Prosecution Shocks in Closing Arguments

If ever there was a defining moment in the trial of former judge Donald Thompson, it likely was the closing statement by special prosecutor Pattye High Thursday afternoon.

The defense team, headed by Clark Brewster, walked into a bear trap laid by High and Pottawatomie County District Attorney Richard Smothermon.

The trap was sprung when High demonstrated to jurors the penis pump found in Thompson’s locked filing cabinet was not broken after all.

This may be my last post ever about the sordid tale of penis-pumping Judge Donald Thompson. And you simply MUST read this article, which is the final chapter of his trial. You can do so here, via Oklahoma's Sapulpa Daily Herald.

Former Judge Convicted of Indecent Exposure

BRISTOW -- Former Creek County [OK] District Judge Donald Thompson was convicted on each of four counts of indecent exposure Thursday night and was sentenced to a year in prison plus a $10,000 fine on each of the charges.

Jurors deliberated about 5-1/2 hours and returned their verdicts shortly after 9 p.m., bringing an end to a trial that has lasted nearly three weeks and saw an onslaught of witnesses, among them some of Thompson's former jurors, court personnel and law enforcement officers, testifying against the former judge.

The charges alleged that Thompson exposed himself by using a penis pump to masturbate during trials in his Sapulpa courtroom.

Thompson, who has been free on bond, will be formally sentenced on Aug. 14.

After the verdicts were returned, District Judge Charles Allen McCall remanded Thompson to the Creek County sheriff's custody and set a new bail at $75,000. Thompson was ordered to surrender his passport and not to leave Creek County other than to visit his attorneys in Tulsa.

I will miss this story . . . . Details here from TulsaWorld.com. My earlier posts about Judge Thompson can be accessed here.

Court Upholds 10-Year Term for Oral Sex Between Teens

In a case that at first glance appears strikingly similar to that of former prep football star Marcus D. Dixon, the Supreme Court of Georgia handed down a very different result Monday, upholding the 10-year mandatory minimum sentence of a young man convicted of felony child molestation for having oral sex with a 14-year-old girl when he was 18.

Where Dixon was able to successfully argue that the Georgia Legislature couldn't have meant to impose a 10-year mandatory sentence for his sexual encounter with a 15-year-old schoolmate at age 18, the slightly greater age difference between Joshua Ray Widner and his young sexual partner limited the arguments that Widner could make on appeal.

Instead of arguing that his case was the same as Dixon's, Widner argued that a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence was unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously rejected that argument.

Widner's attorney, J. Scott Key of Sexton, Key & Hendrix in Stockbridge, Ga., called the result "tragic" given that a legislative change to go into effect Saturday will do away with the 10-year mandatory minimum sentence aspect of the aggravated child molestation statute as it relates to certain teen encounters.

Details here from the Fulton County Daily Report via Law.com.

Fla. Doctor Prevails in License Fight Over Expert Testimony

A North Carolina appellate court has overturned a controversial court ruling that allowed the suspension of the North Carolina medical license of a North Miami Beach neurosurgeon for his plaintiff-side testimony in a medical malpractice case.

A three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals on June 6 unanimously ordered a lower court to dismiss disciplinary proceedings against Dr. Gary Lustgarten.

The North Carolina Medical Board had revoked Lustgarten's license to practice in the state in 2002, following efforts by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, his national medical specialty society, to sanction him for his testimony.

Lustgarten's case is one of the most prominent examples of the growing campaign by medical societies nationally to discipline doctors for their testimony in malpractice cases. Medical groups say the efforts are needed to stop doctors from providing fraudulent or unsupported testimony. But plaintiffs lawyers say it's a naked effort to eliminate malpractice suits by intimidating medical experts from testifying for plaintiffs.

Details here from the Daily Business Review via Law.com.

Partner Disbarred for Stealing From Firm

A former Manhattan law firm partner who filed false expense reports for almost $200,000 to pay his yacht club membership and credit card bills has been disbarred.

Robert J. Pape, a former trusts and estates partner at New York's Putney, Twombly, Hall & Hirson, charged personal expenses both to his firm and to his clients. He frequently sought reimbursement multiple times for the same item in a practice known as "double dipping."

Indeed, the referee who heard the disciplinary case against Pape marveled that the lawyer had elevated double dipping to an art form.

Details here from the New York Law Journal via Law.com.

