Friday, December 31, 2021

Robed In Secrecy

Core to the United States is the idea that we have three branches of government, the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, working in a way that provides a check and balance system to ensure no one branch has too much power. That is the theory anyway. In practice it doesn't always work that well. 

Judges have almost all the power in court. Usually they can get away with blatant discrimination, favoritism and even, as my case shows, openly rewarding crime. 

But once in awhile even judges go too far. One judge who went way too far is Michael F. McGuire from New York

That wasn’t his only concerning behavior, according to an ethics complaint filed in 2018 by a state watchdog agency, which accused McGuire of berating court staff members; making “undignified” comments, such as suggesting that people in his court would date a “drug dealer” or a “slut”; presiding over cases in which his impartiality could be called into question; and representing family members and friends in personal cases. The watchdog agency, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, said he “lacked candor” during its investigation.

McGuire was removed from the bench. But that was his only punishment. Indeed, he went from the bench right into the position of county attorney. I am not surprised. 

Misconduct findings are rare in the judicial complaint process. Legal ethics experts say the minuscule share of judges punished every year isn’t necessarily indicative that all is well in the judiciary — it suggests a lack of accountability.

Sadly the only thing unusual about McGuire is that he was caught. Judges, like lawyers in general, are rarely disciplined for misconduct or criminal actions they commit. Which only serves to attract the very people who should never be judges to the bench. 

Monday, December 27, 2021

Accountability vs. Justice

Right after the manslaughter conviction of Kimberly Potter for the death of Daunte Wright, Minnesota attorney general, and former congressman, Keith Ellison stated

With the jury finding Kimberly Potter guilty today of manslaughter in the first degree and manslaughter in the second degree in connection with his death, we have a measure of accountability for Daunte’s death. Accountability is not justice: justice would be restoring Daunte to life and making the Wright family whole. Justice is beyond our reach for Daunte. But accountability is an important step on the long road to justice for all. 

Ellison stated something similar after Derek Chauvin's murder conviction for death of George Floyd.

That long, hard, painstaking work has culminated today. I would not call today’s verdict “justice”, however, because justice implies true restoration. But it is accountability, which is the first step towards justice. And now the cause of justice is in your hands. And when I say your hands, I mean the hands of the people of the United States.

I find find the distinction between accountability and justice interesting. I had not quite thought about it that way before but it does make sense. 

In my own situation, accountability, at least for some of the guilty, is primarily what I am working on now. That is what this site as well as LegalReformMN.org is all about. 

But what about justice? What would that entail. I would be trilled to just get back what I lost financially. But that wouldn't really be justice. Justice would be undoing all the pain and misery I and especially my children and loved ones have experienced throughout the entire nightmare. I suppose a financial value could be put on that but even if that miraculously happened, it would never undo all the damage. 

Friday, December 17, 2021

Attorney View On Lying In Court

The Texas law firm of  Bryan Fagen has an interesting article on lying in family court.  The article itself is, as far as I can tell, accurate but it does exclude some key items, namely.

  • It only discusses clients lying in court not attorneys. 
  • Although it does mention that attorneys have a duty to report to the judge if they know their client is lying, in reality this almost never happens. 
  • The article states that judges will take into account if they determine someone is lying. Sadly, this is by no means assured or even common.   
The reality is in family court lying by clients and lawyers has become just another tool. Indeed, probably the most commonly used tool. If such crimes were prosecuted or negatively taken into account by judges they would never have become some prevalent. 

Saturday, December 11, 2021

Judge Admits To Problems In Family Court

 

Connecticut judge Thomas Moukawsher has admitted that Family Court “isn’t serving the public interest very well." 

Judge Thomas Moukawsher:

In some cases, over-analysis by costly experts and guardians-ad-litem has unfairly delayed cases from getting decided or has even financially broken the parties with enormous expenses. Judges traditionally don’t police this aspect of a case, so it has too often gotten out of hand…,  Sometimes the lawyers tie up a case for years with frivolous motions, harassing discovery, and baseless accusations that divert the court in custody cases from where it should focus like a laser: on getting a decision about the best interests of the children.

Investigative journalist Keith Harmon Snow has exposed the corruption that exists in family court which is enriching many lawyers and other involved in family court while greatly harming children and honest parents who are only thing to do the right thing. 

It is difficult to overestimate the amount of corruption that goes on in family court. Crime has become normalized and perjury/fraud just legal tactic. 

Saturday, December 4, 2021

A Feminist Tries Out Being A Man

What happens when a feminist tries out being a man? She learns a lot!  Norah Vincent  went undercover as a man to expose just how bad male chauvinism is. After joining a men's bowling team she found out to her surprise that the guys on the team were just a great bunch of dudes. Not only that, but she couldn't wait to get back to being a woman as being a man wasn't quite the privileged life she expected. 

Now the point isn't that female privilege exists and male privilege doesn't, it is that both do and both are wrong. Women should make as much as men for equal work, be equally represented on boards of directors, in executive level position, and in the political arena. Men should not have to do virtually all the dying and being injured in wars and dangerous positions nor should they be expected to be the breadwinner for the family. 

Unfortunately many people cannot even have a rational conversation on the matter as they simply gravitate to the extremes on either side. 

Kudos to Ms. Vincent for being intelligent enough to change her position.