{"id":10877,"date":"2015-08-02T18:22:54","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T01:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=10877"},"modified":"2015-10-07T20:46:45","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T03:46:45","slug":"the-good-judges-the-robed-clowns-and-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=10877","title":{"rendered":"The Good Judges, The Robed Clowns and Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Federal<\/a>By Raul Hernandez<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Notebookventura@gmail.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

“A judge shall respect and comply with law and shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.” \u2014 California Code of Judicial Conduct<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

There are good judges, Baca and Bunton, come to mind and then, there are all others.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Justice<\/a>It was a slow day in the newsroom in El Paso more than two decades ago when I got a call from District Court Judge Jose Baca’s secretary “Mo,”<\/strong> short for Maureen Bailey.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The judge wants to see you. It’s important,” \u00a0she said.<\/p>\n

“I’ll be over in an hour. I’m wrapping up a story.”<\/p>\n

“He needs for you to come over right now,” she said. “It’s important.”<\/p>\n

“Alright.”<\/p>\n

I hit the send button and watched my story get swallowed up. \u00a0Then grabbed my notebook, quickly put my sports coat on and walked to the state courthouse a few blocks away.<\/p>\n

I get there. The judge’s door is closed. He never closes the door. I’m thinking either he is going to chew my ass out, I’m getting a grand jury subpoena or it’s a big story. \u00a0Mo says, “sit down” and punches a couple numbers on the phone. “Judge, he’s here.”<\/p>\n

“Go on in,” Mo said sternly.<\/p>\n

I walk into his chambers and a very somber Judge Baca is sitting behind his desk. I walk in and I’m about to sit down. He says just above a whisper, “Close the door behind you.” \u00a0I do that, now thinking, this is a 10 on the serious richter scale.<\/p>\n

“What’s up, judge?”<\/p>\n

“Sit down. Let me show you something.”<\/p>\n

I sit. He opens a drawer, pulls out a bright, white handkerchief puts it on his desk and spreads it. \u00a0Then he pulls out a small cardboard box, and he takes out a \u00a0watch, and says, “Rolex.” \u00a0He pulls out another Rolex and arranges them neatly on top of the handkerchief. Finally, two more expensive watches are taken out of the box.<\/p>\n

“Wow, where did you get those?” I ask.<\/p>\n

He leans back in his chair, slowly shakes his head and his face is bleak. \u00a0He said the name of a prominent and well-known lawyer who was tight with the district attorneys,\u00a0whom\u00a0everybody suspected was a sleazy shyster. \u00a0The judge uttered a curse word.<\/p>\n

“Can you believe that? \u00a0I’ve got one of his cases, and he gave me the watches for a favorable decision.”<\/p>\n

“So what are you going to do?”<\/p>\n

“There is going to be an investigation. \u00a0It’s big,” he said before muttering a few more choice cuss words at this lawyer. “I just wanted to give you a heads up.”<\/p>\n

My brain is doing summersaults. I am thinking Pulitzer. This is going to bring down the house, and I get to write about it. Woooow. \u00a0But I keep my cool, maintaining a poker face, perfected through my years as a newspaper reporter.<\/p>\n

Finally, I’ll be able to nail this scumbag attorney who many joked that he had the keys to the DA’s office. This story would be\u00a0on the front page under a two-inch bold headline with details. I gently laid my eyes on the four watches and looked at the judge.<\/p>\n

“So, who is investigating? \u00a0Is the FBI involved?” I ask.<\/p>\n

“The sheriff,” the judge said before he burst out laughing. \u00a0It’s a prank. Red-faced, I feel stupid and grumbled.<\/p>\n

Grinning, the judge who had recently returned from a trip to Indonesia purchased them for less than $30, and planned to give them to friends as gifts.<\/p>\n

With my feathers ruffled, I left with the judge’s and Mo’s laughter echoing inside my head.<\/p>\n

The Good Judges in Robes<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"BUNTON\"<\/a>
Former U.S. District Judge Lucius Bunton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Former<\/a>
Retired Judge Jose Baca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’ve seen more than my share of judges in the more than 18 years of covering municipal, state and federal courts. Judge Baca<\/strong>\u00a0and U.S. District Judge Lucius Bunton\u00a0<\/strong>are on the top of a very long judicial list, as judges who epitomize integrity and fairness. They both hammered criminals who victimized the community, and both had a great sense of humor.<\/p>\n

In Ventura County, California, Judges Vincent O’Neill<\/strong> and. Kevin J. McGee<\/strong> come to mind. \u00a0Judges O’Neill and McGee are extremely well prepared, courteous, a calm demeanor on the bench and know the law backwards and forwards.<\/p>\n

There are many good judges who put on the robes and understand that justice must sometimes be tempered with compassion. That they are dealing with people’s lives, and not everybody needs to be put in cages for the rest of their lives or for a very long time.<\/p>\n

\"Judge<\/a>
Vincent O’NeillTheJudges who are also very sensitive to the victims of crimes whose lives have been torn apart, especially by heinous crimes committed by violent criminals.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Other Side of Justice<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve seen the other side too: The robed clowns who sit on the bench and act like carnival barkers. Those who sit in judgment of others but are nothing more than witnesses for the prosecution. The pompous asses who love getting their egos stroke and lamed jokes laughed at by mealy mouth lawyers shopping for favorable rulings.<\/p>\n