Court Reporter: I Saw Judge's Penis "At Least 15 Times"

BRISTOW [OK] -- The court reporter for former Creek County District Judge Donald Thompson testified Monday that she saw his penis "at least 15 times" and that she saw him urinate into a wastebasket twice during trials. Thompson is on trial on four felony counts of indecent exposure, which allege that he used a penis pump to masturbate while on the bench.

The court reporter, Lisa K. Foster, provided powerful and emotional testimony Monday about the "shocking and disgusting" things she saw from 2001 into 2003. Foster was Thompson's court reporter for 15 years. He fired her in September 2003 for reportedly cooperating with an investigation of his alleged misconduct.

Foster also told jurors that she saw Thompson "shaving his scrotum" during closing arguments in an August 2003 murder trial.

That trial was for Tammy Renee Brooks, accused in the 2000 murder of her 21-month-old daughter, Skyla Brooks.

Foster testified that while the assistant prosecutor, Carol Iski, was giving her closing arguments in the case, Thompson pulled his penis out of his pants, pulled it close to his body with his left hand, and began shaving his scrotum with a disposable razor.

"It wasn't long strokes" with the razor. "He was sort of picking at it," she testified.

Details here from TulsaWorld.com. My earlier posts about Judge Thompson are here.

Man Jailed for Trying to Get Out of Jury Pool

A man made a mockery of the justice system when he tried to get removed from a jury pool in a death penalty case by claiming he is a heroin addict and a killer, a judge said. Benjamin Ratliffe, 21, of Columbus, Ohio, was charged with contempt of court and obstruction of justice and ordered to spend a night in jail.

Ratliffe filled out a questionnaire form for potential jurors and professed to having a "bad jonesin' for heroin." When asked if he had ever fired a weapon, he wrote, "Yes. I killed someone with it, of course. Right."

Ratliffe doesn't believe in the death penalty and wanted to be excused from the trial, said his attorney, Scott Weisman.

The potential jurors were being screened for the trial of Quarran S. Covington, who is charged with aggravated murder in the slayings of two Georgia men in May 2005. In court, witnesses said, Ratliffe shrugged his shoulders when questioned by Covington's attorney and refused to answer any questions seriously.

On Thursday, Ratliffe apologized to Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie M. Lynch, who had ordered him to jail the day before.

Details here from the AP via Law.com.

Illinois Court Limits Awards in Legal Malpractice Cases

In a 4-3 decision that aids lawyers accused of malpractice, the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday limited the type of damages that clients can receive from attorneys who botch a lawsuit.

In a first-of-its-kind case in Illinois, the court ruled that clients may sue their lawyers for the standard, compensatory damages they would have won if their lawsuit had been properly brought.

But writing for the majority, Justice Lloyd Karmeier said clients could not sue their lawyers for lost punitive damages, which juries sometimes award to punish defendants for intentional misconduct.

Lawyers should pay for their negligence, but to hold them responsible for the intentional misconduct of someone else "tears the concept of punitive damages from its doctrinal moorings," Karmeier wrote.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Charles Freeman called the result a "gross injustice."

Details here from the Chicago Tribune. The Court's opinion is here.

David Lat Leaving Wonkette for New Legal Blog

Elizabeth Spiers has hired a blogger away from her former boss, Nick Denton.

David Lat, who has been cowriting Denton's Washington political blog, Wonkette.com, since January, is leaving to join Spiers at her new company to develop a law blog, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Lat was formerly an assistant U.S. attorney and the anonymous author of the blog Underneath Their Robes until Jeffrey Toobin outed him in a Talk of the Town piece in The New Yorker late last year.

Spiers declined to comment, but sources said Lat has given notice at Gawker Media. He evidently wanted to return to writing about law, and is said to have approached Spiers about launching a companion site to her financial blog, Dealbreaker.com.

Details here from Women's Wear Daily (2nd item). (via Bashman)

Did Fugitive Darren Mack Post Comments on The Legal Reader?

As many of you know, in recent weeks this weblog has attracted several hundred comments about Reno Judge Chuck Weller and the sniper who allegedly shot him (after allegedly stabbing his ex-wife to death), Darren Mack.

Mack surrendered to the FBI last night in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. He had initially said he would turn himself in yesterday morning, but failed to show up.

Yesterday morning I was contacted by a homicide detective from the Reno Police Department, and shortly thereafter by a Special Agent of the FBI's Reno office. They both thought that Mack might have been posting comments to this website, and that he might be continuing to monitor the comments on this site.

They identified two comments that they thought Mack might have left (see below), which were both posted by someone using the name "Mark". I determined that these two comments were posted from the IP address 201.121.174.67. That IP address is assigned to the "Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry" -- which includes Mexico.

