Friday, May 31, 2013

Woman dies on courthouse floor without medical aid after arrest over unpaid ticket, suit says

Woman dies on courthouse floor without medical aid after arrest over unpaid ticket, suit says
ABA Journal Law New Now
May 20, 2013
By Martha Neil


Arrested and jailed over an allegedly unpaid 2008 traffic ticket, Dwana Voncia London-Richardson died, at age 45, on an Alabama courthouse floor days after sheriff's department and jail workers failed to provide her with medical treatment, a federal lawsuit says.

It names as defendants the St. Clair County sheriff, county jail administrators and a company that is responsible for providing health care to inmates, Courthouse News reports.

London-Richardson's daughter says her mom was refused treatment for her asthma and other health problems both at the jail and as she lay on the courthouse floor days later gasping for breath before a scheduled hearing.

"Everyone in the courtroom watched as Ms. Richardson died in court, on the courtroom floor," the suit says, contending that deputies neither sought help for nor cleared the courtroom. Read more here

Deputies Watch Woman Die in Court
Courthouse News Service
By IULIA FILIP
May 20, 2013


MONTGOMERY, Ala. (CN) - A woman died on a courthouse floor because Alabama sheriff's deputies refused to give her her medicine - after arresting her for an old traffic ticket, the woman's daughter claims in court......."Ms. Richardson told Ayunna that several of the inmates were trying to help her out by going to get her tray for her, since she could hardly walk, but the jailers told them that they were 'babying' her, and moved Ms. Richardson to a different area in the jail, away from the inmates that were trying to help her."

Jail staff refused to take Richardson to the hospital, despite her worsening condition, her daughter says.
"Deputy/jailer Doe responded as though he believed Ms. Richardson was just putting on.
"Ms. Richardson then stated ‘I need to lay down.’
"Ms. Richardson laid down on the courtroom floor and her body started to shaking.
"Deputy/jailer Doe took no action to assist Ms. Richardson or to clear the courtroom.
Everyone in the courtroom watched as Ms. Richardson died in court, on the courtroom floor...

...Emergency personnel arrived 45 minutes later and took Richardson, who was unresponsive, to the hospital. London says her mother was pronounced dead within 5 minutes of arriving at the hospital. She seeks punitive damages for constitutional violations, wrongful death and negligence. She is represented by Charles Tatum Jr. of Jasper, Ala. Read more here

Justia Docket, Estate of Dwana Voncia London Richardson et al v. Surles et al
Case Number: 4: 2013-cv-00927
Court: Alabama Northern District Court

The Legal Field Attracts Psychopaths, Author Says; Not That There Is Anything Wrong with That

The Legal Field Attracts Psychopaths, Author Says; Not That There Is Anything Wrong with That
ABA Journal Law News Now
By Debra Cassens Weiss
November 13, 2012


CEOs and lawyers are among the professions with the most psychopaths—evidence that psychopathic traits aren’t all bad, according to a new book by an Oxford research psychologist.

The book is The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What saints, spies and serial killers can teach us about success. The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal have reviews.

It’s a matter of degree, author Kevin Dutton argues in the book. At the high end of the scale are serial killers like Ted Bundy. But some psychopathic traits can pave the way to success and help people deal with the stresses of living, Dutton says. His "Seven Deadly Wins" are ruthlessness, charm, focus, mental toughness, fearlessness, mindfulness and action.

Dutton says some professions attract people with psychopathic tendencies, and lawyers are second on the list. The Post quotes one successful lawyer who spoke to Dutton. "Deep inside me there’s a serial killer lurking somewhere," the lawyer says. "But I keep him amused with cocaine, Formula One, booty calls, and coruscating cross-examination."

Dutton developed his list of the top psychopathic professions through an online survey last year, he told Smithsonian.com in an interview. "Any situation where you’ve a got a power structure, a hierarchy, the ability to manipulate or wield control over people, you get psychopaths doing very well," Dutton said.

