Corrupt Mississippi Judges and Former-Attorney who Bribed them Head Back to Prison

Attorney Paul Minor (left) Judges Whitfield and Teel

Friday I brought you the story of the former Mississippi Judges and the attorney who bribed them heading back to federal court for resentencing following reversal of that part of their convictions that related to the now-unconstitutional Honest Services law.  Former judges Teel, Whitfield and attorney Paul Minor are heading back to the federal prison following reductions in their sentences.  This is an excerpt from the Clarion-Ledger's reporter Jack Elliot's account:

Former Mississippi attorney Paul Minor saw his prison time cut by three years but failed to win his freedom Monday during resentencing in a judicial corruption scheme involving two ex-judges.

ex-attorney Paul Minor

All three were ordered back to federal lock-up.

U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate rejected the men's appeal to be sentenced to time already served in the case. But Minor and former Harrison County judges Wes Teel, 60, and John Whitfield, 48, all will serve less time than when originally sentenced in 2007. All are in prison now.

Minor was originally sentenced to 11 years. Wingate reduced it to eight years.

He and the two former judges had to be resentenced because a federal appeals court vacated their bribery convictions in 2009. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld other convictions, including honest services fraud against each of the men and racketeering against Minor.

Abbe Lowell and Hiram Eastland successfully argued the federal bribery argument in the 5th Circuit that resulted in Minor's resentencing.

Prosecutors said Minor, 65, would guarantee loans for the judges, then used cash and third parties to pay off the debts. Judges then ruled in his favor in civil cases. Minor has said the loans were meant to help friends in times of need and that he expected nothing in return.

Teel was sentenced to about four years in prison, a reduction of 19 months. Whitfield got about six years, a reduction of 22 months.

Teel and Whitfield already have served about 3 1/2 years each. Minor has served about four years and nine months, including time spent in treatment for alcohol abuse - rehabilitation ordered by Wingate.

[ . . . ] Earlier Monday, Minor told Wingate that he "deeply, deeply regretted" having let down his family, including his wife, Sylvia, who died in 2009.

Minor said his wife had told him to not get involved in politics, but he didn't listen.  "I am not the Paul Minor who was before you four years ago. I am a Paul Minor who is still a work in progress," he said. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dave Fulcher said after the re-sentencing that [U.S. District Judge] Wingate "made it clear that these convictions were serious offenses and the sentences were to reflect the seriousness" of them [. . . ] ingate said he was impressed by the contrition shown by the three.

"You have with your conduct earned a reduction" in the sentence, Wingate said.

Wingate said he also was concerned about the health of Teel and Whitfield. He said both men have been receiving medical treatment while incarcerated.

Teel had suffered a heart attack shortly after entering prison in December 2007 and had heart surgery in January 2008.

Whitfield suffers from Crohn's disease, which causes inflammation of the intestinal wall. There is no cure.  I am not the Paul Minor who was before you four years ago. I am a Paul Minor who is still a work in progress," he said.   [Judge W]ingate said he expected Minor to continue to get treatment for substance abuse for the remainder of his sentence and have random drug testing under the direction of prison officials.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dave Fulcher said after the re-sentencing that Wingate "made it clear that these convictions were serious offenses and the sentences were to reflect the seriousness" of them.

The government had initially requested maximum sentences for the three men. Wingate said he would not do that, resentencing all three to terms that were less than those suggested in federal sentencing guidelines.

Wingate said he was impressed by the contrition shown by the three.

"You have with your conduct earned a reduction" in the sentence, Wingate said.

Wingate said he also was concerned about the health of [former judge]Winfield. He [noted that] both men [receive] medical treatment [in the BOP.]

Teel had suffered a heart attack shortly after entering prison in December 2007 and had heart surgery in January 2008.  hitfield suffers from Crohn's disease, which causes inflammation of the intestinal wall. There is no cure.
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This story should help in my continuing effort to disabuse you of the notion that life at the Club Fed is the high life.  It is often harsh, dangerous, and certainly objectively debilitating to older inmates' health.

Postscript: one of my commentators noted accurately that the "optical orange" uniforms are provided by the local jails when federal inmates are not actually in US Marshall custody, i.e. being housed local to US District Court.  In the case of Whitfield, Teel, and Minor the local county lockup. 

Optical orange is often used in-transit for the obvious reason that in the event of escape an inmate will (initially) be highly visible.  The stocking caps given to us at FCI, Morgantown over the winter were also optical orange while the uniforms are khaki.  But when I went to the HOLE/SHU, my uniforms (really all my property) were taken and I was given an oversize optical orange jumpsuit.