In one of the comments, the author starts off refferring to Mack in the third-person, as "Darren" or "he", and claims to have detailed financial information that he had seen from "bank records" that Mack had shown him. But at one point, the author slips into the first-person, writing: "Can't tell the bank [that Judge] Weller said I don't have to pay [interest due to the bank]." Hmmmm . . . .

I showed the Special Agent and the Detective how they could monitor who was currently accessing my website using SiteMeter, which they presumably did from then on.

Were those comments actually posted by Darren Mack? I may never know, but it looks pretty likely to me. Because Mack ultimately turned himself in, I don't think his postings to my website contributed to his apprehension. But they potentially could have . . . .

The two comments in question are reproduced after the jump:

Here is the real numbers as was given to me in documents by Darren himself. Don´t let the fancy BS done by the attorneys fool you in the court motions. Remember most if not all has been falsely documented. I saw the real financial and bank records myself.

The order said¨.

44,000 income
15,000 income taxes that no-one remembered that had to be taken out. Remember income taxes?
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29,000 left after taxes
10,000 spousal support as per Weller´s order
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19,000 left after spousal support
14,000 all those items that were listed on the order by Weller but not put into dollars. Just the 2 morgages were 9,000 a month. I have seen the bank records.
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5000 left after paying all the bills ordered to be paid by Weller.
849 child support for one child
1000 child support to the previous wife for another child.
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3151 left after child support
6000 in interest paymts and other expences that Weller did not address in his order but had to be paid. Can´t tell the bank Weller said I don´t have to pay.
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-2849 left after bills that must be paid that Weller did not address.
15000 a month for attys fees to fund a war that he tried to settle many times rather than go BK.
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-17,849 left after attys fees. Remember Darren has yet to spend $1 on rent, food, gas, car, support one child full time that lived with him and one child that lived with him half time.
6000 a month for all the above. Darren had a minus cashflow of

$-23,849 per month

based on Judge Weller´s order. Live with that for 2 years!! and see if you need to file BK. Get a grip people.

So here it is in simple form. Weller a man making $44,000 a month to pay $61,849 before he got $1 to live on himself and to take care of his children when they lived with him. You make your own conclusion of fairness.

Remember criminals like Charla´s atty Shawn Meador and bought and paid for Judges can make anything look reasonable in court docs. The real test is how does it play out when you have to write the check and balance the checkbook. Don´t be fooled by the surface level BS. I have seen the bank records.

Posted by: mark at June 21, 2006 07:53 PM

That is just one order. The first financial order that was posted is just one of 20 or more things that were Nazi like against Darren. By the way anyone who understands the law would know that he couldn't appeal until the entire case was finished including custody and the divorce decree issues. That is why those two things were stratigically put off by Shawn Meador into the future so as to keep Darren from any protection from another court. It is my understanding that he was in the middle of an emergency writ but those are very rarely issued.

They make up rules and they are the umpires so when they are crooked like in this case one has absolutely no chance at coming out without being robbed broke, put into BK, jailed, extorting the people around you, and then kidnapping your children. There is one place where one has no constitutional rights and that is in the 4 walls of the divorce court. It is just legalized organized crime.

It was not just with Darren but read fatherunite.org and you will see hundreds of stories of the crimes that divorce industry are inflicting on mostly men thoughtout this country. They are plain out crimes. Read them and weep for crimes being waged against mostly men in this country.

Posted by: Mark at June 22, 2006 11:11 AM

You can see those two comments in their original habitat here.

Man With Faulty Penile Implant Gets $400K

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- A former handyman has won more than $400,000 in a lawsuit over a penile implant that gave him a 10-year erection.

Charles ''Chick'' Lennon, 68, received the steel and plastic implant in 1996, about two years before Viagra went on the market. The Dura-II is designed to allow impotent men to position the penis upward for sex, then lower it.

But Lennon could not position his penis downward. He said he could no longer hug people, ride a bike, swim or wear bathing trunks because of the pain and embarrassment. He has become a recluse and is uncomfortable being around his grandchildren, his lawyer said.

In 2004, a jury awarded him $750,000. A judge called that excessive and reduced it to $400,000. On Friday, the Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed that award in a ruling that turned on a procedural matter.

Details here from the AP via the New York Times.

Jury In Ex-Judge's Case Sees Photos

Graphic photos and testimony marked the second day of trial for a former Creek County [OK] judge accused of masturbating while on the bench.