Digital Spy listed Dutton’s top 10 most psychopathic professions: Read more here

"Psychopath Test Determines Fate of Some Criminals" published online May 31, 2011.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

William Gelin, Rabble-Rousing Attorney Behind JAA Blog, Targeted by the Florida Bar

William Gelin, Rabble-Rousing Attorney Behind JAA Blog, 
Targeted by the Florida Bar
Broward Palm Beach
New Times blog
By Kyle Swenson
May 24 2013


Since 2006, attorney and courthouse muckraker William "Bill" Gelin has been shaking up the judiciary on his popular site, JAA Blog. Whether sounding off about potential corruption and racism in the courthouse ruling class, or even its work habits, the 46-year-old Oakland Park attorney hasn't held back his opinions. But now it looks like his criticisms are boomeranging right back.

In the last few months, the attorney has been fielding heat from the Florida Bar. The statewide group has opened a complaint investigation into the blogger. But the organization won't tell Gelin why the complaint has been filed or at whose behest.

"They won't cite any rule that I've violated. They won't city any misconduct that I've done," he tells New Times. "They just want to poke around and ask a bunch of questions about the blog, which makes me think they want to set me up for something."

It's ironic that the muzzle is coming out now. For the last year or so, Gelin's blogging has slowed due to family duties and boredom. But when he was firing on all cylinders, JAA Blog peeled back the lid on the day-to-day mechanics of the courthouse. Besides offering opinion and insight, the blog also held judges accountable - even keeping a running count on the days they weren't working or publicizing their early exits. Obviously, putting the judiciary on blast didn't earn the blog a lot of friends.

"If you go back over the many years of it, there have been a lot of extremely powerful people that we've knocked down multiple pegs," says. "Obviously there are a lot of people with axes to grind out there." Two judges in particular were favorite targets on JAA Blog - Broward County Judge Robert Diaz and Palm Beach County Judge Marni Bryson.

Since the early months of the year, Gelin has been receiving letters from the Bar about his blogging. The latest letter - dated May 10 - asked specifically if Gelin was behind the blog, and also listed a number of specific entries in question, many dealing with Diaz. But the letters didn't say what rule he violated or what was offensive in the entries, Gelin says. At this point, the Bar just wants an admission of authorship.

In response to the Bar's questions, Gelin's own attorneys have argued the JAA Blog entries are a form of political speech. "I don't see how they can force anyone to ID themselves as the author of a political article," says Russell Cormican. "I think it's tantamount to them sending a letter asking, 'Bill, are you a member of the Communist Party?'"

The Florida Bar's Francine Walker tells New Times the organization cannot comment on ongoing investigations. She did note that the bar can open its own cases against it's members. "All of our cases do not have to be opened by swore affidavit. The bar has the ability to open cases based on information we've received or even information we've seen in the media."

Although his case file seem to indicate the Bar is the complainant in his case, Gelin still wonders if anyone from the laundry-list of people he's pissed off is responsible.

"My whole thing is they obviously have trouble with this new technology that allows lawyers to get information out to the general public that normally would be talked about in the courthouse cafeteria or an elevator," he says. "My thing is fine, if they want to further restrict the speech of lawyers, which they have the right to do, they need to pass some rules and make clear what they need to do. They just can't change the rules as they go." Read more here

Follow Kyle on Twitter @kyletalking. For tips, send an e-mail.

George Packer: Don’t CEOs have any shame?

George Packer
George Packer: Don’t CEOs have any shame?
Salon, by Dan Oppenheimer
May 26, 2013


Of all the compliments I’m inclined to pay to George Packer’s new book, "The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America," the one worth paying first is that it’s a pleasure to read, though not in the way I anticipated.

Packer is intelligent, explicitly analytical and happy to give himself plenty of word count to interrogate his subject from every angle. It’s a style he brings to his reporting in the New Yorker and to books like "The Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq."

