Bad Judge, Bad Judge What'cha Gonna Do? - The Podcast

"SteveLehto" (stevelehto) 01/28/2016 at 09:00 • Filed to: None

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Every profession has its bad apples but it still shocks us when we hear about bad judges, right? So today, I give you the roundup of Michigan’s recent ne’er-do-well bad judges.

Wait - Judges go bad? Like, how? Oh, there is the judge who offered to fix tickets for the good looking defendants who appeared before him. Or the judge who jailed a woman for ten days because she allegedly cussed in the clerk’s office - even though she wasn’t even in the court!

How about the Michigan Supreme Court justice who pulled a little bank fraud and was sentenced to the federal pen? Or the Wayne County judge who texted sexy snaps of himself to court employees and had an affair with a woman who had business in his courtroom.

Yes, Michigan’s judges can really lower the bar. Or raise it, depending on which way you look at these things. So I have the lurid details of these bad judges and more, in this week’s podcast. Here is the audio:

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And the video.

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Steve Lehto has been practicing law for 24 years, almost exclusively in consumer protection and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! He wrote !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

This website may supply general information about the law but it is for informational purposes only. This does not create an attorney-client relationship and is not meant to constitute legal advice, so the good news is we’re not billing you by the hour for reading this. The bad news is that you shouldn’t act upon any of the information without consulting a qualified professional attorney who will, probably, bill you by the hour.

MuchWagon > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:08

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Steve check out Crooked Brooklyn, just came out and is on Amazon, also stories of seriously corrupt judges.

Disclaimer: I know the author.

Not posting a link because not sure of the etiquette, but it comes right up in a search.

SteveLehto > MuchWagon 01/28/2016 at 09:11

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Thanks. I haven’t read it but it looks good.

QADude > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:14

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I saw your video on YouTube the other day. Damn that was entertaining. I was wondering from your perspective as a lawyer what can be done from your end (I figure little to nothing) about this when you’re trying a case.

MuchWagon > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:15

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Thx for the link!

SteveLehto > QADude 01/28/2016 at 09:27

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File a complaint with the Judicial Tenure Commission (is all an attorney can do). The good thing is the JTC is pretty good about jumping on these and since everything that happens in court is on the record, most of it is pretty easy to prove.

Russo > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:27

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Niagara County family court judges (NY) are pretty bad. You wouldn’t believe the shit my fiancée went through, and the resulting custody & support decisions. I don’t have a single friend or family member who can believe it. It's sad that these people are given such power. It really gets abused.

Burn-Spaz1966-Burn > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:27

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NSFW

Your Honor, a simple request.

Roundbadge > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:30

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My BIL was sentenced to 3-5 by a corrupt judge. Most people convicted of this crime get 6 months to a year, but it’s clear now that she was attempting to pad her list of accomplishments. She was rounded up in a federal corruption case involving several county officials. Sadly he didn’t live to see her disgraced, as he passed away while still in prison.

I’m all too familiar with the fact of corrupt judges.

petroloony > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:36

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I once came across an interesting passage in a book that in some society (probably fiction) they fixed their judge problems by having the judge sit in a chair upholstered in the flayed flesh of the previous judge that was found to be corrupt.

Mark Longoria > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:44

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Can’t have a story about bad judges without mentioning the pair out of Pennsylvania involved in the kids for cash scandal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_…

CleganeBowlConfirmed > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:46

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Recently had a case where the judge took a break after the plaintiff submitted their case. He told me I had better consider settling because I wasn’t going to like the result otherwise. I hadn’t presented my case yet. Not sure what bothers me more: corrupt judges or judges that do whatever they want—the law be damned.

SteveLehto > Mark Longoria 01/28/2016 at 09:47

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Those guys should have been executed. I’ve seen several stories on it and cannot believe how evil they are.

Thanks for the note.

OneHeadLight > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:48

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http://www.chron.com/news/nation-wo…

A case of ‘stop it or justice will go blind’? Or do you prefer “May it please the court”?

I have no idea why I remember this stuff. my friend says I am a cornucopia of useless information.

SteveLehto > CleganeBowlConfirmed 01/28/2016 at 09:48

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I have seen that happen many times. I have also had a judge say that certain things WERE going to happen and other things WERE NOT going to happen - in that, he/she would influence the outcome of the case unfairly. But these kinds of statements/threats are never on the record.