Epic Fraudster

Solomon Dwek (pic) is labeled an "epic fraudster" in a Joe Ryan article about corruption for the Star-Ledger.  Dwek, a former rabbinical student, was the tool of the FBI in its New Jersey corruption sting.  Forty-six public officials, including judges, mayors, and others have been caught up in bribery and other federal offenses. 

Dwek came to the attention of the federal authorities as part of their investigation into a $50 million dollar bank fraud.  In exchange for consideration he strapped a small camera around his waist and set up the various persons now on trial in various venues around Jersey. 

Dwek will go down in the annals of legendary crooks for a variety of schemes apart from his sting of others.  It is revealed in testimony at the trial of Ridgefield Mayor Anthony R. Suarez that Dwek arranged to pay the premiums of terminally ill and elderly folks who could not afford life insurance premiums.  When the insured died he and his partners including a Yeshiva (a school) collected the policy.  On cross examination Dwek acknowledged collecting $150,000 from "investing in people's deaths." 

Karma, anyone?

Cuyahoga County Corruption

OurTown and OurCounty are going through a corruption scandal virtually identical to the one in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and I felt it instructive to share with you the coverage from Cleveland.com (Moses Cleveland statue, above, from Public Square in Cleveland) the website of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and recap some of the larger themes of this blawg.  This post is prompted by the charging of the Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo (who's visage graces every scale and gas pump in that large metropolitan county) as well as the imminent federal prosecution of his political partner a Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora following an endless investigation and revelations of massive corruption that dripped out in the news like Chinese water torture for the citizens of that region of Ohio.

First let me congratulate the Plain Dealer and its terrifc journalists and editors for coverage over the last two years, it's been brilliant and insightful.  ( BL: A few years ago, the Plain Dealer and its reporters: James McCarty and David Briggs did pioneering work on exposing the Catholic Child Sex abuse scandal, nationally, at the same time the Boston Globe received a Pulitzer prize for their coverage. I add this by way of disclosure since I supplied historical detail and information to both investigations.)

At the same time, the Plain Dealer is historically one of the villains of the story that its now exposing, and currrently the paper is not acknowledging its historical role and involvement in enabling and encouraging exactly the corruption uncovered by its current reporters and editors.  It doesn't take too much deep reading in the Plain Dealer archive to see where the publication endorsed and promoted many of the people: the Commissioners, the Sheriff, the Auditor, and the Judges who are now swept into federal and state justice systems on bribery and other felony crimes.  The Plain Dealer was run at one time by a succession of patriarchal types (Thomas Vail (pic) and Alex Machaskee) who were more interested in wielding power with the their corporate buddies and who viewed the regional government of Cuyahoga County as serving their interests.  Retiring republican U.S. Senator George Voinovich is one product of that culture, although I am not suggesting that Voinovich himself was ever involved in any of the sordid stuff that has come to a head in this scandal.  Nonetheless the Plain Dealer was complicit in turning a blind eye or encouraging for DECADES, a course of dealing and doing business in a way that benefited the elites at the cost of the citizens.  Since Cleveland has long been a one-newspaper town, the influence of the Plain Dealer was out sized and unfortunately malevolent for many decades.

But the Plain Dealer under editor Susan Goldberg and before her, Dough Clifton is a different publication, although it would be nice to see the current journalists look at the role of the paper in the unfolding drama.

As I said many times on Bad Lawyer, public-minded young professionals in OurTown and apparently in Cleveland, coming fresh out of school and looking to do public service had very little chance for public sector employment unless they knew somebody, possessed a certain familiar ethnic name, or played a very corrupt game.  In Cuyahoga County in recent years, this operation was run by a fat Italian named Jimmy Dimora (pic, above) who is a Cuyahoga County Commissioner for a few more hours, and his buddy, Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo (pic, below right).  At one point these two shared power in a triumvirate with an bantam weight little wife-beater and child porn hound, Pat O'Malley.  These guys corrupted nearly everything and everybody (including many lawyers, judges, and other professionals) they touched and they cost the tax payers directly and indirectly millions and millions of dollars.  These so-called public servants converted--under the nose of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald McFaul, and Prosecutor Bill Mason (both of whom have been discussed on Bad Lawyer)--a contracting and taxing authority that was little more than racket for self-seeking.  They were aided and abetted by nearly every other elected official in the county.  The people of Cuyahoga County finally became so outraged with the shenanigans of these thieves and their enablers in an election, last year, the voters discarded county government as it then existed and cleaned the slate of everyone.

Largely because of the Plain Dealer, the FBI, the IRS, and federal prosecutors one by one each of these crooks is being uncovered and exposed.  You can read the story at the Cleveland.com link I provided, above, but I wanted to make a couple of further points about the roots of the corruption as it relates to lawyers and judges. 