"The Unwinding" is complex and intelligent, but these qualities are coalescent rather than explicit. And the narrative space of the book is highly pressurized. The chapters are short. The sentences shoot forward. The descriptors come quick and sharp and loaded for bear. The perspective jumps from one protagonist to the next rapidly, with nothing connecting the many characters — knowns like Newt Gingrich, unknowns like struggling biofuels entrepreneur Dean Price — except for Packer’s masterful location of them within the larger drama of the "unwinding."

"If you were born around 1960 or afterwards, you spent your adult life in the vertigo of that unwinding," writes Packer in his prologue. "You watched structures that had been in place before your birth collapse like pillars of salt across the vast visible landscape — the farms of the Carolina Piedmont, the factories of the Mahoning Valley, Florida subdivisions, California schools. And other things, harder to see but no less vital in supporting the order of everyday life, changed beyond recognition — ways and means in Washington caucus rooms, taboos on New York trading desks, manners and morals everywhere. When the norms that made the old institutions useful began to unwind, and the leaders abandoned their posts, the Roosevelt Republic that had reigned for almost half a century came undone. The void was filled by the default force in American life, organized money."...

... When I got the angriest, while reading the book, was when you were talking about the foreclosure courts in Tampa. We encounter a lawyer who’s advocating for people who were in danger of losing their homes. He discovered that the banks’ cases fell apart if he put up the least resistance. At that point, reading it, I assumed the court would dismiss the banks’ cases against these people, let them stay in their homes. Instead the default assumption was on behalf of the banks. It was infuriating.

There is something almost Dickensian about those foreclosure courts. You just want to come up with some elaborate metaphor out of "Bleak House" to describe the remorseless, inhuman, machine-like quality they have, just grinding through case after case after case, totally disconnected from what we think of as justice, and certainly from what seems best for the human beings involved. Thirty cases in an hour. As one woman said to me, your house is gone in less time then you spend at the McDonald’s drive-up window.

I had thought of the courts as one institution that was still functioning reasonably well, but these state foreclosure courts were a picture of chaos. Documents are missing. There are phony signatures. No one is even asking the basic question: Can’t we find a way to keep people in their houses?

It’s just not good for anyone for millions of people to lose their homes. It’s not good for the bank. It’s not good for society. It’s certainly not good for the homeowners. But we just did not have the wherewithal as a country to come together with a solution. Tampa is kind of the heart of the matter. It’s where the problems are at their most palpable....Read more here
 

"The Unwinding": What’s gone wrong with America
Salon, by Laura Miller
May 19, 2013


Think of George Packer’s new book, "The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America" as the un-Internet take on the transformation this country has undergone in the past 35 years. It’s wide ranging, deeply reported, historically grounded and ideologically restrained. To write "The Unwinding", Packer clearly had to spend a lot of time out of his own habitat and in the company of other people, listening more than talking, and largely keeping his opinions to himself. Imagine that! It’s called journalism.

Packer’s inspiration, as he explains in the book’s afternotes, was the "U.S.A." trilogy by John Dos Passos, three novels that use a third-person choral method to portray American life in the early 20th century. "The Unwinding," while nonfiction, is narrative rather than polemical or analytic. Each chapter is a story, or an installment in a story, about a person or place. Some of the subjects are famous (Newt Gingrich, Oprah Winfrey, Colin Powell, Alice Waters) because such people, Packer writes, now "occupy the personal place of household gods, and they offer themselves as answers to the riddle of how to live a good or better life." But the key figures, the ones whose trajectories arc through the entire book like ribs or rafters, are unknowns: an African-American factory worker turned organizer in Ohio, a disillusioned lawyer who drifts from public service to finance and back again, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist with extreme libertarian beliefs and a scion of North Carolina tobacco farmers trying to make it as an entrepreneur. In the book’s most bravura chapters, the city of Tampa, Fla. serves as yet another character. Read more here

'Obama must be taken before ICC for the war on terror' - Chomsky to RT


'Obama must be taken before ICC for the war on terror' - Chomsky to RT
Russia Today Interview
May 23, 2013

The US war on terror is in fact the most massive terror campaign ever, and the invasion of Iraq was the worst crime in recent history, prominent liberal thinker Noam Chomsky told RT, adding that he wants to see Bush, Blair and Obama tried at the ICC.