SteveLehto > OneHeadLight 01/28/2016 at 09:50

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I remember that one - but I had forgotten where it happened. The good thing about the internet: Just Google “Masturbating Judge” and you’ll find it.

Thanks.

CleganeBowlConfirmed > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:52

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It’s the same judge I had for my first trial. The defendant had finished presenting her case, and I wanted to put on some rebuttal witnesses. Denied. I wanted to give a closing for the jury. Denied. The judge then went directly into his findings. His first remark was “I know Mr. [my star witness], and he’s not credible so I am going to disregard his testimony.”

Second day on the job.

chicagoE36 > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 09:53

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So, no record=no recorse?

SteveLehto > CleganeBowlConfirmed 01/28/2016 at 09:56

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I had a judge throw out a jury verdict in my favor because he said he found my client not believable. I pointed out that the jury obviously found him believable. The judge said - in essence - I don’t care, I am going to throw out the verdict. If you don’t like it, take it up on appeal.

I appealed.

The judge who heard the appeal stopped me before I began oral argument and asked defense counsel, “Why did you even bother asking the judge to throw out the verdict on those grounds? You know I am going to reverse it, right?”

The attorney said, “You can’t blame me for asking can you?”

The judge said, “Yes I can. And I am overturning the judge’s ruling and reinstating the jury verdict. You just wasted this court’s time.”

Bad judge, aided by a dumb attorney. What’cha gonna do?

SteveLehto > chicagoE36 01/28/2016 at 09:58

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Just makes it so much harder to prove.

CleganeBowlConfirmed > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 10:00

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Was the other attorney sanctioned for that?

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 10:02

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There is a judge on the west side of Michigan that resides over the district where the main campus of my university is. He is well known for giving very harsh sentences for relatively minor offenses, stuff like multiple years probation for an MIP. He is also known for being a hot head and has been suspended multiple times.

Anyways a friend of mine ended up getting an MIP many years ago and really didnt want to face the more than likely harsh sentence. So he went through the judges case history to find a conflict of interest. Found one lawyer that was held in contempt of court basically for pointing out some legal flaw in the judges reasoning. So he blew his savings on that lawyer, got the case moved to another local court and only had to pay a small fine.

So yeah, we got some crazies in power here...

SteveLehto > CleganeBowlConfirmed 01/28/2016 at 10:03

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No. The court just embarrassed him and awarded me my costs.

Umrguy42: Add $5 for shipping and handling > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 10:05

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So, what happened with the poor defendant in the Kenneth Post case after his lawyer got sent to jail? With his lawyer gone, and if he felt pressured by the judge to answer questions, that’s totally grounds for appeal, right?

And not saying anything would be “standing mute”, wouldn’t it?

petroloony > petroloony 01/28/2016 at 10:06

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the Governor’s chair in Illinois would be a good place to implement this method too.

SteveLehto > Umrguy42: Add $5 for shipping and handling 01/28/2016 at 10:09

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I was not there but I think the judge stopped questioning the man when he locked up the lawyer.

And yes, standing mute is allowed - and is the equivalent of a not guilty plea.

Russo > Russo 01/28/2016 at 10:12

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Side note: Law enforcement (at least in this jurisdiction) can't enforce a custody/visitation order. So the kids are brainwashed to hate their mom, the judge, court appointed guardian, and custodial evaluator all side with the abusive dad, and the mom doesn't get to see or talk to her kids anymore. Oh, and pay full child support. Not sure how much corruption there is, but it's definitely not right.

Umrguy42: Add $5 for shipping and handling > petroloony 01/28/2016 at 10:15

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I think at this point they’d have enough for a whole living room set...

ronmler3 > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 10:30

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These judges are all attorneys, right?

ronmler3 > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 10:33

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Reminds me of the one time I hired an attorney to defend me from a reckless driving citation. In the course of me asking him about court processes and why the judge would sometimes “change” the charge for some defendants (something I understand only the prosecution can do), the attorney’s exact words were, “The judge can do whatever the fuck he wants!”

SteveLehto > ronmler3 01/28/2016 at 10:38

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Good question. They are NOW. There was a time when you could be elected a judge in Michigan without being an attorney first. Chaos reigned.

SteveLehto > ronmler3 01/28/2016 at 10:38

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Yup.

ronmler3 > Russo 01/28/2016 at 10:39

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It’s pretty easy to find many such cases where the sexes are reversed.

ronmler3 > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 10:55

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Isn’t that still the case with the US Supreme Court (and probably others)? There’s no requirement that the justices be barred attorneys or even have gone to law school?

