Connecticut's "Secret Enemies List"

To: Toni.Walker@cga.ct.gov, William.Tong@cga.ct.gov, Bruce.Morris@cga.ct.gov, Themis.Klarides@housegop.ct.gov, DebraLee.Hovey@housegop.ct.gov, Gail.Hamm@cga.ct.gov, Kenneth.Green@cga.ct.gov, Minnie.Gonzalez@cga.ct.gov, Gomes@senatedems.ct.gov, Eric.Coleman@cga.ct.gov, Charles.Clemons@cga.ct.gov, John.A.Kissel@cga.ct.gov, mlawlor99@juno.com, McDonald@senatedems.ct.gov

Subject: Connecticut's "Secret Enemies List"

Text:
To whom it may concern on the Connecticut Judiciary Committee:

I have a good source who says my name is on the Connecticut Secret Enemies list obtained with the Freedom of Information Act. Should these "Enemies" be blocked from accessing government, the courts, redressing grievances to elected officials, getting justice, and having liberty, the pursuit of happiness, not having their families, lives, ability to own a home, and have a good job, officially molested?

If citizens who complain to the Governor's office, lodge a police or judicial misconduct complaints, and/or who expose public corruption can be placed on Connecticut's Secret Enemies List shouldn't you hold a public hearing on what to do about this and how to help victims on the list?

Should there be "interference between separate branches of government" allowed to illegally continue? Should constituents face harassment arrests and prison for talking to legislators about their problems or in exercising Free Speech?

Will you please give me an answer? Will you acknowledge reading this email?

Thank you,

Steven G. Erickson
stevengerickson@yahoo.com

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[click here] for my July 24, 2009, letter text to Obama

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Judicial License to Steal?

[click here for more]

Rape, a Military and Police US Institution?

Many police officers are drawn out of the ranks of returning military veterans. If rape, and worse, is covered up over there, what do you think is going to happen over here?

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From OpEdNews.com:

Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within

By Ann Wright (about the author) Page 1 of 1 page(s)

opednews.com Permalink

For OpEdNews: Ann Wright - Writer

Journalists Pascale Bourgaux and Mercedes Gallego in their trips to Iraq as war correspondents were stunned to hear from military women in Iraq that they should be very careful working in military units due to sexual assault and rape.

When they left Iraq they decided to investigate the issue of rape in the U.S. military. In 2007, they filmed the stories of four military women who had been raped and made a documentary, “Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within.” The documentary was shown for the first time in the United States on October 26 at the New York Independent Film Festival.

Tina Priest was raped in Iraq and then found dead of a gunshot in her dormitory room. The U.S. Army claims Tina committed suicide 11 days after she was raped. The mother and sister of Tina Priest don't believe Tina committed suicide. The documentary captures remarkable interactions with them and military officers from Fort Hood who arrive at their doorstep. Tina's rapist was never prosecuted.

Jessica Kenyon was raped twice during her one year career in the US Army, once in basic training and once in Korea. She is now a counselor (http://www.militarysexualtrauma.org) for other veterans who have been raped—women and men. Jessica's rapists were never prosecuted.

Suzanne Swift was raped repeatedly by her squad leader while they were in Iraq. She was court-martialed for refusing to go back to Iraq with the unit in which the rapist still served. The rapist was never prosecuted, returned to Iraq as a private security contractor and later fired from a position with a law enforcement agency in the Seattle area. Suzanne is now out of the military and in college.

Stephanie (last name not disclosed), was raped at Fort Lewis, Washington. Like the majority of women who have been raped in the military, she never reported it as she thought no one would believe her as the rapist was a senior officer. Stephanie and her husband both served in Iraq. Her husband committed suicide after his return from Iraq. Stephanie speaks frequently on the issue of military suicides.

The 29 minute documentary “Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within” has been shown in Europe. One day after the screening in the New York Independent Film Festival, onOctober 27, 2009, clips of the documentary were shown on Democracy Now as a part of an interview with director Pascal Bourgaux.

We hope the film production company will make the documentary available by DVD or on their website.

In a related event, Veterans for Peace launched a Military Rape Awareness campaign in early October, 2009 with a press conference at the Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Times Square, New York City. Violence against women activist Eve Ensler and military rape survivor Sandra Lee spoke of their traumas from rape.


