Wednesday, November 11, 2009 12:03 PM - By David Lat
In today’s Morning Docket, we mentioned the recent benchslap administered to Sidley Austin by Judge Diane Cannon (pictured), an Illinois state court judge. Lynne Marek of the NLJ reports:
A court hearing on Tuesday in Chicago at which former Northwestern University journalism students planned to fight a subpoena for their records and grades turned into a judicial lambasting of their Sidley Austin lawyers.
It started when Judge Diane Gordon Cannon of the Cook County Circuit Court called the lawyers, partner Richard O’Brien and associate Linda Friedlieb, to the bench before prosecutors from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office had even arrived. She asked who had written the brief she was holding. O’Brien and Friedlieb responded that they had submitted the reply supporting the motion to quash the subpoena.
Judge Cannon was, suffice it to say, not happy about the Sidley Austin brief.
Her Honor’s complaints — plus discussion of whether they were justified, and a reader poll — after the jump.
For long-time readers of Above The Law, Herman Thomas is a familiar name. He’s the former Alabama state court judge who allegedly enjoyed spanking male prisoners, traded favorable treatment for sexual favors, and improperly interfered on behalf of a cousin in legal trouble.
He gave up the paddle gavel two years ago. Now he’s headed to trial.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson said authorities began looking at Thomas after he changed a jail sentence in 2006 for his cousin, former Mobile County school commissioner David Thomas, even though the case was being handled by another judge. Other cases that Thomas had taken over from other judges without their approval soon surfaced, she said.
And what happened to the prisoners in the cases commandeered by Thomas?
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 4:07 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Kimberly and Kevin Ireland, of Kansas, decided in 2007 to file for a divorce. Their case was mediated by state judge Kevin Moriarty. Things did not go well from there.
Defendant Moriarty used the word “f*&%” during the mediation… Defendant Moriarty discussed plaintiff Ireland’s female undergarments and referred to the same as “panties” during the mediation… Defendant Moriarty discussed plaintiff Ireland’s sex life during the mediation.
According to Kathy Ireland, none of this was relevant to the mediation. But Moriarty thought it was important. And exciting:
Defendant Moriarty appeared to be masturbating during the mediation.
It all sounds pretty crazy, right? But Ireland’s ex-husband is actually backing her up on this.
A Charles County judge is under investigation for allegedly letting the air out of the tire of a car belonging to a woman who works as a part-time cleaning worker at the courthouse, according to the car owner and sources familiar with the incident.
Two county sheriff’s jail officers said they saw Circuit Court Judge Robert C. Nalley letting the air out of the back right tire of a 2004 Toyota Corolla parked just outside the La Plata courthouse about 3:45 p.m. Monday, according to the two sources.
Apparently, the woman had taken Nalley’s spot:
Jean Washington, the owner of the Toyota, said in an interview that she had just entered the courthouse for her work shift when a sheriff’s deputy alerted her, “Jean, you need to move your car. Judge Nalley’s going to let the air out of it.”
Washington, 51, said she rushed out and moved her car to a different parking lot, farther from the courthouse. When she pulled into another parking spot, another sheriff’s deputy told her that her rear passenger tire was flat, Washington said.
Judge Nalley, we kind of love you. That’s what you get for taking a judge’s parking spot, cleaner lady!
Unfortunately, Nalley may not be entitled to his parking spot righteousness.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 4:45 PM - By Kashmir Hill
Jeffrey L. Marcuzzo is a Nebraska county judge with a temper. Leigh Jones at the National Law Journal reports that Marcuzzo’s corn got husked when a prosecutor rescheduled a matter before him back in October 2007. Marcuzzo called and left a vulgar message on the prosecutor’s voicemail:
“I did not appreciate that one f**king bit. And if I find out you ever did that again to me or any other members of the county court bench, I’ll shove it up your a** so f**king far it will make your throat hurt.”
The Supreme Court of Nebraska has disciplined the judge for violating judicial disciplinary rules and sentenced him to a 120-day suspension without pay.
We were curious: How did the prosecutor react to the profane message?
Two civil court judges in the Lone Star State got physical in their benchslapping yesterday, reports the Dallas Morning News Crime Blog:
It was a reported shoving match between Judge Carlos Cortez of the 44th Civil District Court and Judge Eric V. Moyé of the 14th Civil District Court. The fight occurred in Cortez’s chambers in front of a witness — a Dallas County sheriff’s deputy, according to Roger Mandel, who is Cortez’s attorney.
