Judge Reagan Helm Resigns

Maybe because I feel so personally beleaguered, I just can't bring any snark to the story of Houston, Tx. Judge Reagan Helm, age 68, who abruptly resigned his seat this week after a judicial investigation and intervention into whether he was suffering dementia.  It turns out that a court reporter was assisting the Judge with management of his criminal docket and may have actually taken an active role in making rulings!

Not only that this is the Texas Judge from which pretty vile remarks were made to parties in domestic violence proceedings.  Fortunately one brave attorney stood up and demanded that he be removed for her cases.   You have no idea how difficult this is for a lawyer to undertake and Houston lawyer Vivian King really deserves a big "thank you" from the Houston bar association.

This is from the Houston Chronicle website in a article penned by Brian Rogers:

 Harris County criminal Court-at-Law Judge Reagan Helm resigned this week, more than six months after a judicial intervention in which he agreed to retire because was he suffering from dementia, according to the administrative judge over the county criminal courts.


“He acknowledged he was having some medical issues and talked about retirement,” County Court-at-Law Judge Jean Hughes said. She said Helm told her it was dementia.  Helm, 68, agreed to retire in September and would have received disability benefits, but changed his mind, she said.  News of Helm's resignation came on the eve of a recusal hearing in which the Harris County District Attorney's Office wanted to remove him from “any and all” cases involving accusations of domestic violence because of “deep-seated bias and prejudice.”

Helm, 68, has denied the district attorney's allegations.  Calls to Helm's home and courtroom Wednesday were not returned.  Hughes said she also discussed the situation with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.  A spokeswoman with the state agency declined to comment on any action involving Helm.  “It continued to get worse, as you can tell by the motion to recuse,” Hughes said.

Last October, the District Attorney's Office asked Helm to remove himself from two family violence cases because of what it termed a history of inappropriate comments to prosecutors, victims and defendants.

“It's a shame because we tried to intervene and help him go very quietly with dignity and, unfortunately, that didn't happen.” Hughes said. “When you're dealing with someone with his situation, you're never quite sure what they do or what they can quite comprehend, but we spent a great deal of time trying to work with him.”

A friend of Helm's, former U.S. Attorney Ron Woods said the judge consulted him about retirement beginning in December.  He said he did not know about an intervention.

Served since 1994

He said Helm retired to be with family and visit his ranch in Colorado. He has been on the bench in criminal Court-at-Law No. 1 since 1994.  Woods also said Helm did not know about today's scheduled recusal hearing and did not resign because of it.Helm sent a letter to County Judge Ed Emmett on Tuesday, but made no mention of the district attorney's efforts to remove him from domestic violence cases.  He said it had been an honor to serve.

“However, this year 2010 brings my 69th birthday and I do believe it is appropriate to inform you that I am retiring from that position. I am therefore resigning, effective today,” Helm wrote.Hughes detailed the steps she and other judges took after coming under fire from Vivian King, a defense lawyer who said other judges had a responsibility to intervene.

“I think they should have had some sort of intervention, and I don't know that they didn't, but they should have tried to find him some help,” King said. “There is help available to lawyers who need help.”  King filed a motion in July to recuse the judge because he granted a mistrial in one of her cases after saying the attorneys were “all too difficult.”  Helm appeared to get frustrated and granted a mistrial rather than rule on whether to admit part of King's evidence, she said.  Hughes, King and other courthouse observers said Helm's behavior changed after his court reporter, Don Rymer, was indicted last April and retired.  The court's day-to-day business usually was handled by Rymer, Hughes said. King said the court reporter also appeared to help Helm with legal rulings.

“I don't think if Don Rymer was there, we would have had a mistrial in my case,” King said.

Rymer pleaded guilty last Friday to a state jail felony charge of tampering with a government record in connection with a missing trial transcript.

He was fined $4,000 and will spend a year on deferred adjudication.  King's motion was included in a district attorney's motion for Helm to recuse himself in “any and all” domestic violence cases — specifically 74 cases involving 64 defendants. The office alleged that Helm made “frivolous” comments that “trivialize the seriousness of the proceedings.” Prosecutors cited five specific cases and what they called a general pattern of admonishing men accused of family violence that the women who are accusing them have them “by the balls.
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This is the Judge who went too far for fat too long. 

Grisham Didn"t Libel Anybody

John Grisham is the author of many books lawyers love to read.  I'm guessing he himself would deny literary-airs, but his novels consistently captured clear-eyed portraits of those aspects of the legal discipline he chooses to write about.  In otherwords, he is a great chronicler of the legal profession as most Americans encounter it. 

A successful writing career has given Grisham the freedom to pursue among other things, the Innocence Project and many other important legal reform efforts, including efforts to end the death penalty in the United States.  The work to the right, The Innocent Man, a work of non-fiction resulted in the eventual exoneration Ronald 'Ron' Keith Williamson in Oklahoma and the exposure of shortcomings in the Oklahoma criminal justice system.  The Innocent Man also got Grisham sued for libel by three Oklahoma criminal justice officials.  Yesterday legal websites including the excellent Courthouse News Service reported that the 10th Circuit United States Court of Appeals upheld a U.S. District Court judge's dismissal of the claims. 

Here, on Bad Lawyer we discussed defamation claims on several occasions.  Again the public figure/public official status of the plaintiffs in the Grisham case was determinative of the disposition of the lawsuit.  Public figures/public officials have a very difficult burden to overcome in establishing defamation liability.   Frankly Pulic Officials are the folks, that we the people are licensed by our most important freedoms, to criticize.  When I have more time I will revisit the subject of defamation and the interesting history underlying the seminal case, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, or you can read the Wikipedia entry yourself at the link.

Bigamist Lawyer Gets 6 Months

The Legal Profession Blawg had a link to an Ohio Supreme Court per curiam (by the court) opinion (link to pdf, here) suspending Dennis A. DiMartino a Youngstown lawyer for 6 months for lying on a marriage license application in North Carolina. 

Yes, that's right, Mr. DiMartino could not wait to divorce the first wife he already had back in Ohio and his "fraud" in swearing he had not been married previously in order to obtain a marriage license in North Carolina has cost him.  This fact and his short term bigamy status (he did divorce the first wife back in the Buckeye State after the fact) resulted in Mr. DiMartino taking a 6 month suspension (in reality a 1 year suspension with six months stayed,)

Bear in mind, this is the same Supreme Court that gave Anna Schmalz, a Cincinnati lawyer who screwed the criminal client; the criminal client that ended up in jail when he refused a plea bargain because he couldn't bear the idea of being away from attorney Schmalz (who continued to meet his needs after his incarceration with phone sex); and,  Mr. Schmalz lied about the relationship with the client to Bar investigators.  This lawyer's behavior drew a big fat public reprimand.  Mr. DiMartino's actions in his personal life seem pretty screwed up--and, probably merit the result meted out by the Ohio Supremes, but when you compare the outcome to Ms. Schmalz disciplinary-pass you might forgive the head scratching.   Does the expression arbitrary and capricious come to mind--as my daughter would say:  just sayin'.

Apologies

Alina Tugend at the New York Times (January 29, 2010) had a thought-provoking article on the "lost art of apology."  While I take issue with the "cliche`" of the so-called "lost art [fill in the blank]", Ms. Tugend's piece while marred by a gimmicky intro dealt with some meaty ideas. 

The piece did a cursory comparison of the Bank executives who testified on Capitol Hill at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission with the Leaders of Japan Airlines who are in full formal "apology bow."  See pics

For reasons that should be obvious to anyone who reads Bad Lawyer, this blawg is somewhat obsessed with the struggle to make an appropriate apology--loaded down with the personal desire to move beyond the offense I've given to my disciplinary and the tax authorities and resume my professional practice.  The news yesterday makes that wish seem unlikely.  Knowing that I may pay dearly for my inattention to my tax compliance deprived me of sleep and peace of mind many nights over these last few years, but all night last night.  I'm struggling to get accurate information and dealing with the probability that it may not matter in terms of what happens to me.  Let me be a power of example:  don't ignore your filing requirements, and if you have--deal with it now!

I like the notion that because you apologize, there is no requirement that your apology be accepted.  We are a culture of instant gratification--"I'm sorry," really is not an apology, it can mean:  leave me alone; you-want-me-to-say-these-words-now-I've-said-them; forgive me now you bitch/bastard; I'm sorry, but....  My 17 year old is a master at a lot of these, I'm sorry spills out of her, like "you know" spilled out of kids, 5 to 10 years ago. 

This subject took on another layer for me yesterday morning when the high school telephoned to inform me that my 14 year old was suspended for "threatening a teacher."  My son the smart aleck cracked wise to his pregnant algebra teacher about his feet sticking into the aisle.  This idiot, my son, sarcastically told the teacher it was his intention to cause her to trip and injure herself and her unborn child!  Astonished, speechless, aghast, all are applicable to describe my reaction to this ridiculous performance by my dear little man who on "youth Sunday" was the preacher at his Church delivering a beautiful "serrmon" on compassion. 

The classic teaching moment--I explained to the 14 year old that you get to keep learning the lessons you don't learn properly the first time, and that I was in the process of doing that and that I am afraid that he won't be smart enough to learn from Mr. Bad Example and continue to have to learn and relearn lessons.  That I love him dearly, and that for the most parts even lousy parents love their children.  And Moms are capable of losing all rational thought, balance and tolerance for ineptly wise-cracking 14 year ols when it comes to perceiving a threat to a child--especially, an unborn child. 

One of the best points made by Alina Tugend is--that saying your sorry or asking for forgiveness permits you to have a future relationship with the person you offended.  It also serves to "reestablish the moral universe."  The 14 year old-ninth grader spent a good part of the day mulling this over, and by 3:45 PM, an apology was handwritten and delivered to his school.  He will get over this colossal act of stupidity--I wish I could get by mine. 

In case the authorities are reading my blawg, let me reiterate--I am truly sorry.  Regardless of outcome, I deeply regret my failings.

Chicago's Father Przybylo Sues, Says He's Not a Child Molester, and Don't Read Anything Into the Payment of a $1.1 Mil to My Victim

The Chicago Tribune is reporting on the defamation lawsuit filed by Father Chester Przybylo, the former pastor of at a Polish Parish in a western Chicago neighborhood.  This is from the article by Cynthia Dizikes:

"A pastor of a west suburban church who was accused of molesting a 13-year-old Polish immigrant two decades ago filed a lawsuit against his accusers in Cook County Circuit Court on Friday, alleging they intentionally ruined his reputation.  [The priest .  .  .] was accused of molesting a 13-year-old Polish immigrant two decades ago filed a lawsuit against his accusers in Cook County Circuit Court on Friday, alleging they intentionally ruined his reputation.  The lawsuit comes about a month after the sex-abuse case was dismissed. It accuses the immigrant, his lawyers, and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) of defamation, malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims. The Rev. Chester Przybylo, 59, is asking for at least $500,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

'It is a matter of clearing his name, setting the record straight,' said Przybylo's lawyer, Walter Maksym.  In 2006, Przybylo was accused of molesting the teen while serving at Five Holy Martyrs parish in Chicago in the late 1980s. The Chicago Archdiocese was named as a defendant.  Przybylo, who for the last decade has been pastor of the Shrine of Christ the King in Winfield, denied the allegations. The archdiocese settled with Przybylo's accuser for nearly $1.4 million.  But Maksym successfully moved to have the case against Przybylo dismissed in December based on an Illinois Supreme Court ruling that clarified the time frame in which sexual-abuse survivors can file lawsuits.

Przybylo is claiming that he 'suffered and endured acute nervousness, bodily pain and ruination and impairment of his reputation for honesty and integrity' because of the accusations and media attention. Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP, called the accusations 'frivolous' and defended the attention that her group paid to the allegations of abuse.  An attorney for the accuser stressed that Przybylo's case was thrown out based on a technicality and not on its merits."
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Disclosure:  I know and I have worked with Barbara Blaine.  She is a courageous lawyer, a social activist and one of the real  reasons priests and the Catholic Church are held to account for sex crimes against children not just in the United States, but all over the world.

Father Przybylo has just stupendously blundered, and the attorney who filed this lawsuit is going to rue the day he drank Father Przybylo's koolaid. 

Your archdiocese does pay a victim a million dollars+ away for no reason, had Father Przybylo actually been exonerated he would not be working a "shrine."  In my opinion, Father who skated on a "statute of limitation" defense is confusing a dismissal based on the elapse of time with being deemed exonerated.  Idiot! 

Here's what would not surprise me.  The archdiocese of Chicago is in the long drawn out process of "laicizing" or defrocking, Father Przybylo--who won't go quietly;  Przybylo is fighting the archdiocese's canon lawyers who are seeking to defrock him.  The civil lawsuit is part of his clerical defense.  Do not be at all surprised when Przybylo quietly dismisses the defamation lawsuit.   You see, when Przybylo filed this lawsuit and made allegations about his mental health, he opened himself up to "discovery" and suddenly every document in the hands of the archdiocese, every document in Father Przybylo's custody is suddenly fairgame in the defense of his accuser and SNAP.  Not only that, Father Przybylo is subject to being psychologically assessed by the expert of the each of the named defendants, depending on how many named defendants, Father can be required to attend and submit to multiple evaluations.  Father Przybylo will have to undergo deposition and answer all sorts of questions, that he apparently, thus far avoided by virtue of the statute of limitations defense. 

I'm not a fortune teller, but I predict that Father's little legal show will go away quickly and quietly.   It was ill-advised.

Bad Drivers, No Problem Let Him Drive the City Dump Truck

A lawsuit's been filed in Grand Rapids, Michigan over the killing of a cyclist by a City Dump Truck driver.  The article from MLive.com is hair-raising in the sense that you have to wonder what the City's supervisors are thinking when they continued to let Benny Branch drive a City vehicle.  This is from John Agar's article on the fatal crash and the City employee who caused it: 

"When bicyclist Gregory Siemion was struck and killed by a city dump truck last summer, the driver told police he never saw Siemion.Turns out, a lawsuit alleges, Benny Branch hasn't seen a lot of things from behind the wheel of city trucks and snowplows.

'Branch has a long history of being involved in accidents while driving city vehicles, some including where he is the at-fault driver,' attorney Matthew Vicari wrote in a lawsuit filed this week in Kent County Circuit Court. Vicari filed the lawsuit on behalf the victim's aunt and estate representative, Norma Van Gessel, against the city and truck driver. While police did not assign blame in the fatal accident, Vicari alleges Branch's 'gross negligence' led to the May 20 crash on Bridge Street NW near Fremont Avenue.  Branch, who was using a dump truck to transport debris collected by street sweepers, had stopped at the union hall that afternoon for a pop.  As he left, he drove through a 'narrow alley or driveway with limited visibility,'  between the union hall and another building, that leads to Bridge Street, Vicari wrote.  He was turning west out of the drive, and struck the bicyclist, who was trapped under the truck and street-level plow blade, and was dragged nearly 90 feet. Branch told police he did not know his truck had collided with the bicyclist until he heard an unusual noise, and saw Siemion's body and the bicycle in the rear-view mirror.

Siemion suffered horribly as he was dragged down the street, leaving him with a broken pelvis and ribs, his clothing ripped off and an ear torn away. Yet he was conscious enough to talk to a woman who offered comfort, Vicari said.  Siemion died of multiple injuries.  No criminal charges were filed. Grand Rapids Police Sgt. Steve LaBrecque, who investigates serious crashes, said police were 'unable to determine responsibility.'

Branch, who was on paid leave after the investigation, has since returned to work, city staff said.  Vicari said in the lawsuit that Branch should have been aware many pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists frequent the area where the crash occurred, and that the Fremont Avenue exit offered a better view of traffic.  Branch, 61, who has worked for the city 16 years, has a history of mishaps, the attorney said.  In the lawsuit, [Vicari] cited 21 incidents involving Branch dating back to 1995.

Feb. 7, 1995: Branch drove a city vehicle through a Burger King restaurant drive-thru and went too far under the overhang, striking the edge of the restaurant's roof.
Jan. 17, 1997: Branch hit a parked car with the city truck he was driving.
May 27, 1998: While driving a city truck, Branch hit another car while trying to drive around it without sufficient room.
July 20, 1998: Branch ran into a garage door when driving a city truck into the garage.
Dec. 22, 1998: Branch hit a parked car with the underbody of the city snowplow he was driving.
April 9, 2001: While driving a city vehicle, branch hit another truck, breaking a window.
June 26, 2002: Branch was driving a city paver and struck another city vehicle. The city issued him a 'Letter of Instruction,' reminding him of his responsibility to perform his work diligently, including "the safe operation of city equipment.
July 30, 2002: Branch was driving a city truck when he rear-ended a car that had stopped in front of him. The city issued him a 'Letter of Warning II' for the incident, noting 'that this is your second time occurrence within one months time and this letter is to warn you that when you are operating city equipment, you must adhere to the department's rules and regulations to avoid putting your safety and the safety of others and their property in jeopardy.'
Aug. 28, 2002: Branch was driving a city vehicle when he backed over a lawn, causing lawn and mailbox damage. He was told to consider his clearances while backing up in city vehicles.
Feb. 12, 2003: Branch was snowplowing a city street when he struck a parked car.
Jan. 20, 2005: While on plow duty, Branch drove a city truck too close to a car in front of him. The car stopped, then rolled backward, hitting the city truck.
May 31, 2005: Branch backed up a city truck, striking a garbage truck and breaking its passenger window.
Aug. 17, 2005: Branch backed up a city truck and struck a pole, damaging the pole.
Oct. 10, 2005: Branch backed up a city dump truck onto the hood of a car behind him.
May 6, 2009: Two weeks before the collision that caused Greg Siemion's death, and while driving the same city dump truck, Branch rear-ended a minivan, breaking the minivan's rear window.

Branch currently has a clean driving record, according to the Secretary of State's Office. His last ticket came Dec. 17, 2004, in Grand Rapids, for disobeying a traffic signal.

Gregory Siemion, 55, who lived all of his life on the West Side, was described as a man who enjoyed life's simpler pleasures. He rode his bike everywhere because he lost his driver's license a couple of years earlier when he blacked out and crashed his car.  He was in the process of getting his license restored. New medication had been prescribed for his heart condition."
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Ouch.

It's really amazing, that Branch is a heavy equipment operator for Grand Rapids, all these little crahses add up to predictive of a maor risk for the city.  Look, if this was you in your private automobile--paying for private liability insurance, if the carrier hadn't canceled you by December of 1998 you would be buying high risk insurance and/or paying confiscatory insurance premiums.   Absoutely amazing that this guy was on the road for a governmental entity.

Aaaaah! The Tax Man Cometh...

Ironically, after grinding away at tax returns that graphically reanimate my disastrous career particularly the wild gyrations in little feasts followed by long famines--I  learned late today, that the tax people do not feel that I am sufficiently punished.  They want me deader than a door nail.  We shall see, I'll keep you posted.

This Week on Bad Lawyer

An anonymous comment left at the Bad Lawyer post relating to Douglas Robinson, the Cincy drug addict arrested 74 times in two years-- made me think that the commentator was reading my mind. 

The Bad Lawyer Blawg was actually created as a forum to enable a Bad Lawyer to get some sleep and deal with intrusive dreams in the wake of cascading professional disaster.  This is my struggle to objectively look at who I am and what I became, and document the past and present.

The frenzied legal commentary that ensued since August, particularly in the month of January is nothing but self portraiture--the Bad Lawyer is a little bit of somebody or someone in all the stories that I've cast my focus on especially those tales of lawyers and judges gone horrible wrong.  There is a tremendous poignancy for me in relating the stories of lawyers marched into court to plead in disgrace to charges of schemes and scams even in the case  the POS lawyer who goes to jail after stealing from widower's estates to give his girlfriend breast enhancements.  I feel pain in a sharp pain in my gut, because, I see the criminal under my own hat in these stories.  The Bad Lawyer's outrage at guns and tasers, police and public officials, child molesters and the church,  tells me that beneath my own corruption and denial there beats the heart of the young guy who wanted to be a good lawyer. 

But the anonymous comment caught something that I recognize and which I alluded to the other day that in order to find even a penitent's path back to my profession this Blawg can not continue at the pace and with the focus of this last month.   It will change and while I intend to keep drawing on the news stories that interest me and motivate me as a human being and as a lawyer, this week and for the foreseeable future I begin to cope daily with the struggle to begin to put it back together, professionally.  I don't know what the future holds, further humiliation and disaster are possible if not probable--but, this blawg will narrate it all.

I will post at greater length, about the agonies of this Saturday and the scramble to timely comply with requirements set out in a letter the Supremes sent me on December 29, which I did not open until Saturday, mistakenly believing it to be a "hard copy" of what was published online.   In fact the letter the Supremes sent was a multi-page set of instructions and prohibitions upon me that layered on further humiliations and retrictions.  Amazingly, a little piece of paper fluttered out of the envelope which said in effect if you want to know what we said in our opinion finding you a Bad Lawyer log on to our website:  http://www.youareapieceofshit.com/ and read it for yourself.  Consequently, Saturday was a further nadir in my psychological and emotional life.  By Sunday I felt like a piece of fruit that had been pummeled by one of those Louisville Slugger Baseball Bats--this, after I saw some sort of light ahead. 

There is a great saying among spiritual seekers that resonates with me, on the path to enlightment when you are approached by someone claiing to be the Buddha, kill the Buddha, because the first person you meet claiming to be the Buddha is always a "false Buddha."  The guy in my mirror in the morning, who thought he saw some light, was a false Buddha.   So I begin again.

Last week, I met with my accountant and a bankruptcy attorney to explore my/those options.  That was a good meeting, in the sense that for now at least I was able to exclude an easy way out of the abyss.  Sometimes, the abyss is so deep that there is no exit;  it is possible, the abyss is so deep that it works to your advantage--just a possibility, not a probability.  This week, I plan to labor in the coal mines of my tattered financial records and rummage through the bankers boxes of canceled checks tyring to bring myself in compliance with filing requirements that everyone else in America seems capable of dealing with, but that I have spectacularly failed to attend to at my very real peril.  So this will be a quiet week on the Bad Lawyer Blawg.  While I already have some posts written and "scheduled" I will see what I have left over in terms of energy or the ability to focus--to add to the portrait of the Bad Lawyer.

That is after all what this Blawg is--it is a self portrait of the Bad Lawyer. 

Workplace Death Declines!

There is so rarely good news on Bad Lawyer, that I feel compelled to pass along this bit of great news, from the Denver Post which reports that workplace death is declining.  Here's the story and it's Coloradoan- twist by David Ohlinger: 

"The workplace is becoming a safer place.  Nationwide, 5,071 people were fatally injured at work in 2008, the lowest total since the yearly census of fatal occupational injuries was first conducted in 1992.  Colorado workplace deaths also dropped, to 102 in 2008 from 126 in 2007, tying the lowest death toll in a decade. The most dangerous place to work: on the road.  Twenty-nine percent of all workplace deaths in Colorado and 23 percent nationwide were classified as highway incidents in the yearly Bureau of Labor Statistics report.  Of 30 worker deaths on Colorado highways, more than half occurred when vehicles jackknifed or overturned, and five others were attributed to vehicles striking objects on the side of the road.  At the Colorado Department of Transportation, nearly 60 employees have died in the line of duty since 1929. Twenty-two were in cone zones, including Paul Forster and Eladio Lopez, both killed by a drunken student going the wrong way on Interstate 25.  CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said there have been no recent cone-zone deaths, and the department now halts work on site to discuss safety concerns 'every time there is a close call.'  A new law enables the department to set up photo-radar equipment in construction zones, and 'we're working with the state patrol right now to implement that program,' she said. In 2008, nearly 40 percent of those who died on the job in Colorado were truck drivers or construction trades workers. There were no workplace deaths in either the financial activities or information sectors of the economy.

After transportation-related deaths, the most common causes were fatal contacts with equipment or other objects; assaults and violent acts; falls; and exposures to hazardous substances, including electricity. Nationwide, the numbers of workplace murders have dropped by half since 1992.  There were 517 in 2008, the lowest number to date.  In Colorado, workplace murders also declined to seven in 2008. Six other workers killed themselves."
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There are a number of factors when thinking about this information.  As the article notes there are no deaths in the financial or information sectors.  The entire American economy is less manufacturing and construction based;  and, more service and information based.  Common place safety practices doubtlessly play a role.   The 50% drop in workplace murders tells me that practices put in place by employers to deal with alcohol and drug free workplaces pays a tremendous dividend.

See the Bad Laywer can recognize a good news story when he sees one!  There's hope.

Sheriff Joe--Stalinist Terror

What is the cost to your county when you turn your Sheriff's office over to a Stalinist demagogue like Joe Arpaio?  The Arizona Republic reported Friday on the terror "rank and file" employees of Maricopa County labored under dealing with the stress of a Sheriff's office that knos no limits, and respects no boundaries. 

The article by Yvonne Wingett is chilling--bearing in mind that this is the United States of America, you have in one instance a Superior Court Judge moving meeting with her staff to the chamber's bathroom in the event that Sheriff  Arpaio was conducting electronic eavesdropping.   Remember this is the county where Arpaio's courtroom deputies have been held in criminal and civil contempt of court for routinely ignoring court orders to timely transport persons in their custody to the courtrooms for the judicial proceedings mandated by the Arizona and U.S. Constittutions.  And in the most flagrant act of courtroom disrespect I've ever encountered--stealing documents from a criminal defendant's lawyer's file; and, defying a court orders to apologize for the deprivation of rights.

The Arizona Republic article details the stress on County employees as they deal day-to-day with the real possibility that  the police-state of Maricopa County will come knocking.