Note to the Editors: The video statement by Staff Sgt. Sandra Lee is really powerful (Elaine Brower made the video):


Veterans for Peace suggests that a warning to women about rape in the military be placed on recruiting station doors. Bumper stickers that state “Warning: 1 in 3 women are Raped in the Military” are available from Veterans for Peace.

Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, (more...)

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Comments posted so far:

Alexandra Bonifield The Machismo Domination Head-set Let's "support those wonderful troops", y'all..... Bring them HOME. Prosecute the rapists. Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz and the rest of the scoundrels, too. by Alexandra Bonifield (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 6 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Oct 27, 2009 at 11:45:18 AM (2+)

The Rape of America

How ironic that the people who believe they're bringing 'freedom and democracy' to Iraq and Afghanistan (of course it's mayhem and torture and murder) can't resist raping their own women.

Why doesn't America just go home and STFU?

by John S. Hatch (14 articles, 12 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 205 comments [275 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Tuesday, Oct 27, 2009 at 2:11:32 PM

(2+)

A man named Hoh

Once a military officer and now with the State Department has turned in his resignation. Ann Wright may be wondering how things have changed since she resigned.

by Margaret Bassett (51 articles, 3646 quicklinks, 61 diaries, 2425 comments [180 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Oct 27, 2009 at 2:41:12 PM

(0+)

Steven G. Erickson The same wrong in military is wrong with police Many military personnel become police officers. Military rapes and police officer rapes of women are probably a hugely under-reported crime, we must make the necessary changes to end this. I know that rapes, murders, assaults by police officers, officers acting as lookout for burglars, officers protecting drug turf going after rivals, running prostitutes etc, when complaints are made they aren't even investigated, and it only has gotten worse. [This video] shows a public hearing in Connecticut on the matter where there are telephone book stacks of misconduct complaints against police, where officers help husbands beat their wives then arrest the wife, where police terrorize a mayor vandalize his house and abduct citizens wearing ski masks to beat them in abandoned waterfront warehouses. If police officers can pay $10,000 in taxpayer dollars to kill citizens for making police misconduct complaints, even for a US Marine returning home [story], are any of us safe without a major change in policies? An Ellington, Connecticut, officer broke up a bar argument between two sisters. His solution was to bring one of them to a motel room, where he came back when she was asleep, stripper naked, to only her socks, and then had sex with her while she slept. The debate in Connecticut was not whether or not the officer would be prosecuted for rape, there was only a debate on whether he could keep his job. I could go on, and on. Some stories are older, more and more citizens are more and more afraid to lodge complaints as police get even more power, and less oversight. There needs to be a civilian force to oversee the military, and there needs to be civiliain oversight of police, state side. Cases involving the monarchy system of judges, can be rigged. Judges owe favors to be judges and as time goes on, just start rigging cases, because they can. Grand Juries with defined terms for military trials and for civiliain trials and police, judicial, and attorney misconduct complaints would bring justice back to the inside, and Americans acting outside America in wars. If we had an effective Grand Jury System, Bush and Cheney could have been prosecuted for War and other crimes even before their terms had ended. by Steven G. Erickson (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 79 diaries, 309 comments [26 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Oct 27, 2009 at 6:14:54 PM (2+)

Why do government agents getting away with rape?

If you want to see the Congressional admissions about rape and torture of Americans and learn why government agents and those who can influence them get away with horrible crimes like this, see Why does the U.S. government torture people?

For more about how those in the government get away with violating our rights and committing horrible crimes, see Why Does the Government Ignore Our Wishes? and don't miss my 18 minute speech.

If you take a look, you'll learn why they get away with horrible crimes. My article on torture includes a link to the U.S. Supreme Court case which explains how one of our stolen rights makes the difference between justice and injustice, between freedom and slavery.

by Mark Adams (21 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 384 comments [73 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Oct 27, 2009 at 9:57:15 PM

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Reply: The "List" is stronger than quality control

There has always been "The List". Anyone in power, has a list of people, either on top of their heads, on paper, or listed on a computer. Some lists are actually distributed. A rape victim can be placed on the list because he or she can interupt the integrety of the system.

Police officers who are mainly military will tell you that their number one job is protecting the integrity of the system. Protecting you and investigating crimes is not even a close second. The military has an objective and it is not the rights of soldiers or anything about about justice.