“Judge Cortez was physically assaulted by Judge Moye in Judge Cortez’s chambers,” Mandel said. “Judge Moye’s conduct is being investigated by the Sheriff’s Department.”
Moyé went after Cortez in Cortez’s own chambers! That’s so wrong. One tipster explains why Moyé might have had an advantage in the tangle:
I’d take Moyé in the fight… [he] is a long-time student of Aikido (see this - he’s also a top Amazon reviewer) and I think he still teaches at his dojo. In any event, the interesting question is what this would do (true or not) to Moyé’s alleged aspirations to the federal bench (he was nominated by Clinton back in the day and is rumored to have a continuing interest).
Well, we now know Moye is mighty capable of the judicial smackdown, an important part of being a federal judge. But it looks like he’s going to be the subject of a criminal investigation, which can’t be good for his aspirations.
More on this, why the judges were mixing it up, and Judge Cortez’s MySpace page, after the jump.
The story of New Jersey Superior Court Judge Lawrence DeBello has the makings for a great romantic tale — the forbidden love between a judge and his law clerk.
A Mercer County, N.J., judge has admitted breaching judicial ethics and policies by sending romantic e-mails to his former law clerk via his judiciary e-mail account and by using his judicial office to help land her a public defender job.
The alluring law lovely, who has not been named, clerked for DeBello in Hudson County Family Court from 2006 through 2007. When she left, she and DeBello kept in touch, exchanging e-mails that discussed “personal matters” and used “offensive language”, according to the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct complaint [PDF].
DeBello unwisely used his judicial e-mail account for their correspondence, rather than opening a get_underneath_my_robes@gmail.com account. Even after being warned by his judicial superiors, DeBello could not keep his passion tamed:
DeBello admitted that at a December 2007 meeting with Hudson County Assignment Judge Maurice Gallipoli and Hudson County Trial Court Administrator Joseph Davis, he conceded the e-mails were inappropriate…. But after that meeting, the e-mails continued and even heated up. DeBello admitted that in December 2007 and mid-January 2008, he “participated in the escalation of the intimate tone and nature of those e-mail exchanges, which concerned their respective romantic feelings for one another.”
In January 2008, DeBello was transferred to Mercer County, but kept up the e-mails, trying to help the former clerk get a new job. He admitted he “used the power and prestige of his office” to advance her “private interests” by making an unsolicited telephone call to Deputy Public Defender Edward Marable — head of the Office of Law Guardian for the northwest region, who had appeared before him in court — telling him the former clerk was interested in a law guardian job.
Love obviously made this justice blind to the error of his ways. We just hope he got more than legal research out of his judicial Juliet.
DeBello has filed an answer [PDF] to the complaint which basically amounts to “Busted.” As Will S. said, the course of true love never did run smooth.
Monday, September 8, 2008 11:01 AM - By Kashmir Hill
New York judge Ronald Tills is the guy you want in charge of your bachelor party. You might think he’s out of touch at 73 years old, but he still knows where to find the ladies. Unfortunately, they’re the kind you have to pay for.
Tills pleaded guilty last week to violating the Mann Act by bringing a prostitute across a state line. Among his other prostitute-related offenses, as reported by the Buffalo News:
He was responsible for recruiting out-of-state prostitutes to work a Jesters meeting in Dunkirk “in or about September 2001,” while serving as director of the Buffalo chapter of the Jesters.
He recruited an illegal alien prostitute from a North Tonawanda massage parlor to service men at a Jesters event in Kentucky in October 2005.
He arranged for transporting prostitutes from Buffalo Niagara International Airport to a national Jesters meeting in Niagara Falls, Ont., in the spring of 2006.
A retired acting New York Supreme Court justice and Court of Claims judge, Tills must have been known as the “Grand Poobah of Prostitute Procurement” to the Royal Order of Jesters.
According to the Jesters website, it’s a Masonic organization descended from the Shriners, but it’s not into charity like most Masonic groups. It has “a fun ‘degree’, with absolutely no serious intent.” Just the serious intent to get busy with prostitutes.