SteveLehto > ronmler3 01/28/2016 at 10:58

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I know in Michigan that they finally passed the law requiring membership in the Bar (which requires legal training and so on). As for the Supreme Court,(and Federal courts) there is no such requirement but . . .

It might not be required but I have to imaging there’s be an uproar from the Senate if the president nominated a non-lawyer for the SCt.

Country Mac's Ocular Patdown > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 10:58

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Reminder, don’t google this from a work computer. I am going to have a talk with my HR department now.

ronmler3 > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 11:08

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I was surprised to hear you tell the story of the dirty, corrupt dem supreme court justice being replaced by the governor with a Republican justice making the “...state of Michigan justice worse....,” or something along those lines.

Huh?!

Britt > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 11:08

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So, in ‘86 my mom divorced my stepfather. By ‘92 he still had not done what the court had ordered him to do, so she took him to court again. At the end of the court session the judge awarded ME the right to take care of one matter because he wasn’t doing it. So, I did, then he took ME to court for signing a document and attaching the court’s order telling me to do so... the NEW JUDGE would not even read the old judges order, she just reversed the issue and we had to wait another 6 years before he felt like actually doing what the court had order him to do in 1986.

So, because of that, he got full use and enjoyment from a piece of property for 12 years, while my mom did NOT get her half of the proceeds, and because of the way the NEW JUDGE worded things, he only gave her half of the value in 1986 dollars, rather than half of the value he sold it for in 1998. Awesome.

That judge was forced into retirement due to bias... Massachusetts. such a lovely state (heavy sarcasm)

SteveLehto > ronmler3 01/28/2016 at 11:13

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Are you in MICH? If not, then: The Supreme Court in Michigan has become very politicized. In that they have become hard-core right wing and you can tell which way they will vote on a case based on politics. It is no longer a law thing.

This has been pretty much across the board but it has been devastating in several fields including Consumer Protection. They ruled that the Consumer Protection Act does not apply to merchants and it does not apply to non-merchants. This is after the law had been on the books for a few decades. Their reasoning is so contorted that it is clear they simply wanted to strike the law down but couldn’t find a way to do it that made sense.

ronmler3 > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 11:31

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Oh - well, then, I guess it would be better to have a corrupt dem in there, then.....

SteveLehto > ronmler3 01/28/2016 at 11:33

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Sadly, no. I see your point but the choice shouldn’t come down to that. It should be, “Who is the best candidate - that will actually read the law and the briefs and apply the law fairly?” That went out the window decades ago.

So we are stuck with partisan judges making political rulings and the only hope we have is to try and stack the deck in the direction we want.

RobG-ADV > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 11:39

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Just like cops, there are too many bad judges out there. They have the same problem as the cops — delusions of grandeur. They think because they’re judges that they can be bullies, and that the harder they are on people, the better.

I’m all for being tough on crime, but these people take it way too far.

TurboZ31 > Russo 01/28/2016 at 11:46

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Family court is full of judges that used to be divorce attorneys, making money for other diverse attorneys. It’s ugly all around, an needs more over sight.

Gideon33New > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 12:11

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Punishment should be proportionate to impact. The higher your office the greater your impact.

Get caught banging your secretary. You’re fired.

Get caught breaking the law. Jail time x2.

Get caught corrupting the office you hold. Public hanging.

jlnbos > Russo 01/28/2016 at 12:23

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Judges are like cops. It is the 90% that gives the rest of them a bad name.

DrJohannVegas > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 12:24

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Good thing we have elections to keep them accountable...snerk.

> dies of laughter

jlnbos > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 12:30

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The MA Supreme Judicial Court is similarly stacked, but to the left rather than to the right.

If you read some of their decisions in gun rights cases, it is clear they were goal oriented. In their view, guns are bad and Heller v DC be damned, they were going to torture logic as much as necessary to rule against the plaintiffs.

jlnbos > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 12:35

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Unfortunately, I can believe just how evil they are. The profit motive is very effective in many areas. But when you combine the profit motive with the justice system, such perversions come to the fore.

greyedpheonix > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 13:20

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Hey steve, quick question that’s only moderately related: I got called in for jury duty in another state, and they’ve denied my appeal twice now, should I file another appeal and attach a copy of my drivers license, or should I just bit the bullet and appear, list the milage from the drive and appeal for lodging if I get tacked onto a case?