When there is not a light shining in, cretins do all they want in the dark. Without civilian oversight of police, independent grand juries, and a military controled by civilians, not the war corporations and the politicians they pay for, we the people are headed for more, and more, darkness.

Picture meat being ground in a blender. That is all that is thought of the soldiers fighting in wars by the war corporation heads. They can sit with their families and enjoy comfort all over the world at everyone else's expense.

Rape is just a perk. Having you killed, beaten, up or worse just for lodging a complaint is the current reality. It is time to shine a light on the lists and those who are compiling them.

by Steven G. Erickson (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 79 diaries, 309 comments [26 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009 at 8:23:24 AM

Blood Tears, and Dying of Thirst

Revolution is Not Just a Word, but Why Revolt?

By R. A. Louis (about the author) Page 1 of 4 page(s)
opednews.com Permalink

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http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/

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Reasons

My reasons for blogging on the internet are below the below picture.


The government and US court version of giving us the truth


I was asked why am I bitching, ranting, and raving on the Internet. What am I getting out of complaining here and other blogs, exposing other cases of Judicial, Police, Prosecutorial, Attorney, and Official Misconduct?

Well, I am showing that this is "pattern and practice". If it happens in one part of the US, it can, and will happen everywhere.

I would like the Judiciary Committee in Connecticut address cases of abuse and pass laws to best serve their constituents. I would then like to see this happen across the US.

William "Bill" Doriss talks about his case of Connecticut Judicial Abuse [here]. His case highlights what a circle fuck the "justice system" really is.

I am sending the above text to key members on the judiciary committee in Connecticut and am posting the email to them [here].

-Steven G. Erickson
stevengerickson@yahoo.com

The above sent to: Toni.Walker@cga.ct.gov, William.Tong@cga.ct.gov, Bruce.Morris@cga.ct.gov, Themis.Klarides@housegop.ct.gov, DebraLee.Hovey@housegop.ct.gov, Gail.Hamm@cga.ct.gov, Kenneth.Green@cga.ct.gov, Minnie.Gonzalez@cga.ct.gov, Gomes@senatedems.ct.gov, Eric.Coleman@cga.ct.gov, Charles.Clemons@cga.ct.gov, John.A.Kissel@cga.ct.gov, mlawlor99@juno.com, McDonald@senatedems.ct.gov

[click here] for my personal reasons for sending the above

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Is there a link between Obama, Afghanistan, and the Heroin Trade? [link]

http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/

Judicial License to Steal?

[click here for more]

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[click here] for Steven G. Erickson's letter to US President Obama, July 24, 2009, text

stevengerickson@yahoo.com

Letter Mailed off Today

The below text was mailed here:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

To US President Obama or to whom it may concern: July 24, 2009

“Give me your wallet or I’m going to kill you”, was what Brian C. Caldwell, a convicted felon, told me after jumping me on my Stafford Springs, Connecticut, property. Since Caldwell was a police informant, only I was arrested for having pepper sprayed him to end the beating I was taking. I got a year in prison! Should my case be looked into, should I be pardoned, and should the US Constitution now apply in America?

If a citizen buys a home, tries to run a business, or just wants to live, raise a family, pay taxes, and live the American Dream, it may be against the wishes of those who are in corrupt State, or other, Police Department, and those who illegally run most of our US Court System. Should “Government = Mafia”? Should families be destroyed for profit?

I received a year in prison for resisting being mugged on my own property. The mugger was given immunity for committing felonies to maliciously prosecute me. The stated goal of police was to pay up to a $10,000 bounty to have me beaten up, killed, and/or railroaded to prison for what I had written in newspapers critical of them, for proposing court reform and civilian oversight of police legislation to elected officials. The police were also angry at me for getting “mouthy” about Bryn Ouellette (sp.?), a teen who illegally moved into my basement and was building pipe and propane bombs and setting devices off near where I, and the Sabatassos (sp.?) and their 4 young children slept. Police were spending tax dollars to harass me, spy on me, and to make sure I lost my house, business, daughter and the sum total of my life’s work, forever.