There are the rubber-stamps who work for the DA’s offices and run judicial assembly lines, and the political hacks who are on the bench simply to advance the philosophy and talking points of the conservative or liberal political party.<\/p>\n

Then, there are the robber baron magistrates. The robed\u00a0bobbleheads that serve as the guardians of the municipal cash registers. These are usually desperate and struggling lawyers who sit on the bench because they are lousy lawyers and can’t find clients. So they agree that for a price, they will don the robes and sit in traffic or small claims courts.<\/p>\n

Or this judicial task is handled by an aging, retired judge who works part-time in these courts, clowns like former Ferguson\u00a0Judge Ronald Brockmeyer<\/strong><\/p>\n

They pretend to mete out justice in exchange for a fat government paycheck. Their sole purpose, in many cases, is to generate revenue to maintain the fat salaries and perks of those working in the criminal justice system or augment the revenue in the city coffers.<\/p>\n

Criminals and Bad Drivers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the right-wing mantra is this: Minorities commit most of the crimes.<\/p>\n

So, of course, this means that minorities are also bad drivers. \u00a0In most cities, there is a disproportionate amount of Hispanics, Blacks and Asians waiting to see judges in Traffic Court.<\/p>\n

The majority of those in traffic and criminal courts in El Paso are Hispanic, and this is because 80 percent of the population of nearly 800,000 is Hispanic. The city, which\u00a0sits on the border with Juarez, which was once considered the murder capital of the world, is considered one of the safest cities of its size in the United States.<\/p>\n

In Ferguson the city where Michael Brown was killed, the Department of Justice reported that\u00a0Blacks accounted for 85 percent of traffic stops, 90 percent of tickets and 93 percent of arrests over a two-year period studied by investigators.<\/p>\n

In cases like jaywalking, which often hinge on police discretion, blacks accounted for 95 percent of those charged. A black motorist in Ferguson was twice as likely to be searched, according to the report, even though searches of whites turned up drugs and other contraband more often, the Department of Justice reported.<\/p>\n

A New York Times report<\/a> stated “Ferguson, a city of 21,000, is unusual in some respects \u2014 it has issued the most warrants of any city in the state relative to its size, for example \u2014 but the unfairness in its court system that the Justice Department highlighted is not limited to it, to St. Louis County or even to Missouri.”<\/p>\n

\"Judge<\/a>
Ronald Brockmeyer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Department of Justice criticized then Judge Brockmeyer for acting as a revenue generator for the court and the city, helping to bring in millions through \u201ccreative\u201d use of fines and fees, while dismissing tickets for himself and friends, according to the St. Louis-Post Dispatch.<\/a><\/p>\n

The report also criticized\u00a0him for instilling fear in traffic defendants, even jailing one for 10 days because the man refused to answer questions in court.<\/p>\n

By the way, this judicial jackass ,who was browbeating and threatening Black motorists, owed more than $170,000 in unpaid taxes, the Guardian reported<\/a><\/p>\n

DOJ finds Ferguson targeted African-Americans, used courts mainly to increase revenue<\/a><\/p>\n

Clowns in Judicial Robes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then, there are the bigots in robes like Charleston Judge\u00a0James Gosnell, <\/strong>and the\u00a0judicial pretenders like \u00a0Judge John O\u2019Donnell<\/strong> of Cleveland<\/p>\n

\"Charleston<\/a>
James Gosnell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gosnell in 2003 held a bond hearing for a Charleston shooting Black suspect where he made a racial slur during the hearing. He was disciplined for what he said.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2015, Gosnell said there should be sympathy for the family of Dylann Roff<\/strong> who is accused of killing nine people who had invited him into their church.<\/p>\n

This was the work of an evil racist who sat at a Bible study group with those who welcomed him when he walked into their church. Who sat there for an hour and heard the Word of God before he executed his hate-filled plan, opened fire and killed nine people.<\/p>\n

People whose families forgave this killer and didn’t utter a vicious or hateful word against him.<\/p>\n

Also in 2003, Gosnell helped\u00a0out a fellow judge who was arrested for DUI and having an open container in his vehicle. \u00a0Gosnell did everything he could to help the other judge speed through his bond hearing so he could be released, but did not comply with an administrative order to give bond hearings to all other incarcerated individuals.<\/p>\n

The Rigged Judicial Game in Cleveland<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Cleveland,<\/a>
Cleveland, Judge John O’Donnell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The robed pretender in Cleveland, Judge John O’Donnell,<\/strong> recently found a cop not guilty in the deaths of two unarmed suspects.<\/p>\n

Afterwards and to his credit, the prosecutor, Timothy J. McGinty of Cuyahoga County, said in court documents that were posted \u00a0on The Plain Dealer newspaper website<\/a> that Judge John O\u2019Donnell\u2019s reasoning in the voluntary-manslaughter trial of Officer Michael Brelo could set a legal precedent that would \u201cendanger the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The newspaper stated that McGinty said Officer Brelo\u2019s acquittal<\/a> on May 23 in the 2012 deaths of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell in a storm of police bullets was based on the judge\u2019s mistaken analysis of laws concerning police use of deadly force and on homicide involving more than one person who fired shots. He said the judge had also considered the wrong lesser charge \u2014 felonious assault \u2014 when he should have considered attempted voluntary manslaughter or aggravated assault.<\/p>\n

This is a cop who stood on the hood of the car and fired through the windshield. This is the Cleveland Police Department that is under federal scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors contend O’Donnell erred by:<\/strong><\/p>\n