The ‘father of modern linguistics,’ Chomsky reflects on the language of the war on terror, coming to the conclusion that the freer the society, the more sophisticated its propaganda.

RT: As someone who was living in the aftermath of the Boston bombings, the chaos, what did you think of the police and media response to them?

Noam Chomsky: I hate to second guess police tactics, but my impression was that it was kind of overdone. There didn’t have to be that degree of militarization of the area. Maybe there did, maybe not. It is kind of striking that the suspect they were looking for was found by a civilian after they lifted the curfew. They just noticed some blood on the street. But I have nothing to say about police tactics. As far as media was concerned, there was 24 hour coverage on television on all the channels.

RT: Also zeroing in on one tragedy while ignoring others, across the Muslim world, for example...

NC: Two days after the Boston bombing there was a drone strike in Yemen, one of many, but this one we happen to know about because the young man from the village that was hit testified before the Senate a couple of days later and described it. It was right at the same time. And what he said is interesting and relevant. He said that they were trying to kill someone in his village, he said that the man was perfectly well known and they could have apprehended him if they wanted. Read more here

Members of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands (AFP Photo / HO)

Monday, May 27, 2013

Courthouse blogger faces Bar scrutiny after criticizing judges

Bill Gelin, JAABlog
Courthouse blogger faces Bar scrutiny after criticizing judges
Sun Sentinel
By Rafael Olmeda
May 18, 2013


A Fort Lauderdale lawyer whose courthouse blog trades in news and gossip about South Florida's legal community is fighting off an investigation by the Florida Bar after publishing articles that criticized judges in Palm Beach and Broward counties.

Bill Gelin, 46, is widely known as the main writer and publisher of the posts that appear on JAABlog, which started as an arm of a group called the Justice Advocacy Association and now is all that's left of it.

The Florida Bar, which governs the conduct of the state's attorneys, confirmed that it has opened two investigations into Gelin's conduct specifically related to the blog. Bar spokeswoman Karen Kirksey declined to answer more specific questions, citing Bar rules. The Bar also would not disclose whether anyone complained about the articles or whether the Bar initiated the investigation on its own.

Nova Southeastern University law professor Bob Jarvis said the Bar's action may provide a long-needed test case to determine just how far a lawyer can go in exercising his First Amendment right to criticize judges without jeopardizing his professional standing.

Since its inception in 2006, JAABlog has frequently targeted the Broward State Attorney's Office and judges who sit on the bench in Broward, less frequently reporting on Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

The Bar investigation is focusing on articles criticizing Broward County Judge Robert Diaz and Palm Beach County Judge Marni Bryson.

In 2012, JAABlog made sport of cataloging Diaz's daily court calendar, painting a picture of a jurist who spends little time hearing cases. Diaz did not return a call from the Sun Sentinel seeking comment.

The first item about Bryson appeared in January.

"Anyone familiar with the blog knows we've got a whole new, all-consuming purpose in life, and its name is Marni," the article said. It pointed to unfavorable coverage of her in The Palm Beach Post, including allegations of possible campaign finance violations during her 2010 run for office.

Reached by phone Friday, Bryson declined to comment.

Within weeks of that article's appearance, Gelin received letters from the Bar asking him whether he wrote it and the articles about Diaz.

Attorney Norm Kent, who is representing Gelin, said his client doesn't have to answer. In a May 14 letter, Kent chided the Bar for questioning Gelin without explaining what Bar rule he is alleged to have violated.

The Bar has rules barring lawyers from bringing the profession into disrepute and criticizing judges with false or reckless statements, but Gelin said they don't apply to the posts on JAABlog.