From my reading of the scandal, as it unfolded, federal law enforcement was looking at some very curious things relating to how contracts were awarded in Cuyahoga County.  As long as I've been aware of OurTown politics and public sector corruption, this is where the action is.  When I was no more than a law student and law clerk, I remember talking to a junior politician in a downtown racket club warning him that he should be very careful about being involved in the awarding of "cable contract franchises" which was then very much in the news.  Politicians, everywhere were being prosecuted for taking bribes associated with the awarding of those contracts.  Since time immemorial, politicians fall prey to easy money--don't we all? 

But the catalyst in Cuyahoga County, came in the guise of the county recorder, Pat O'Malley, a former City of Cleveland councilman.  O'Malley, then a recent law school graduate, and fantastically unstable character was involved in a divorce proceeding.  In 2004 his soon to be ex-wife turned over his computer hard drives which allegedly contained child and violent porn to federal prosecutors. 

I'm relatively certain that from that moment on, as historians look back at what came flying apart the arrest of O'Malley will prove to be the critical moment.  O'Malley (pic, left) was one of the big three or four power centers in Cuyahoga County.   As an aside, O'Malley has completed his prison sentence; and, recently, the Legal Profession blawg noted that the Ohio Supreme Court suspended O'Malley law license for two years subject to his completion of federal probation.  He may resume practicing law someday soon.  Of course, I am not saying that O'Malley's prosecution caused the corruption, and I'm not saying that O'Malley's prosecution resulted in the uncovering of the crimes resulting the fall of Cuyahoga County (they were already under investigation,) what I am saying is that the angry ex-wife's turning over hard drives--accelerated the investigation of the crimes which led to the actual collapse of Cuyahoga County government, this year. 

Also uncovered in the investigation by the Plain Dealer and the feds was the wholesale corruption of the Cuyahoga County justice system.  The Bad Lawyer previously discussed the fall of disgraced elderly politician and famously corrupt, Sheriff Gerald McFaul; but, what remains to be discussed are the Judges swept up in the scandal and the prospects of Bill Mason (pic, right), the boy-prosecutor who wanted to be president.  The prosecutor ran the Cuyahoga County Democratic party with Russo, Dimora and O'Malley.  Thus far nothing suggests that Mason did anything overtly prosecutable, but there can be no doubt that Mason failed to do his job.  The Plain Dealer documented Mason's illegal receipt and subsequent refund of political contributions from his employees.  Mason, however is Rovian, in the sense that when called out on any deviation he immediately turns it into a public relations virtue by making it look like he's been the reformist all along.  So when called on the receipt of campaign funds from employees of the county Mason refunded the money, and claimed to be shocked, like Claude Rains discovering gambling at Rick's in Casablanca.  Mason trumpets "reform" while involved in everything that happened.  His political allies are going to the federal penitentiary forever for crimes against the Cuyahoga County, on Mason's watch.   More will be revealed, I guess.

Caught in the scandal are at least three Judges, Common Pleas Judges: Brigit McCafferty, Steven Terry and Frank Russo's brother Anthony.  Simply stated each of these judges accepted help or money from Russo in exchange for rulings, influence, or hiring of Russo or Dimora employment prospects.  The FBI has two of the judges on surveillance audio according to media reports, and as I said, we know only a little at this point, but the Cleveland.com coverage hints at widespread corruption.  One of the questions I have is whether any of this will impact positively the selection of Judges which are elected in Ohio, usually based on no more than the qualification of a familiar sounding Irish or Italian name.  One of the oddities of the current Cuyahoga bench which has 34 (?) full-time judges, was the election of a Judge Nancy Russo, who I've been told was working as an insurance company investigator and not as a lawyer and yet managed to beat a well-regarded (by lawyers who claim to know these things) sitting judge.  Judge Russo acquired her last name through a terminated prior marriage to a Russo unrelated to any of the Russos involved in the current scandals.    Having said all of that, I understand that Judge Nancy Russo has been a credible addition to the bench serving competently for a number of years.  The point is, she was elected on the basis of the possession of a last name now completely corrupted in the eyes of Cuyahoga County voters--maybe she'll changer her name.

For me, reading this coverage causes no end of sadness.  As a virtual avatar for OurTown and OurCounty, I think about the lives and careers and potential lost to greed and self-seeking alone.  I think about the careers which were thwarted or damaged because these crooks took power and parceled it out to incompetents and thieves.  I think about the damage to a beautiful city and region by the political malpractice and arrogance of these so-called public servants.  And I am infuriated that the elites enabled and ignored what was happening.  I know my friend and fellow-blogger, Gayle has bemoaned the political and civic injuries of Detroit--may we ultimately pray for light from darkness as these regions transform in the wake of their man made disasters.  These are municipal tragedies on a grand scale, can there be a new beginning?

Free Drinks!

Yesterday, the folks at the Albany Times Union told you about the special student loan break given a former local prosecutor at the same time reporter Brendon Lyons was reporting on the local bar owner, Timothy Rnakins who established a free drinks and meals program for local prosecutor while facing tax  and assault charges.  Here's an excerpt:

"An Albany bar owner facing trial for tax and assault charges wants a special prosecutor appointed in the case because he alleges members of the Albany County district attorney's office have gotten free meals and drinks from his restaurants, including Envy Lounge.

Paul DerOhannesian II, an attorney for Timothy Rankins, who owns Envy Lounge, filed the motion last week. It asks Albany County Judge Thomas A. Breslin to disqualify the office of District Attorney P. David Soares from Rankins' criminal case and appoint a special prosecutor.  Criminal charges against Rankins include allegations that he failed to pay more than $190,000 in state sales taxes from his bar's receipts. DerOhannesian said the 'computation of sale tax ... does not accurately reflect the significant complimentary meals provided to individuals.'

'Establishing these complimentary meals or drinks potentially involves testimony from both the provider and recipient of these meals, such as an Albany County prosecutor,' DerOhannesian wrote to the judge. He said Soares and his office, therefore, have a conflict if they were recipients of any free meals or drinks.

In a brief interview Wednesday Soares called the allegations 'absurd and desperate.'  He provided a copy of a sworn affidavit that he said will be filed in the case in the coming days. The affidavit, signed by Soares, calls the allegations 'false.' 'Neither the ownership, management nor staff at either restaurant has ever given or offered to give me a free or 'comped' meal or drink at either Pearl Albany, Inc. or the Envy Lounge,' the district attorney's affidavit states.

DerOhannesian also requested a court order directing prosecutors to identify any employees who "have received complimentary meals from the Envy or Pearl restaurants," and to supply "photographs of its employees from the period 2005 to 2008." The photos could be shown to Rankins' bar employees to identify those who received a complimentary drink or meal, the attorney said.

Rankins is a popular bar owner who has operated tavern restaurants in the city dating back years. He has developed close relationships with city officials and police. In January the Times Union published a story disclosing uniformed, on-duty police officers, including high-ranking supervisors, were regularly receiving free meals and drinks at Envy Lounge. The department responded by directing uniformed officers not to congregate in restaurants while on duty.

Weeks later, following an investigation by the state Department of Taxation and Finance that began in early 2008, Rankins was indicted on felony charges of failing to pay more than $191,000 in state sales tax. The charges relate to the operation of Rankins' former nightclub, Pearl Restaurant & Lounge, which closed in 2008."
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If true, Mr. Rankins, who knew quite a few of these public servants, had reason to believe a free drinks and meals policy might benefit his situation.  What does that tell you?

Feed the Children?

The Oklahoman is reporting on developments in he scandals surrounding the "christian" charity, Feed the Children and it's founder, evangelist, Larry Jones who was fired/resigned his leadership of the organization.  Jones filed a wrongful termination lawsuit on November 10th after being forced out by a board of directors that Jones tried to overthrow with a slate of prominent ministers hand-selected by him.  Instead, the Board fed up with scandals relating to bribery and kickbacks to Jones from the media group that receives millions of doallars to mount the charity's television commercials nationally--forced Jones' resignation. 

According to the American Institute of Philantrophy, Feed the Children, one of the nation's richest charitable groups has long received an "F" from it and other watchdog organizations for precisely the sort of financial irregularities that prompted the dismissal of Jones.

Now, attorneys for the Board are revealing evidence seized a sweep of Jones' office at the charity which include a cache of hardcore and incest pornography.  The Oklahoman reports, "Evidence of other wrongdoing was found after his termination, the charity and its attorneys said. 'The unexpected discovery of pornographic material, along with other personal items found in his offices, leaves this board of directors saddened, but certain the right decision was made,' the charity said in its media statement Tuesday. In the countersuit, the charity’s attorneys described the material as publications and excerpts from publications ranging 'from hardcore pornography to incestuous sexual family relationships.' The attorneys said the material was found hidden in his charity office and a nearby private area. The attorneys identified some of the publications as Family Affairs, Taboo’s Family Heat, Best of Family Touch, Penthouse Secret Fantasies, The Penthouse Sex Files, Penthouse Forum, Best of Forum Letters, Penthouse Letters, Penthouse, Penthouse Variations and Playboy." 

The Rev. Jones, says he was just "doing research."  Yeah, good luck with that.