Retired District Judge Donald D. Thompson is on trial on four felony indecent-exposure charges, alleging he used a penis pump to masturbate during trials.

Authorities also claim he shaved his scrotum during one trial.

Wednesday's court session opened with testimony from Michael Dean, an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent, who searched Thompson's courtroom bench and his office for traces of fluid. That search was made on Jan. 7, 2005, four months after Thompson retired amid the allegations.

Dean told the court he examined Thompson's courtroom seat and the carpet under his bench, and by plain eyesight was able to find several suspicious stains.

Special prosecutor Pattye High produced a series of photos for the jury, showing stains found by Dean. In the first photo, dried, milky-white drip marks could be seen under the bottom edge of the courtroom seat.

That's freakin' disgusting. Details here from TulsaWorld.com. My earlier postings about Judge Thompson are here and here.

Books on Wife-Training and Defrauding How-To's Doom Author's Bid to Avoid Jail

Putting one's thoughts on paper can be a risky business.

Defendant Edwin Kane found that out when a sentencing judge considered some of his published advice on how to train a wife and how to defraud the government in rebuffing his bid to avoid jail.

Now, a federal appeals court, in United States v. Kane, 05-2714-cr, has rejected Kane's argument that his First Amendment rights had been violated by the use of his books and has upheld his incarceration.

When Kane was sentenced for defrauding the Federal Housing Administration and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, he offered in mitigation evidence that he was a good and caring man who was given to random acts of kindness.

But Kane had written a few books, including "Mastering the Art of Male Supremacy: Training Techniques on the Home Front," which endorsed using "a rolled up newspaper on the rump once in a while." Another of Kane's books gave tips on how to run real estate and mail order schemes.

Western District of New York Judge Charles Siragusa found that his writings undermined Kane's evidence of good character and sentenced him to two years in prison.

On his appeal, Kane claimed that his First Amendment rights had been violated by Siragusa's consideration of his books.

Details here from the New York Law Journal via Law.com.

Premarin Suit May Lead to New Opt-Out Rule

As Wyeth Pharmaceuticals defends itself against antitrust claims in San Francisco Superior Court, its legal battles may lead to a new rule for opting out of class actions. A class action and an unfair competition suit, which have been coordinated before a San Francisco judge for more than a year, both accuse Wyeth of squelching competition to its drug Premarin, which treats hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause.

Plaintiff Carol Sullivan brought her own action against Wyeth in San Diego, after the San Francisco suit was already filed but before it was certified as a class action. Now, pouncing on the fact that she never sent a letter to specifically exclude herself from the San Francisco class action, the drugmaker is trying to persuade the San Francisco court to throw out Sullivan's lawsuit.

And Sullivan's lawyers are fighting just as hard to allow her case to continue, arguing that Sullivan made her intentions so clear that she didn't need to follow the steps laid out for typical class members.

In voicing a tentative ruling last week, Judge Richard Kramer decided a class member such as Sullivan should still be able to opt out at this point in the litigation -- if her lawyers can demonstrate good cause, and if they can show that letting her proceed separately now would not prejudice "the class action process."

Kramer continued the hearing until August, ordering Finkelstein & Krinsk, the San Diego firm that represents Sullivan, and Arnold & Porter, the Washington, D.C.-based firm that represents the drugmaker, to file briefs about whether Sullivan should qualify under such a rule.

"This will be a good one for the Court of Appeal to deal with, a new standard for someone to opt out," Kramer mused during the hearing on June 14, though he admitted he isn't sure if the problem crops up frequently with class actions. "I've never had this happen," noted Kramer, who has presided over San Francisco's complex litigation courtroom for more than four years.

Details here from The Recorder via Law.com.

Whereabouts of Accused Reno Killer-Sniper Remains a Mystery

Police reported no major new leads Saturday in the search for a Reno man accused of killing his estranged wife and shooting the judge who handled their divorce, but remained optimistic they would track him down.

Darren Mack, 45, a wealthy pawn shop owner, has not been heard from since he phoned a cousin in Moraga, Calif., shortly after Monday's stabbing death of his wife, Charla Mack, and sniper shooting of Family Court Judge Chuck Weller.

With the assistance of the FBI, detectives working around the clock continued to sift through hundreds of tips they have received from across the country.

"Absolutely, we're not giving up hope of finding him," Reno police Sgt. Joe Burfield said Saturday. "We definitely have hope for a lead that will provide a major break in the case."

Details here from the Reno Gazette-Journal.