-evaluated. None of her cases will be reopened. She could have lied in every single decision she wrote and it wouldn’t have mattered. NOW it matters that she lied and forged because someone with some clout made it matter. A little. But any atrocities she committed in the Family Court will not be held against her.
It is hard to believe that sometime prior to her election this woman did not exhibit some form of behavior inconsistent with judicial office. Yet, the people of Michigan elected her anyway. Having once been in favor of election of judges, I may now reconsider.
ok let me apologize ahead of time but i must get in here.. 1 no the bill clinton bj scandal doesnt count. bill didnt do anything every potus before and after him has done. that scandal was a public to bill to straighten up and do what he is told or it will get worse.. for anyone who thinks im crazy take the time to watch this video….
http://youtu.be/eLnZwwYlYP0
and once again i must add this link just to add to the adherence of this story alone and the corruption involved..
for some reason his site it down but you can still get thru to his facebook page which will link you the stories
https://www.facebook.com/lawlessamerica?ref=ts&fref=ts
did she deserve removal ?…YES!!!
Judicial officers are and should be held to a higher standard then civilians if we lie we go to jail get fined huge sums etc.. so in my opinion if you’re sitting on the bench in absolute judgement of others then yes when you get caught breaking the very laws you swore to upheld then your punishment should fit.
I think we can all be proud of how we have the finest judicial system in the known physical universe. Like most criminals, her background was blemish free. Another good reason why it’s worth the money it costs for background checks, right?
How did a Clinton polemic get in this thread?
“How did a Clinton polemic get in this thread?”
Read JT’s blog which is the reason for this thread.
“The Commission clearly viewed the subject of the lie — making calls to chambers — had bearing on the punishment. It reminds me of the defense of Bill Clinton who suggested that lying under oath about an affair is different from lying about something related to his office. I testified in the impeachment hearings against such a relativistic interpretation.”
Why is that a question? Of course removing lying judges is appropriate. Now if we can do the same to lying bankers and politicans and lying lawyers and police officers and investigators and lying azz real estate agents and…
Reblogged this on http://www.HumansinShadow.wordpress.com.
Judge Adams was removed permanently by Michigan Supreme Court for lying, even though the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission proposed to give her a 180-day suspension. Only her personal divorce was affected, although we admit her husband, former Detroit Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams, was definitely affected.
Conversely, in the same Wayne County 3rd Circuit Court, Judge Halloran affected over 30 families when he was reprimanded with only a 14 day suspension by JTC on July 2, 2010, MI SC139830, where 3 of 7 Supreme Court Justices stated Judge Halloran should have been “reprimanded further” for his “false statements,” (lying), otherwise condoning his actions does nothing to “preserve and maintain a judiciary of the highest professional and ethical standards.” For details, click on http://jtc.courts.mi.gov/downloads/Halloran.SCTorder.pdf
Everyone questions why did Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission and majority of Michigan Supreme Court “wink at” “his” “false statements,” (lying), but not “hers.”
Many tell the real story about Judge Halloran rated “Not Qualified” to be a Judge – Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, The Detroit News, Detroit Legal News, and Michigan Lawyers Weekly. Click on http://www.detroitlawyer.org/judicialcandidateevaluationcommittee.html
Is Judge Richard Halloran of Detroit; Pervert or Hokey Pokey aficianado? click on
http://www.noethics.net/News/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=804:is-judge-richard-halloran-of-detroit-a-pervert-or-a-hokey-pokey-aficianado&catid=69:judicial-perverts&Itemid=85
Click on http://milawyersweekly.com/fulltext-opinions/wp-files/opinions/121601.pdf
to review graphic details of Judge Halloran’s first Michigan JTC reprimand MI SC121601 on July 15, 2002, in the Detroit Airport men’s room.
Here’s another sad story in our judicial system for “rafflaw” and “Jonathan.”
If “Zero Tolerance” policies have any proper place, it is dealing with judges who who abuse their position for personal profit and/or forge signatures on court documents.
Reblogged this on euzicasa and commented:
They can get the job…But can they keep the job?
It’s sad we are subjected to judicial misconduct.
Yep.
2 of 2
The main piece that made their US financial coup possible & we are all still under their ongoing threat today:
Born and the OTC Derivatives Market
Born was appointed to the CFTC on April 15, 1994 by President Bill Clinton. Due to litigation against Bankers Trust Company by Procter and Gamble and other corporate clients, Born and her team at the CFTC sought comments on the regulation of over-the-counter derivatives,[4] a first step in the process of writing CFTC regulations to supplement the existing regulations of the Federal Reserve System, the OCC, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Born was particularly concerned about swaps, financial instruments that are traded over the counter between banks, insurance companies or other funds or companies, and thus have no transparency except to the two counterparties and the counterparties’ regulators, if any. CFTC regulation was strenuously opposed by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, and by Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.[5] On May 7, 1998, former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt joined Rubin and Greenspan in objecting to the issuance of the CFTC’s concept release. Their response dismissed Born’s analysis and focused on the hypothetical possibility that CFTC regulation of swaps and other OTC derivative instruments could create a “legal uncertainty” regarding such financial instruments, hypothetically reducing the value of the instruments. They argued that the imposition of regulatory costs would “stifle financial innovation” and encourage financial capital to transfer its transactions offshore.[11] The disagreement between Born and the Executive Office’s top economic policy advisors has been described not only as a classic Washington turf war,[9] but also a war of ideologies,[12] insofar as it is possible to argue that Born’s actions were consistent with Keynesian and neoclassical economics while Greenspan, Rubin, Levitt, and Summers consistently espoused neoliberal, and neoconservative policies.[citation needed]
In 1998, a trillion dollar hedge fund called Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) was near collapse. Using mathematical models to calculating debt risk, LTCM used derivatives to leverage $5 billion into more than $1 trillion, doing business with fifteen of Wall Street’s largest financial institutions. The derivative transactions were not regulated, nor were investors able to evaluate LTCM’s exposures. Born stated, “I thought that LTCM was exactly what I had been worried about”.
More…….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooksley_Born