I was threatened with arrest and prison by police officers if I did not leave Connecticut and shut my mouth prior to the mugging. Should mostly White, and male, police officers decide they want to take anyone’s wife, girlfriend, business, home, or freedom, just because they feel like it. Should police be able to lie, rape, cheat, steal, beat, and even kill with almost absolute immunity? Should our US courts be a rubber stamp on abuse?

Should those who run our courts be able to hire their friends and family in made up positions to make 6 figures, get a cushy pension, and maybe have to do little, to no work, and maybe not have to even show up? The Judicial Branch is wrecking America.

Why are Americans paying to be abused, to have their families broken up, the economy ruined, and to have honest taxpayers taken out of the taxpaying role, by falsely arresting, imprisoning, fining, and confiscating of property as many Americans as can be gotten away with? Should police be targeting “mouthy” individuals or criminals and crime?

What am I talking about? Please do a google search on my name, “Steven G. Erickson”, when my blog comes up, please look for today’s date and this letter to you. I’ll post links.

Please look into remedying my case and in to improving America by considering across the board US court reform and in having nationwide civilian oversight of all police.

Steven G. Erickson, [address snipped]

stevengerickson@yahoo.com

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The below is why I, Steven G. Erickson, blog, why I hate censorship, and why I mistrust the court system, government, and most law enforcement:

Will Steven G. Erickson soon end up in prison for again testing "Free Speech" after sending [this letter text] to the White House recently? Connecticut State Police put a bounty on me after I wrote [this letter, scroll down, click to make bigger or click images below] to George W. Bush?

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I mailed a letter to President Bush on 9-15-01 discussing the problems I was having. I was then attacked on my property 10-11-01 by a police informant. I pepper sprayed my attacker in my dark driveway. Police were right there to arrest me. If the Bush administration was not so deceitful and arrogant, I think I and so many other citizens would not have been ripped off needlessly and abused. Our economy and national reputation would also be better. My letter to Bush:



If you click on it and save it, you can use a view to make it bigger.

The HUD response telling me Bush actually read my letter:


In the follow up report I am called the victim:


I was current on mortgage payments on 3 rental properties. Two of which I fixed up from a boarded up condition spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of my labor. I had also built up a contracting business over 2 decades. My reward was that a strong armed robber, a mugger, a felon, could threaten my life while demanding money in my own dark driveway, beat me, and he is not arrested, I am for using pepper spray and I go to prison.

A short video of my former properties [click]

Is Texas Harboring Torture Decider?

by Ray McGovern

www.opednews.com

Seldom does a crime scene have so clear a smoking gun. A two-page presidential memorandum of Feb. 7, 2002, leaves no room for uncertainty regarding the "decider" on torture. His broad-stroke signature made torture official policy.

This should come as no surprise. You see, the Feb. 7, 2002, memorandum has been posted on the Web since June 22, 2004, when then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales mistakenly released it, along with other White House memoranda.

The title seemed innocent enough "Humane Treatment of al Qaeda and Taliban Detainees" but in the body of the memo President George W. Bush authorized his senior aides to withhold Geneva Convention protections from suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees.

Like Shakespeare, the media seem harshest on the lawyers, including Texans Gonzales and William J. Haynes II (Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's lawyer), who later outdid themselves trying to make torture legal.


What gets lost in the woodwork is this: Banal as their ex-post-facto "justification" for torture was, the lawyers were not the deciders.

After the decider-in-chief, the key decision makers were the eight addressees of the Feb. 7 memorandum: Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Rumsfeld, Attorney General John Ashcroft, White House chief of staff Andrew Card, CIA Director George Tenet, National Security aide Condoleezza Rice, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers.

During the Q & A after a recent Myers talk in Washington, I asked him what he did after he had read the President's memo on ignoring Geneva. The tone of his non-answer was this: If the President wanted to dismiss Geneva, what was a mere Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to do?

In his memoir, Eyes on the Horizon, he tries to blame the lawyers: "By relying so heavily on just the lawyers, the President did not get the broader advice on these matters that he needed."

Myers and the other seven addressees might these days be called derivative deciders - or, more simply, accomplices. There is not a shred of evidence that any of the Gang of Eight gave the slightest consideration to resigning, rather than carry out the President's decision.

They elected to "just follow orders," a defense dismissed out of hand at the post-WWII Nuremberg Tribunal on war crimes. Together with the lawyer-advisers, the derivative deciders provide abundant proof that the "banality of evil" did not die with Adolf Eichmann and other functionaries of the Third Reich.

But the buck stops - actually, in this case, it began - with President Bush. Senate Armed Services Committee leaders Carl Levin and John McCain on Dec. 11, 2008, released the executive summary of a report, approved by the full committee without dissent, concluding that Bush's Feb. 7, 2002, memorandum "opened the door to considering aggressive techniques."

Here is Conclusion Number One of the Senate committee report: "Following the President's determination, techniques such as waterboarding, nudity, and stress positions...were authorized for use in interrogations of detainees in U.S. custody."

It is essential that those responsible for torture be held to account. This is not about "policy differences." It is about crimes. More important still, it's about holding fast to our Constitution and enforcing accountability in the executive branch.

There was a time when we regularly looked to folks from Texas to defend the law. What would we have done, for example, without the late Barbara Jordan, African American jurist and member of the House Judiciary Committee, who spoke out with memorable eloquence in arguing that President Richard Nixon had to be held to account. He could not get away with placing himself over the law.

Jordan and most of her committee colleagues voted out articles of impeachment against Nixon, leaving him little choice but to resign or be impeached. Speaking to the House, Jordan described Nixon as a President "swollen with power and grown tyrannical." She added:

"My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution."

Barbara Jordan was a Texan through and through. She was also, above all, an American patriot. I suspect she may be rolling over in her grave at the prospect of a chief executive escaping accountability for approving torture.

Ray McGovern will address these and other issues on Thursday evening, July 9, for the Dallas Peace Center. He served as an Army officer and CIA analyst for almost thirty years and is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). He now works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington.

This article did find a home, appearing first on Consortiumnews.com.

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HERE (BELOW) IS THE LETTER TO W.

Tell the Word
Church of the Saviour
2025 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
July 2, 2009
President George W. Bush
10141 Daria Place
Dallas, TX 74229

Dear President Bush,

With this note I hope to make sure you know that I have been invited by the Dallas Peace Center to lecture next Thursday evening, July 9, at a dinner at FunAsia in Richardson. You and Mrs. Bush are cordially invited.

In my remarks I plan to focus on the subject of torture. I shall draw on my thirty years in Army Intelligence and the CIA, as well as a lifetime of trying to follow Jesus of Nazareth. I will take issue with your decision of February 7, 2002 that the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (August 12, 1949) does not apply to al Qaeda and Taliban detainees; and I will explore the implications of that decision.

Somehow it seemed not quite proper to come to Dallas without letting you know this in advance. I also wanted to tell you that I would welcome a chance to discuss these issues with you-either privately or, better still, at the dinner itself.

Many have said they found informative the impromptu televised debate I had with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld three years ago in Atlanta. On May 12 of this year, I had a similar public encounter with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, one of the addressees of your executive memorandum of February 7, 2002. Our dialogue focused on torture, and my colleagues in the Harvard Business School Club of Washington, DC, have told me they found it instructive.

I have been less successful in personally engaging former Secretary of State Colin Powell, even though we had sustained (every-other-morning) professional contact during the early Eighties. I did him the courtesy of pre-briefing him on information I was about to share during my early morning one-on-ones with his boss, Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger-except for the President's Daily Brief (PDB) itself and other very sensitive materials earmarked exclusively for President Reagan, Weinberger, Secretary of State George Shultz, and, of course, your father, the vice president.

You are familiar with the PDB briefing process. I was on the small team of PDB writers under Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. From 1981 to 1985 I not only helped produce the PDB, but also conducted one-on-one briefings of the handful of senior officials designated by President Reagan. For me it was particularly rewarding to be once again in regular contact with your father, for whom I had worked during his brief stint as Director of Central Intelligence.

Were you to come to the dinner next Thursday, I have little doubt that an informative discussion would ensue-a give-and-take unfiltered by those more interested in getting a story than in getting at the truth. I would be happy to give you a copy of my talk beforehand, so that you would know chapter and verse of what I intend to cover and have ample time to prepare your side of the give and take.

If you decide to attend and wish to take me up on this, please let me know the best way to get a copy of my talk to you.

With respect,

/s/

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He was an Army infantry/intelligence officer and then a CIA analyst for 27 years, and is now on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

In by email:

No, we need the power of the Legislature to work to check the Judiciary...‏

From:	Frankknee@aol.com
Sent:	Tue 5/26/09 12:55 PM
To:	victoryusa@jail4judges.org; mspexec@gmail.com; AMOJ_MAIN@yahoogroups.com; trvl@hotmail.com

In a message dated 5/8/2009 5:34:48 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, victoryusa@jail4judges.org writes:

The focus of J.A.I.L. is the judiciary-- not
the legislature. The judge will be held accountable for whatever his
reliance for his actions happens to be. And such reliance must be in
accordance with the Constitution. The judge can't point a finger and say
"The legislature made me do it." No way!

-Barbie
victoryusa@jail4judges.org

Actually. we need the get various Legislatures including Congress to get off their asses and pass some new Acts that:

1) Rid Judicial Immunity, examine definition of "Bad Behavior" Rid the Judicial finding that Judges are immune even for malicious behavior. The finding of Malicious Behavior must forever be countered by remedy.

2) Put controls on the Discretionary powers of a Judge. Make clear where the line is crossed when a judge ignores the law. Make clear that Appellate and Supreme court judges must conform to a high standard in exercising its limited powers.

3) Force procedure and Rules of the court to accommodate well-settled law on the ability to forever challenge the Jurisdiction of court -for which the burden immediately shifts to the State. Any viable Motion should make the challenge, and not impeded by the court by its insistence that a party must first Reopen the case. Rather the challenge should reflect evidence that causes Reopening.

4) All decisions must provide a free of charge memorandum which addresses all the legal allegations set forth by the pleadings. In this way, even a Clerk's dismissal notice would no longer get away with summary dismissals without first addressing the legal basis of its decision. There may be a violation of the Constitution even in lowly dismissals and denials that are subject to challenge on the merits.

5) Acts that address the power of Congress to form new courts when needed. We need new court division between the State courts and The US Supreme Court. Evidence of the NEED: less than 1% of all petitions are ever heard at the USSC. Finding: This situation leads us all to conclude there are no 1st Amendment rights to plead your case to its fullest and find remedy. Well if the Supreme Judges can't handle the load, it's only natural they should pass out some of the burden. It is time the courts made an even playing field. This new court could catalyze Private Attorney General/Grand Jury powers. There is a bill plopped on the desk of John Conyers to that effect.

THE LOWDOWN:

Legislature and Congress makes the laws, and Judges must follow the law. I've been following this thing about how the House Judiciary Committee can reverse the findings of a case, though not affecting the actual case for which the committee became discerned, but rather CLARIFYING to the Judiciary that Congress has a certain INTENT and when the intent is clear, the Judiciary must bow down.

Francis Knize

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http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/

[click here] for State of Connecticut public corruption and police misconduct in a nutshell

[click here] for Steven G. Erickson youtube.com videos

stevengerickson@yahoo.com

From the Connecticut Law Tribune

Friday, March 6, 2009

Top Stories

Authorities Search For Missing Prosecutor
By CHRISTIAN NOLAN
Joseph Kristan Jr. has been a juvenile prosecutor in Connecticut for 30 years. On Jan. 15 his family thought he was headed to work, as usual, at the Rockville courthouse. But he never arrived at work, never came back home, and was reported missing to State Police later that day. He has not been seen since. Family members have, however, heard from him since. He has sent letters with return addresses in Florida, Tennessee and Mississippi. But efforts by the family to contact him at the addresses have been unsuccessful. State police have not released a lot of details, but according to spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance, the following is known: Kristan left his family’s South Windsor home on Jan. 15 wearing a black down jacket and baseball cap. He was driving a red Chrysler convertible with the Connecticut license plate of 599-UBA. Investigators believe he took about a weeks worth of clothing with him. Kristan is described as 5-foot-10, 178 pounds, green eyes, gray hair with a receding hairline, a goatee, tri-focal glasses, olive complexion and a four-inch scar on the back of his head. Investigators and family members have not publicly stated any possible motive for Kristan’s disappearance.

Bill Would Allow Judges to Alter Mortgage Terms
A plan to give debt-strapped homeowners a chance to lower their mortgage payments through bankruptcy courts won approval in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, but is facing a much tougher road in the Senate amid because of lending industry opposition. The legislation would give bankruptcy judges — who now can modify loans for such items as cars and student loans but not for primary residences — new power to reduce the interest rate and principle on a home mortgage. Supporters regard the threat of a mortgage modification in bankruptcy as a crucial tool to prod banks to negotiate with homeowners for more affordable terms. Critics argue the measure will create a flood of bankruptcy filings that ultimately will drive up mortgage rates and further destabilize the housing market. The House bill is the product of a compromise between dueling Democratic factions. A group of moderates and refused to support the measure unless it included several changes the banking lobby had sought. The resulting compromise would bar homeowners from getting loan modifications in bankruptcy court unless they have first tried to work out a deal with their lenders and have no other way of affording their mortgages. It also would let judges consider whether the home loan company had made a reasonable offer to change the terms to those embodied in President Barack Obama's housing plan — allowing the homeowner to reduce his monthly payments to about one-third of his income. – Associated Press

Web User Challenges Suit By Yale Law Students
A Texas man is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by two female Yale Law School students who say he made sexually charged slurs against them on the Internet. A lawyer for Matthew Ryan of Austin was scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Hartford Friday afternoon for arguments on the motion to dismiss. Attorney Joseph G. Fortner, of Halloran & Sage in Hartford, represents Ryan, who is one of more than 20 defendants being sued by the two women, who are not named in the proceedings. The women accuse Ryan of making defamatory comments about them on a law school discussion forum on the Web site AutoAdmit, including anti-Semitic slurs and a false claim that one of the women had a sexually transmitted disease. Ryan says in court documents that he has never made statements on the Internet that he believed affected people in Connecticut.
– Associated Press

Reports: State To Lose 60,000 More Jobs
The latest quarterly report from University of Connecticut economists says the state probably will continue to feel the impact of the recession for at least another 15 months. The report predicts that the state will likely see the loss of another 60,000 jobs during the next 15 months. The authors of the UConn quarterly review say the state has already lost between 28,000 and 30,000 jobs as a result of the recession. UConn economist Steven Lanza says the pace of layoffs is speeding up. He says when the quarterly report came out with its winter edition in December, it included projections of between 11,500 and 42,000 jobs being lost over the next two years.
– Associated Press

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The Law Tribune’s annual New Partners Yearbook will be published March 16. Even in a souring economy, law firms have sent dozens of announcements about new partners in their ranks. If you want your firm to be included, log on to www.newtofirm.com, fill out the questionnaire and make sure you provide a high-resolution color photo of the new partner. Also, please make sure you label the photo with the partner’s name. We will accept submissions until this Friday, March 6.

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Friday, March 6, 2009

Nothing Funny About Drinking And Driving
By AMY GOODUSKY
Usually, this column is devoted to the lighter side of the legal profession. Maybe, as a music reviewer once noted about my vocal performance, the column is "occasionally somewhat pleasant" to read. What I wish to say here may not really be pleasant, to write or to read, and certainly is not intended to be funny. More

Governor’s Seizure Should Shake Up Judiciary
By NORM PATTIS
Governor’s Seizure Should Shake Up Judiciary BIO: Norm Pattis is a criminal defense lawyer and civil rights attorney in Bethany. He blogs most days at normpattis.blogspot.com. By NORM PATTIS Buried deep within Gov. M. Jodi Rell's proposed budget is a provision that would get a lawyer disbarred, were the lawyer foolish enough to act on it. But the governor is no lawyer. She is the head of the executive branch. And she is asking the legislature to help her rob a fund created by the judiciary for purposes of helping clients and lawyers in need. What will be done to stop her? At issue is the Client Security Fund. This fund is a creature of the judiciary. Its stated purpose is to provide relief to clients who lose property or money as a result of the dishonest conduct of lawyers. It also funds a crisis intervention and referral service for lawyers who crumble under the weight of the world. Lawyers are assessed an annual fee to go into this fund, which, constitutes a trust. The governor's budget proposes that the state seize $2 million from the fund to help meet the current shortfall in revenues. It has folks in the judiciary seeing red, and not just red ink. It seems a doubtful proposition as a matter of law that these funds can be seized without so much as wink and a nod to the separation-of-powers doctrine. We have three branches of government, after all. To the judiciary falls the regulation of lawyers and the relationship between lawyers and clients. If the judiciary creates a fund by taxing lawyers and then puts those monies in trust to assure that both lawyers and clients are protected from the vagaries of life, what possible legal theory supports an executive or legislative branch seizure? I hope the judiciary is considering a constitutional challenge to this proposal. When a lawyer dips into to a trust fund for an unauthorized purpose, he or she faces disbarment, if not criminal prosecution. When public charities run afoul of accounting requirements, the Attorney General's office has plenty to say. What precedent supports the governor's seizure of trust funds? Of course, Rell is nothing if not shrewd. So perhaps she is bluffing. Perhaps this feint at what looks to be a form of theft is merely a way of laying siege to a different fortress. "What? I cannot violate this trust? Oh, well, then I shall have to do what I hesitate to do: I shall tax legal services, even if that means the costs of those services shall increase for clients." The economy is in tatters and the state's budget is awash in red ink. Revenues are needed. But so are savings. What is the governor doing to cut state expenses? I saw a recent list of the top 250 wage earners in state service. The salaries ranged from $1.6 million for UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun to a low of $217,000 for an emergency room physician. Buried within the list are registered nurses making a quarter of a million dollars and a whopping $400,000 for the state's top prison doctor. These salaries are, I suspect, well above the mean for lawyers. There is something obscene about these salaries for state employment at a time in which many folks face unemployment and the loss of homes. The state's safety nets will be stretched mighty thin in a time of crisis. Among those safety nets is the Client Security Fund. Sucking the life out of the Client Security Fund makes no sense. Need a few extra million? Give the state's basketball and football coaches a call. They're swimming in cash.

Decision of the Day

Arbitration Not Condition Precedent To Litigation
CASE: Liebig v. Farley
COURT: New London J.D., at New London
DOC. NO.: 08-5005405
COURT OPINION BY: Martin, J.
DATE: Feb. 13, 2009 PAGES: 22
Although the parties agreed in 2002 to arbitrate claims that arose from the defendant financial planner’s assessment of the plaintiff’s financial condition, arbitration did not constitute a condition precedent to the plaintiff’s suit alleging that in 1995 the defendant wrongly advised her to obtain a reverse mortgage. Plaintiff Beonne Liebig’s complaint alleged that defendant Andrew Farley persuaded her to obtain a reverse mortgage in the amount of $383,098 in 1995. Allegedly, Farley attended the closing and signed as a witness on the mortgage deed. When the plaintiff’s health deteriorated, Farley allegedly paid the plaintiff’s bills and managed the plaintiff’s investments. The plaintiff’s complaint alleged that Farley failed to inform her she was a member in a class action suit of individuals who were defrauded about the terms of reverse mortgages, and he invested the $6,000 the plaintiff received as a settlement. In 2007, the plaintiff sold her property for $2.4 million and was required to pay $1.7 million in non-contingent interest, contingent interest and maturity fees. The plaintiff sued Farley and his employer, Ameriprise Financial Services, alleging breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and violation of CUTPA, the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. The defendants moved to stay, pending arbitration. Although the parties agreed to arbitrate claims arising out of a 2002 contract to supply advice about the plaintiff’s finances, the court was not persuaded that arbitration constituted a condition precedent to litigation of the plaintiff’s complaint. One contract governed the assessment of the plaintiff’s finances and investments in 2002 and restricted the scope of arbitrable disputes to those subjects. Other contracts that the parties signed were likewise restricted. The plaintiff’s allegations pre-dated the signing of the arbitration contracts. The court denied the defendants’ motion to stay, pending arbitration.

More decisions...

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Risking my skin?

To Charles "Don" Clemens or to whom it may concern at the Connecticut Capitol:

After appearing at a public hearing at the Hartford Capitol Legislative Office Building, it is my belief that a division of the Connecticut State Police, the Capitol Guard, were out to terrorize and intimidate Chris Kennedy, and I, for exercising our right to Free Speech, contrary to what police want us to be able to say. Should I fear arrest and imprisonment, just for exercising my right to redress grievances to public officials?

I am posting this email to you [here].

What I am talking about can be [found here], and that is my opinion on today's legislation regarding whether or not police should be able to keep their information secret from the public.

If you don't see me appear before you today, please look into my being falsely arrested to prevent me from expressing my opinion.

Thank you,

Steven G. Erickson

stevengerickson@yahoo.com