Important details:

I haven’t been a resident of the county (and state) where I’ve been requested to serve for about a year and a half (june it’ll be two years)

I don’t have a drivers license for the state where they want me to serve.

I was denied appeal because I still use a family member’s home as a mailing address for important information. (seasonal federal employee, as a result where I live changes on a regular enough basis that it’s ultimately easier to just have stuff like w4s and other sensitive information be mailed to a place where I know for sure that I’ll be made aware of it arriving and that it will get to me rather than risking it be sent to an old address and getting lost in a sea of forwarding labels, which has happened enough that I don’t like tempting fate anymore)

SteveLehto > greyedpheonix 01/28/2016 at 13:25

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Wow. That is an odd one. It depends on the law of that state. Are you a “legal resident” is the question. The driver’s license alone will not do it. For example: Which address do you list on your tax returns?

jlnbos > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 13:59

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Just because they are attorneys doesn’t mean they know WTF they are doing. More than a few judges in MA passed the bar (after several tries), became state legislators, and then got themselves appointed to the bench without ever having actually practiced much law at all.

greyedpheonix > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 14:29

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I’d have to double-check for last year, but I’m fairly certain I listed where I was living for my residence, with the mailing address for my family’s place (ease of getting stuff securely filed, and the fact my bank doesn’t have a branch within a 4 hours drive one way while there’s a branch four blocks from my dad’s place) I’d dig through my files right now to confirm how I did that but I’m about 400 miles away from them because of a family member in the hospital.

I did look up the tax code of California (where I’m from and where the superior court wants me to serve) though and it more or less boils down to that if I spend more than 9 months of a taxable year, or if I don’t reside in California longer than 6 months and don’t engage in any activity or conduct within the State other than as a seasonal visitor, tourist, or guest.

However I haven’t been able to find a clear answer regarding residency when it comes to jury duty.

SteveLehto > greyedpheonix 01/28/2016 at 14:34

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And that’s the problem. There is no bright line but the court will often look at things like 1) Where are you registered to vote 2) where are your taxes filed 3) and so on. You might have to show up but once you explain what a nightmare it is for you to serve, they should oust you forthwith.

jimz > OneHeadLight 01/28/2016 at 14:52

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“May it please the court”?

greyedpheonix > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 15:10

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Ah, thanks for the information and the perspective from a lawyers point of view. Hopefully appeal#3 will be the charm.

OneHeadLight > jimz 01/28/2016 at 15:20

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Who woulda thought?

IRS4 > DrJohannVegas 01/28/2016 at 18:05

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I’m fairly politically savvy and like to stay informed on local issues, but useful info on judicial elections is hard to come by.

Whitesmoke > SteveLehto 01/28/2016 at 22:13

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I appeared in court before a bad judge, and a female one at that (equality!!) in Duluth, Georgia in 1990. I was attacked by a neighbors Rottweiler and because I stupidly decided to live and defended myself, I became the defendant. The dog was home from the vet’s before I was home from jail. (My intent was not to kill it, only to save myself and in that I succeeded) The judge admitted from the bench to being a dog lover (just think of the contempt-worthy jokes I passed up on that straight line) and threw the book at me. Not to reveal identities, but her name rhymes with Judge Margaret Washburn.

QADude > SteveLehto 01/29/2016 at 00:48

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Excellent - thanks!

stvdman > Whitesmoke 01/29/2016 at 08:39

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“rhymes with” NICE!

Musabasjoo > petroloony 01/29/2016 at 11:09

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i am sorry for this

Musabasjoo > RobG-ADV 01/29/2016 at 11:10

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problem is they Are not delusional

they do get away with crime

Ry-bones, FiST pilot > Umrguy42: Add $5 for shipping and handling 01/29/2016 at 11:23

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What are we going to do with all these hides?

greyedpheonix > SteveLehto 02/19/2016 at 13:31

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Just a little update on this one. Appeal #3 apparently was filed too late and I got called in, however the jury services clerk thought I was joking when I said I was a resident of another state, then got really quiet when I provided my ID.

Anyway the short of it is, apparently the California DMV still has me flagged as a resident when the county does their database check for residents that haven’t done their jury duty in a while, despite my california driving record explicitly noting that my license was surrendered to Oregon and that I got a new license there in 2014.