Judges who hold people in contempt, or even jail them, for letting their cellphones go off in court — e.g., Robert Restaino, Diane Boswell — may be overreacting.
The same can’t be said for Judge Janet Booth, of Garrard County, Kentucky. Judge Booth just sent a woman to jail, for three days, for wearing short shorts to court.
This was completely justified. Short shorts do not belong in court. Nor do they belong in the office.
Fashion lesson over. Class dismissed.
P.S. And if you’re a guy, don’t forget to wear a tie to court — especially if you’re arguing before the Federal Circuit.
Thursday, August 21, 2008 2:41 PM - By Elie Mystal
Back in 2007, Judge Ernest B. Murphy won his libel case case against the Boston Herald. The Herald had reported that Murphy was soft on crime and, well, nobody puts Baby in the corner.
But winning just wasn’t enough for Judge Murphy. After he won he sent two threatening letters to Patrick Purcell, publisher of the Herald, on court stationery. The letters, which included the use of all-caps as pioneered by Chief Justice John Marshall, demanded that the Herald drop its appeal and hand deliver a check for half a million dollars more than the judgment, plus interest.
According to the Boston Globe, “Purcell testified that the letters were intimidating and looked like ransom notes.”
Yesterday, Murphy agreed to resign. Murphy claimed to have post-traumatic stress from his battle with the Herald. The Commission on Judicial Conduct had recommended a $25,000 fine, but they may amend their report in light of Murphy’s resignation.
We’d make a joke about how a judge could incur psychologically destructive stress from participating in a lawsuit, but we’re terrified that Murphy will sue us under the ADA.
As some of you have noticed, we tend not to remark negatively on the innate physical attributes of our Legal Eagle contestants. There are several reasons for our reticence, but the most basic one is simply this: LEWW believes that prestige is beautiful. LEWW believes that every bride can look gorgeous on her special day if she has the right law degree. LEWW believes that a JD from HLS is like a great bra; it looks flimsy and has a jaw-dropping price tag, but it will support you and make you look better than you deserve.
Having made much of our reluctance to comment disparagingly about our subjects’ appearance, we’ll promptly depart from our own custom and announce that this is Hotness Disparity Week on LEWW. All of our grooms are decent-looking but undeniably average Joes, and we submit to you that all of them have married up.
While the Judicial Discipline Commission weighs the fate of embattled District Judge Elizabeth Halverson, voters delivered their own verdict Tuesday, deciding Halverson must go.
Halverson, who faces complaints of falling asleep on the bench and harassing her staff, received less than 10 percent of the vote, trailing opponents Stefany Miley and Jason Landess, who will move to the general election in November.
Alas, it appears that the ATL endorsement was not enough to save her candidacy.
A woman who declined to give her name as she walked out of Ruth Fyfe Elementary School said she and her husband specifically showed up at the polls to voice their displeasure with Halverson. The couple called her “goofy.”
“I voted against her because of the recent happenings, her health issues … everything,” the woman said.
Voter Barbara Lloyd said she too wanted to be sure Halverson wasn’t re-elected.
“I want her out of office,” Lloyd said. “I haven’t been impressed with her at all.”
Halverson’s run for office appeared to be bleak before she faced the discipline commission. According to her campaign contribution reports, she had $5,200 in her election coffers thanks to a loan from herself.
La Halverson, taking a page from the Hillary playbook. But five grand is nothing compared to $25 million.
A disciplinary hearing for a suspended Nevada state judge has been postponed, after she reported she felt ill.
The Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline suspended the hearing in its fifth day after Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Halverson’s lawyer said the diabetic judge experienced a hypoglycemic, or low blood sugar, episode.
The hearing is due to resume next Thursday and Friday in Las Vegas.
Further Update: More from our Halverson-obsessed tipster, after the jump.
America’s favorite plus-size jurist, Judge Elizabeth Halverson, is back in the news. The disciplinary hearing to remove her from the bench — figuratively, not literally — got underway today.
Earlier this afternoon, from a Halverson-following reader:
CNN.com has live video stream of the Judge Halverson trial/hearing. I just started listening to it, so there hasn’t been anything real juicy yet. The first issue was Judge Halverson’s ability to use the restroom and the adequacy of the facilities at the hearing location.
