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Rights violated---judicial code broken---any ideas?

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P

PBrady

Guest
Hi there,

I know this group has a lot of different people who read it, and some of you may know where we could turn next... Their lawyer is out of town for two more weeks, and we would REALLY like to get feedback on something now instead of waiting.

A friend recently went through a court hearing on a child custody case, which was based on affidavits that were 100% false. (One lie that comes to mind was the bio dad and wife both citing a conversation that took place between them and bio mom and husband on on Nov 30, while the affidavits were signed and notorized on Nov 29. The conversation was completely fiction, btw.)

During the course of this 15 minute hearing, the judge broke the following rules and subsections of the judicial code of conduct:

Judicial Rule 1: Maintaining the Integrity of the Judicial System

JR 1-101
(D) A judge shall not engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.
(she did not engage in this conduct until being advised of the perjured affidats, and she did not care.)
(E) A judge shall not allow family, social or other relationship to influence judicial conduct or judgment.
(related more than once about her marital dissolution and having a "ball and
chain around her neck" tying her to her ex because of minor child, being a "martyr for her child" therefore this bio mom must also be.)

JR 2-102(A) A judge shall provide to every person who has a legal interest in a proceeding, and to that person's lawyer, the right to be heard according to law.
(she refused, FLATLY DENIED bio mom to speak in defense, and cut her lawyer off short)

(B) A judge shall not communicate or permit or cause another to communicate with a lawyer or party about any matter in an adversary proceeding outside the course of the proceeding, except with the consent of the parties or as expressly authorized by law or permitted by this rule.
(C) A judge may communicate ex parte when circumstances require for scheduling,
administrative purposes or emergencies that do not deal with substantive matters or issues on the merits, provided that:
(1) the judge reasonably believes that no party will gain a procedural or tactical advantage as a result of the ex parte communication; and
(2) the judge makes provision by delegation or otherwise promptly to notify all other parties of the substance of the ex parte communication and
allows an opportunity to respond.

JR 2-107 A judge shall be faithful to the law and shall decide matters on the basis of the facts and applicable law. (ruled unlawfully, never listened to the facts, did not rule according to the law.)

JR 2-110(A) A judge shall be patient, dignified and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, court personnel and members of the public.
(was impatient, refused to hear testimony, and ruled based on the other parties suggestions period, w/o hearing other side.)
(B) A judge shall not act in a way that the judge knows, or reasonably should know, would be perceived by a reasonable person as biased or prejudiced toward any of the litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers or members of the public.
(would have to see entire court transcript, very prejudiced to other side.)

These can be proven by the court transcript, all except JR 2-102(B) which the bio dad told to bio mom.

The whole hearing, including way documents were served was rotten. (the bio dads lawyer called her Sunday night at 9pm while she was holding her 3 month old who was sick and crying, she said she couldn't hear him, he told her "get what you can" asked if she had a lawyer, she said no, and he hung up. The bio mom's husband retained one the next day. That night (9:45pm), the brief for the hearing was faxed to her home stating hearing was next morning at 8:45am..bio mom rec'd 10 of 23 pages...from what I understand, facsimile service is not an option unless represented by an attorney, (which she told him she was not and did not inform him she had retained one), and Then it is supposed to be faxed to the attorney...is this wrong?)

My question.....is there any punishment for judges who break multiple rules of the judical code.

If so, how does one go about starting the proceeding?

Also, if so, is there a way to get that judgement thrown out? and how?

If there isn't punishment, why not?? What are the rules there for?

They have a great attorney now, he's just on vacation, and we really just want to know if we found an avenue that is worth exploring...what the judge (and attorney) did was not right or lawful, and any help, ideas, advice on where or to whom to turn would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks so much!


Pamela
 


I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
My response:

Your only avenue is to file a Motion for Reconsideration with the same judge, showing your points (as you have mentioned) and your authorities (statutes and case law covering the subjects you have mentioned) including your written arguments in favor of your position and why your position should be adopted; e.g., why the judge should abandon his position in favor of yours.

Then, when that Motion is denied (and most of them are denied), then you file your Notice of Appeal, and follow your State's appellate rules.

Good luck.

IAAL
 
B

bbauer

Guest
Usually not legally accountable

My question.....is there any punishment for judges who break multiple rules of the judical code.
Usually not. There are some situations in which judicial immunity does not apply, but they are very few and far between.

About the only way the people are ever going to hope to get any sort of handle on the judiciary is to work towards J.A.I.L. for judges legislation in their states as we are doing in Oklahoma. J.A.I.L. stands for Judicial Accountability & Integrigy Legislation, so J.A.I.L. is just an acronym for that. If the people of the state of Oklahoma actually do vote in the legislation it will become a constitutional amendment and would be the first of it's kind in the nation. Many other states are also working toward such legislation but are not as far along as we are here in Oklahoma. Getting it before a vote of the people will require a good ½ million dollars to accomplish but that amount of money and more is already pledged to make certain that enough funds are available in the event of need.

Surprisingly, many attorneys and public officials are voicing support for such legislation even though our lawmakers have already pretty well shunned it in the last session of the legislature where we tried to get legislative support for the measure. They just didn't seem to think anybody would be interested in it so would not support it.
They also claimed that Oklahoma already has a judicial review process in place but in the last 34 years since it's inception only 4 judges have been slapped on the wrist by it. I don't remember what their judicial misconduct was in all 4 cases, but one female judge was caught in an uncomprising situation at a party attended only by judges and attorneys. Seems it was a halloween costume party and she was caught in a bedroom without one and in the company of a male attorney.

Needless to say there was a small uproar about that little scandal, especially since it was in one of our smaller communities.

The point is that the system we have in place now isn't very effective to say the least. So we are trying to put something in place that will have some real teeth and so are lots of other states. The movement was started in California and has pretty much spread nationwide now. You may have an active organization working towards that end in your state.
 

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