"As long as I tell the truth and it's accurate, I can say whatever I want," Gelin said. Read more here

raolmeda@tribune.com, 954-356-4457 or Twitter @SSCourts

 Also see related story on the Justice Building Blog



Sunday, May 26, 2013

Legal aid lawyer fired amid turmoil at agency

Elizabeth Boyle, right, with Gina Ruiz.
Legal aid lawyer fired amid turmoil at agency
Herald-Tribune
By Lee Williams
May 22, 2013


SARASOTA - Elizabeth Boyle, the longtime head of Gulfcoast Legal Services' Sarasota office, has been fired, four months after she filed a federal age discrimination complaint against the new executive director of the St. Petersburg-based nonprofit.

Boyle, 54, says her firing stems from her refusal to drop a case involving a 29-year-old quadriplegic.

"I was told I was being disciplined because I had opened a case after being told to reject it," Boyle said. "This young, single mom needed help. I would make the same decision again."

Boyle and other Gulfcoast attorneys provide free legal advice about foreclosures, family law — including domestic violence and emergency protection orders — paternity and child-custody cases, elder law, immigration and more.

The nonprofit has about 34 paid staff members and offices in five cities.

Boyle grew Gulfcoast's Sarasota office into a legal powerhouse with the help of a few staff attorneys and more than a dozen experienced volunteers — mostly retired lawyers who provided their legal expertise for free.

Before she fired Boyle, Gulfcoast's new executive director, Kathleen M. Mullin, got rid of the volunteers, which prompted Boyle to file her age discrimination complaint.

"Volunteers have rights, too," Boyle said. "They are covered under the Age Discrimination Employment Act of 1967."

Mullin declined to be interviewed for this story, insisting on written questions delivered by email.

"As someone with ample experience with the press, I have a rule as well that I do not grant telephone interviews with reporters who appear to have formulated a hostile story line," Mullin wrote. "Email provides me the opportunity that what I say is accurately captured and relayed." Read more here

Hat Tip to the Matt Weidner blog

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Pro se homeowner wins rare federal stay of sale in foreclosure case

Pro se homeowner wins rare federal stay of sale in foreclosure case
ABA Journal Law News Now
May 7, 2013
By Martha Neil


Representing herself in federal court without the help of a lawyer, a Colorado homeowner has won a rare ruling staying the auction sale of her home after she lost a state-court mortgage foreclosure case.

U.S. District Judge William Martinez on Monday issued an order temporarily staying the sale of Lisa Kay Brumfiel's home in Arapahoe County, which had been set to go to auction on Wednesday, reports the Denver Post.

Brumfiel, 43, who works as a part-time saleswoman, is now scheduled to argue on May 15 why Colorado's mortgage-foreclosure law violates the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She is up against not only U.S. Bank but Larry Castle, a powerful state foreclosure lawyer.

At issue in Brumfiel's federal case, the newspaper explains, is whether the foreclosure plaintiff has shown in the state-court case that the mortgage and note for her Aurora home were validly transferred to U.S. Bank. She originally took out her loan from First Franklin Mortgage.

"Colorado is the only state in the country that allows an unsworn statement by an attorney for a foreclosing party—without any penalty—to say, 'Trust me, judge, these guys are the qualified holder for this deed of trust,' " Martinez said, giving a glimpse of his thinking so far. "Is there another state that has lowered the bar for a foreclosure any lower?" Read more

New federal agency sues 2 law firms over debt-relief fees; one attorney is also criminally charged

New federal agency sues 2 law firms over debt-relief fees; one attorney is also criminally charged
ABA Journal Law News Now
May 7, 2013
By Martha Neil


A new federal agency filed a lawsuit Tuesday against two New York City area law firms and an attorney who owns a related business. It contends that they charged illegal advance fees for so-called debt-relief services that provided little or no benefit to consumers, who routinely lost amounts ranging from $1,300 to $3,000.