And an update:
[So far] nothing that is new news. Her bailiff has been testifying about all the things he had to do for her. They are on a lunch breach until 4 PM Eastern time.
Ah, Judge Halverson’s lunch break. Expect the proceedings to resume around…. 8 PM?
In defense of Judge Halverson, is she getting a fair shake from the State Commission on Judicial Discipline? From the AP:
Nevada’s state judicial disciplinary panel is being asked to ban a suspended judge from calling witnesses or introducing evidence during hearings next week that could strip her of her elected position.
Last week, Judge Elizabeth Halverson’s motorized scooter hit a speed bump, while attempting to ferry Her Honor into four more years of judicial office. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
The Supreme Court rejected Thursday embattled District Judge Elizabeth Halverson’s claim that she should not have to face re-election this November, two years after being elected to the bench.
The court voted 7-0 to throw out Halverson’s lawsuit in which she claimed she and District Judges James Bixler, Susan Johnson and William Potter should not have been required to file for re-election this fall because their terms shouldn’t end until 2012.
Judge Halverson’s argument before the Nevada Supreme Court was previously covered here (incl. video clip). Some commenters were impressed by Judge Halverson’s advocacy. Alas, in the end, it wasn’t enough to sway the court:
Halverson, acting as her own lawyer, argued that the law creating these seats was unconstitutional because the state constitution sets district judge terms at six years.
But the Supreme Court, looking back at a decision made in 1871, said the constitution permits shorter terms when the intent is to have all district judges run on the same election cycle.
But if you’d like Judge Halverson to relinquish the stage, you’ll have to carry her off yourself. She’s not going without a fight:
In the Thursday decision, the Supeme Court justices took the unusual step to point out in a footnote that Halverson had filed a complaint against them with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over the length of her term. Halverson, according to the court, failed to inform the justices of the complaint when she appeared before them June 13 during oral arguments in the case.
The court was served with the EEOC complaint on June 23.
“We nevertheless determine that we have a duty to sit and decide this matter,” stated the court in the decision written by Justice Jim Hardesty.
Yes, that’s right. Judge Halverson has filed an EEOC complaint against the Nevada Supreme Court. Awesomeness.
With just over a month to go until the judicial election, we’re concerned about her fate. It is imperative that she be kept on the bench. Please visit her website, Halverson4Judge.com, and do whatever you can to support her. For specific information about how to make a campaign contribution, click here. Thanks.
Embattled District Judge Elizabeth Halverson will be required to undergo a mental health evaluation if she wants to bring up personal medical conditions during an August hearing before the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission.
Claiming it doesn’t want a “trial by ambush,” the commission on Wednesday ordered Halverson to submit to an examination by a Reno-based psychiatrist by July 18 if she intends to argue that her mental or physical conditions contributed to her behavior on the bench, according to the commission order.
Judge Halverson has a few physical ailments too:
In a 2007 meeting with editors and reporters at the Review-Journal, Halverson enumerated several personal health issues. She has difficulty walking and uses a steady supply of oxygen. She’s overweight, has been a diabetic for more than 10 years and has experienced severe hypoglycemic attacks.
Halverson said she also suffers from Crohn’s disease and the after-effects of cancer. She said she’s also been troubled by congestive heart failure and survived a bacterial infection that eroded the bones in her feet. A knee injury restricts her ability to walk, and a shoulder injury limits her arm motions.
Right now you’re kicking yourself for not going to medical school — ‘cause you KNOW you want to be all up in her judicial business. Time to play doctor, Your Honor.
In case you’re not familiar with it, symptoms of Crohn’s disease include “abdominal pain, diarrhea (which may be bloody), constipation, vomiting, weight loss or weight gain.” Judge Halverson doesn’t seem to exhibit the “weight loss” symptom, but others may be present.
Over 3500 votes are in, and the winner of the Lady Justice ATL caption contest is…
After being screwed so much by the Bush administration, a doctor confirms that Lady Justice has become pregnant.
So what’s the story behind the photo? The man is not, as many of you thought, Roy Pearson of million-dollar pants fame.
