轉貼 【法官被革職】

[Guest]

轉貼 【法官被革職】


美國一名法官以丟銅板決定一起爭奪孩子監護渡假權的官司，結果遭到革職。

美國維吉尼亞最高法院裁定，法官「夏爾」未能維護司法的尊嚴，因此將他革職。
法官「夏爾」坦承在承辦一對離婚夫妻爭奪與孩子共度聖誕節的官司，確實以銅板做判
決。他說，之 前他試圖勸這對夫妻自行解決，但是沒有成功。因此他用丟銅板的方式，
做最後決定。事後他也承認這方式不妥。

http://news.yam.com/bcc/international/200711/20071106926577.html

A whimsical judge was dismissed from the bench by the Virginia Supreme
Court on Friday, making him only the second magistrate to be booted out
of the service for judicial misconduct.

It was the end of the line for Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge
James Michael Shull of Gate City who hogged the limelight when he
decided a custody case by flipping a coin and making a mentally-disturbed
litigant drop her pants in open court.

"Unless our citizens can trust that judges will fairly resolve the disputes
brought before our courts, and treat all litigants with dignity, our courts
will lose the public's respect and confidence upon which our legal system
depends," said the Virginia Supreme Court, in a decision penned by
Justice Barbara Milano Keenan.

Shull could have received a mere censure but the justices, noting his
misbehavior in the past, meted the stiffest penalty.

The judge also appeared before the Judicial Inquiry and Review
Commission in 2004 for allegedly advising a woman to marry her abusive
boyfriend and calling a teenager a "wuss" and a "mama's boy." The
commission let him escape with just a slap on the wrist.

But the commission did not let him off easy the second time around.
It lodged a complaint the Supreme Court after Shull tossed a coin to
determine which parent would have visitation with a child on Christmas
and ordered a woman to drop her pants to see the stab wound in her leg.
The woman sought a protective order against her partner.

The judge admitted to both incidents but insisted that in the custody battle,
he merely wanted the parents to come to an agreement.

"A judge's act of tossing a coin in a courtroom to decide a legal issue
pending before the court suggests that courts do not decide cases on their
merits but instead subject litigants to games of chance in serious matters
without regard to the evidence or applicable law," the court said.

It noted the judge also violated ethical standards when he went to his
chambers to call a hospital on the woman's stab wound in the absence of
the litigants.

Shull is only the second judge kicked out of the Virginia judiciary since the
commission was established in 1971.

http://www.wayodd.com/whimsical-judge-dismissed-for-flipping-a-coin-to-decide-custody-case/v/8397/

[Guest]

Judge Roy Pearson Fired, Pants Appeal Still Pending. Is There Finally
Justice in the $54 Million Pants Suit?

Tuesday, Washington. The news broke early this morning that Judge Roy
Pearson will reportedly lose his job, according to sources cited by the Post.
Pearson, who infamously sued the owners of Custom Cleaners first for
$65 million and then later for $54 million for misplacing a pair of his pants,
is a District administrative law judge who has continued to draw a
paycheck despite being taken off of his case work since the scandal broke.
The panel reportedly voted yesterday against reappointing Pearson,
though they have yet to send him a formal letter or announce their
decision publicly.

It's impossible to know whether his termination would have happened had
Pearson not filed his ludicrous lawsuit at the exact time when the panel
was reviewing his reappointment. Still, the panel's action speaks louder
than any speculation.

Nevertheless, I find myself wondering if justice has been served. Pearson,
whose appeal of the suit is expected to drag into 2008, has lost his job,
but the Chungs, Jin and Soo, have lost their business, their faith in
America's legal system and many, many hours of sleep.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/offbeat/2007/11/judge_roy_pearson_fired_pants_1.html

[Guest]

自錄性幻想遭曝光 美法官下台
【聯合報╱編譯王麗娟／美聯社田納西州查塔諾加三日電 】

六十五歲的美國巡迴法官海格勒多年前錄製了一捲性幻想錄音帶自娛，沒想到前秘書遭他
開除後挾怨報復，將帶子交給警方，由於帶子裡的聲音太過聳動逼真，警方一度以為這是
虐待案甚至謀殺案實況錄音。

海格勒已於上月辭職，以避免本案二日開庭時的尷尬。警方強調，海格勒並非任何偵查中
案件的嫌犯，也未被控以任何罪名，而二日開庭主要是討論警方應否公布錄音帶內容。有
人指出，海格勒的這場官司與職場報復、部門暗鬥、策略爆料脫不了干係。

海格勒的一名女秘書二○○五年遭他革職不久，將錄音帶交給警方，表示她發現同時錄有
案件筆錄內容的錄音帶，有海格勒的聲音。查塔諾加警方與聯邦調查局一度懷疑它與一九
九七年的一樁謀殺懸案有關，但最後認定聲音純粹只是性幻想。這兩年來，海格勒繼續擔
任法官，審理離婚與兒童監護權官司，且直到上月，外界從不知有此錄音帶。

這捲錄音帶事隔兩年後，到了田納西地方法院檢察官貝比手中。上個月，日報「查塔諾加
時報自由媒體」從不知名人士那裡得知錄音帶一事，向海格勒查證，海格勒坦承，並辭去
法官一職。貝比說，他也不認為錄音帶與任何犯罪有關，但聽過錄音帶後，他勸老友海格
勒辭職。貝比說：「任何人聽了，都會感到困擾。」

此事懸疑處包括：海格勒為何錄製這捲帶子？為何帶子事隔兩年才曝光？以及帶子內容究
竟是什麼？

海格勒認為爆料者定然是挾怨報復，且可能曾遭他判刑。他很遺憾司法體系淪為報復攻擊
的受害人；檢方否認錄音帶遭人踢爆，是因海格勒最近駁回當地警長辦公室的經費案。

田納西的律師要求聯邦檢方調查錄音帶外洩一事。警方說，調查局幹員已開始進行了解。

http://udn.com/NEWS/WORLD/WOR4/4165922.shtml

Judge Resigns Over Graphic Fantasy Tape

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (Jan. 3) - A Tennessee judge resigned last month
after making a recording of fantasies so lurid that when the tape fell into
the hands of the police and FBI, they thought they were listening to a
torture session and believed it might be linked to a murder case.

Ultimately, investigators brought no charges against Circuit Judge John B.
Hagler, and police said Wednesday he is not a suspect in any investigation.

But the sensational case has led to allegations of professional retaliation,
interdepartmental intrigue and strategic news leaks.

The recording was investigated by authorities more than two years ago,
but its existence did not come to light publicly until just a few weeks ago,
and details on the contents are only now coming out, at a hearing that
began Wednesday on whether police must release the tape.

During those two years, the judge remained on the bench, hearing mostly
family court cases like divorces and child custody.

Among the mysteries: Why did he make such a recording? Why is it
coming to light just now? And what, exactly, is on the tape?

The tape was briefly examined by Chattanooga police and the FBI in late
2005 after a secretary who had just been fired by Hagler turned it over,
authorities said. She told them she found the recording of the judge's
voice on a tape that also contained legal dictation.

"It sounded like someone being tortured," Chattanooga police Sgt. Alan
Franks testified Wednesday, offering the first details of what is on the
tape.

Franks said the recording was investigated in relation to a still-unsolved
1997 murder. He gave no other details on the murder case.

"The content was so shocking. I have been a police officer for 24 years,"
Franks said before his testimony was cut off by an objection.

Investigators ultimately concluded the recording consisted only of
fantasies.

Two years later, the tape made its way to the prosecutor in Hagler's
Tennessee district, District Attorney Steve Bebb. Then, last month, the
Chattanooga Times Free Press learned about the recording from an
unidentified source, and Hagler confirmed it and resigned.

Hagler said that he had done nothing wrong but that the recording had
caused great embarrassment to friends, family and the courts. Hagler,
who is 65 and married, has been a circuit judge in Cleveland, Tenn., since
1990 and served three terms as president of the Tennessee Trial Judges
Association.

"The description of it as containing 'graphic fantasies' ... is an accurate and
sufficient description and all any decent person would want to hear of it,"
the judge said in a statement.

Bebb, the district attorney, said he, too, concluded the recording was not
connected to any crime, but what he heard led him to persuade Hagler,
whom he describes as a longtime friend, to resign.

"This would disturb any human being who heard it," Bebb said.

The judge strongly suggested the leak was committed by someone with a
grudge against him, perhaps someone he ruled against.

"In my opinion, the real story here, so strongly expressed by an alert and
outraged public, is not about me or my sins, but about whether one of our
essential public institutions, the judiciary, has been the victim of a
retaliatory attack," Hagler said in his statement. He did not elaborate but
alluded to a dispute within the local bar association.

The district attorney has disputed speculation the leak was related to the
judge's recent ruling against a local sheriff's department's request for
more funding.

Bebb said in December that he sent a copy of the tape to the state Court
of the Judiciary, which handles complaints against judges. A court
spokeswman said the panel would not act because the judge has resigned
and it no longer has jurisdiction.

Members of the local bar have asked federal prosecutors to investigate
how the existence of the tape became public. Police said FBI agents are
asking them questions about the leak.

The judge is fighting a request by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, The
Associated Press and other news organizations that the tape be released.
The hearing resumes on Thursday.

Hagler was relaxed and smiling at times during Wednesday's hearing. He
said during a break that he had not heard the tape in the hands of police
and could not be sure it was the one he recorded. "I hope it's my voice,"
he said.

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/judge-resigns-over-graphic-fantasy-tape/20080103074509990001

[Guest]

http://dcist.com/2008/01/04/chungs_featured.php

If there's one local story from 2007 that Washington D.C. taxpayers are
unlikely to forget, it's the saga of former administrative law judge Roy
Pearson and his multi-million dollar pants lawsuit. The defendants in the
lawsuit, the Chung family, were eventually forced to close their Custom
Cleaners location in Northeast D.C., and they received an outpouring of
support from the community as they sought to defend themselves against
what was clearly a ridiculous lawsuit.

At the time, there was also some concern that the Chungs had found
themselves becoming poster children for the tort reform movement, since
groups like the Institute for Legal Reform and the American Tort Reform
Association threw a big fundraiser to help them with their legal defense
fees. Recently, the ILR kicked off a new "lawsuit abuse" campaign and
launched the web site IAmLawsuitAbuse.org, which features the Chungs
prominently in a video and narrative about how the U.S. legal system
crushed their American dream.

We've posted the video above. It's pretty heartwrenching to watch Jin and
Soo Chung come to tears over the stress that Pearson's $54 million suit
brought them. But it's also pretty startling to see powerful lobbying groups
for business interests like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hold up the
Chungs, who were the victims of a lawsuit so unusual and outlandish that
it earned international media attention and a relatively quick dismissal, as
being representative of larger problems within the U.S. legal system. Does
one Roy Pearson mean tort reform is imperative? We're not so sure.

[Guest]

Update Judge Roy Pearson's lawsuit against Custom Cleaners

By Annapolis Digest
Tuesday, March 11, 2008; Page B02

A bill to require Maryland dry cleaners to pay customers for clothing they
damage or lose has been rejected by the House Economic Matters
Committee.

The proposal, introduced by Del. Barbara A. Robinson (D-Baltimore), was
inspired in part by a D.C. judge's $54 million lawsuit against his
neighborhood dry cleaners over a lost pair of gray trousers. Judge Roy L.
Pearson Jr.'s lawsuit against Custom Cleaners prompted worldwide ridicule
and was dismissed in court.

Robinson's effort to change state law to specify for the first time what dry
cleaners must do if they damage or lose clothing drew fierce opposition.

Dozens of dry cleaners and industry lobbyists packed a hearing last week
to oppose the measure.

[Guest]

Wednesday, May 7, 2008; Page B04

MISSING-PANTS CASE

Judge Sues City Over Job Loss

Roy L. Pearson Jr., whose $54 million lawsuit against a dry-cleaning
business generated international attention, is suing the D.C. government,
alleging officials broke the law when they did not reappoint him to the job
of administrative law judge.

Pearson lost his lawsuit last year against Custom Cleaners, which he said
had misplaced a pair of his pants. Then the commission that oversees
administrative law judges declined to reappoint him to a 10-year term.
The commission questioned his judgment and temperament during two
years on the bench.

Administrative law judges hear cases involving city agencies and
commissions. Pearson's suit against the city was first reported by the
Washington Examiner.

In the lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court, Pearson said that he
had an "outstanding record" and that the commission illegally retaliated
against him for speaking out about the court's management. Pearson, who
is representing himself, wants his job, back pay and hundreds of
thousands of dollars in damages.

According to the lawsuit, Pearson said he was suing for "emotional pain,
embarrassment, humiliation, mental anguish, loss of professional
reputation, and loss of enjoyment of life."

Peter J. Nickles, interim D.C. attorney general, said Pearson's lawsuit is
"without merit." The District has no plans to settle and will "vigorously
defend" itself, Nickles said. He also offered Pearson some advice. "He
needs to stop filing lawsuits," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/06/AR2008050602899.html

[Guest]

Lost-Pants Plaintiff Sues Again

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Roy Pearson, the District of Columbia
Administrative judge who filed suit against his drycleaner for $54 million
last year, is at it again. Pearson is suing to get his job back.

Now, Pearson claims he suffered “humiliation” and “emotional distress” in
a new lawsuit seeking reinstatement and at least $825,000 in damages.
Pearson claims in a 52-page filing that he was wrongfully dismissed as a
result of his exposing corruption in D.C.’s Office of Administrative
Hearings.

Pearson seeks compensatory damages of $75,000 from the District and
the five commissioners responsible for his unfavorable review, plus
punitive damages of “no less than” 10 times that amount from the
defendants. He again is acting as his own counsel in the case.


http://www.americandrycleaner.com/article.cfm?articleID=17689