In addition to the advance-fee allegations against Mission Settlement Agency; its attorney-owner Michael Levitis and his law office; Premier Consulting Group; and the Law Office of Michael Lupolover, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also alleges that Mission and Levitis violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act by using unfair and deceptive marketing practices, the Blog of Legal Times reports.

Among other issues, the civil complaint (PDF) filed in federal court in Manhattan by the CFPB says the Mission defendants violated federal law by misrepresenting to consumers the fees that would be charged and the benefits that would be provided concerning the debt-relief services they marketed.

Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment that includes criminal charges against Mission Settlement Agency, Levitis, and three current or former employees, according to the Hill's RegWatch page. It was the first criminal case ever brought based on a referral by the CFPB, the article says.

The indictment (PDF) accuses the criminal defendants of participating in a mail and wire fraud conspiracy that bilked consumers out of millions of dollars.

As part of the criminal case, the DOJ is seeking to seize the Rasputin Supper Club in Brooklyn, which is owned by Levitis, the New York Daily News reports. Federal prosecutors say he used money from the debt-relief operation to fund the glitzy Brighton Beach club, lease two upscale vehicles and pay his mother's credit-card bills.

A press release from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office provides further details.

"These wolves in sheep’s clothing take money from consumers who are already struggling to pay their bills, falsely promising them help while really making their problems worse," CFPB director Richard Cordray said said in a written statement provided to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Attorney Jeffrey Lichtman represents Levitis and tells the BLT that his client has been cooperating the government. He said Levitis has been trying to meet with prosecutors to provide evidence about the "rogue former employees who committed many of the frauds alleged in the indictment" before exiting to open their own debt-relief business. "Now Michael Levitis is left to clean up the mess," Lichtman said.

In an email to the BLT, Lupolover said the CFPB suit "has nothing to do with the law offices of Michael Lupolover." Read more

Friday, May 17, 2013

Law prof confesses: I am a sociopath

Law prof confesses: I am a sociopath
ABA Journal Law News Now
May 17, 2013
By Debra Cassens Weiss


Could this have been written by one of your law professors? "Remorse is alien to me. I have a penchant for deceit. I am generally free of entangling and irrational emotions. I am strategic and canny, intelligent and confident, but I also struggle to react appropriately to other people's confusing and emotion-driven social cues."

The paragraph is published in a Psychology Today article by an author who says she is a law professor and a diagnosed sociopath. Above the Law notes the "truly chilling article," but blogger Elie Mystal opts to turn "the snark meter way down on this post because, well, I don’t want to be murdered."

The article is adapted from a memoir released on May 14, called Confessions of a Psychopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight, written under the pseudonym M. E. Thomas.

Thomas writes that she has never murdered anyone (though she certainly wanted to), nor has she spent time in jail. She is a Sunday school teacher in a church that teaches it is actions, rather than thoughts, that count. She admits to good actions, such as buying a house for her closest friend, as well as bad, including setting up a rival for disappointment in a relationship and beating a childhood friend.

Before becoming a trial lawyer, the author says she prosecuted misdemeanors in the District Attorney’s office and was an associate in a law firm. "My sociopathic traits make me a particularly excellent trial lawyer," Thomas writes. "I'm cool under pressure. I feel no guilt or compunction, which is handy in such a dirty business. Misdemeanor prosecutors almost always have to walk into a trial with cases they've never worked on before. All you can do is bluff and hope that you'll be able to scramble through it. The thing with sociopaths is that we are largely unaffected by fear. Besides, the nature of the crime is of no moral concern to me; I am interested only in winning the legal game."

Thomas says she was not a victim of child abuse, though she grew up in a family "with a violent father and an indifferent, sometimes hysterical, mother. I loathed my father. He was phenomenally unreliable as a breadwinner, and we often came home to find the power shut off because we were months behind in our electricity bill. He spent thousands of dollars on expensive hobbies, while we were bringing oranges from our backyard to school for lunch. The first recurring dream I can remember was about killing him with my bare hands." Read more