The setting is the Shreveport federal court in Lousiana, and the man taking a moment to reflect is Caddo District Judge Michael Walker. Unfortunately, he and fellow judge Vernon Claville were not as intimate with Lady Justice as they should have been. They were convicted last month on racketeering charges. From the Shreveport Times:
Walker, who oversaw the drug section in Caddo District Court, and Claville, a juvenile judge, were convicted of racketeering charges stemming from a corruption investigation that began nearly five years ago. The government said the pair took cash payments from Travis McCullough, an informant, to lessen the cost for inmates to be released from jail.
Both judges have been sent to correctional facilities. But KSLA News reports that they will still receive state pensions when they “retire” on July 2. Good old Louisiana.
Judge Carlton Vines presides over traffic violations and DUIs in Chattooga County, Georgia. It’s a tiny county with a population of just over 25,000. The local newspaper, The Summerville News, has an ongoing investigative series examining the county’s drunk-driving phenomenon and growing number of DUI arrests.
Unfortunately, Judge Vines has become a part of the phenomenon. He was arrested in November of last year for driving drunk and leaving the scene of an accident after swerving into another car. The coppers just released the dash-cam video from the arrest. The man was trashed, slurring, and stumbling… though still cogent enough to refuse the breathalyzer.
Vines pleaded guilty to DUI charges in April. He has since spent three nights in jail, paid fines, done community service and was on house arrest.
On the tape, Vines can be heard admitting he has had “over the limit.” At one point on the tape, an officer asks, “Do you remember the wreck you were involved in?” Vines can be heard responding, “I’m not going to admit or deny it but I will take responsibility.”
A nolo plea — or just good drunken logic? Vines is under voluntary suspension, and the Georgia State Judicial Commission gets to decide whether he returns to the bench.
Judge Vines makes some bizarre comment about sharecropping at the end of the YouTube video. Can someone from rural Georgia please explain?
Technically Larry Hutchins is — or was — a mere magistrate, as opposed to a full-blown judge. But we think his alleged conduct entitles him to Judge of the Day. From the Greenville News (via the ABA Journal):
The South Carolina Supreme Court today reprimanded a retired Spartanburg magistrate after finding that he used a racial slur to refer to people a clerk might be dating and allegedly asked another clerk if she would be willing to have sex with another magistrate and secretly videotape it for use against him.
The court agreed with the Commission on Judicial Conduct’s findings and issued a reprimand for former Magistrate Larry M. Hutchins, who retired in 2004. The justices said Hutchins has repeatedly asked that his suspension or retirement be lifted.
That’s unlikely, in light of this:
According to the court, a former clerk of Hutchins testified that in May 2003 he asked her if it would be difficult to get a magistrate not identified in the ruling over to her apartment. “Respondent then asked her to ‘go all the way’ with the judge, to videotape it, and respondent mentioned the availability of small cameras,” the court wrote.
Secret videotaping? Perhaps to be expected from a Dunkin’ Donuts employee — or, in this day and age, the federal government — but not from a state-court judge.
The woman refused and reported the proposal to the chief magistrate, the court said.
Also, Hutchins allegedly called a clerk superviser [sic] and said that one of the clerks was dating black men, using a racial slur, according to the court.
He added, according to the court, that there was “no telling what we might catch using the same bathroom as her.”
Huh? And why would a male judge be using the same bathroom as a female clerk?
Here is a Tale of Two Judges: the Honorable Alex Kozinski, the relatively new chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; and the Honorable Elizabeth Halverson, district judge in Clark County, Nevada.
Both are judges in the western United States. Both are colorful figures and well-known judicial mavericks. And both have been in the news lately. Chief Judge Kozinski graces the cover of California Lawyer magazine, which describes him — and rightfully so — as “brilliant, charming, and provocative.” Meanwhile, Judge Halverson has been all over the national media in the past few days, thanks to this less-than-favorable AP report (picked up by many news outlets).
In light of these similarities, we decided to conduct a head-to-head comparison of the two jurists. Check it out, below the fold.
In today’s Morning Docket, we mentioned the recent benchslap administered to Sidley Austin by Judge Diane Cannon (pictured), an Illinois state court judge. Lynne Marek of the NLJ reports:
Continue reading "The Sidley Brief in the McKinney Matter:Was It Appropriate?"
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A tipster dubbed yesterday “the day legal comedy died.” From the 
But if you’d like Judge Halverson to relinquish the stage, you’ll have to carry her off yourself. She’s not going without a fight:
