Fickle Finger of Fate--Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason

Actually it was "the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate" an award (pic) given by Rowan and Martin on the 60's television show Laugh-In.  According to TV Acres.com: 

"Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award - Called the Rigid Digit, the Winged Weenie, Wonderful Wiggler, Friendly Phlange, and the Nifty Knuckle, this weekly satirical award was presented by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin on the weekly comedy variety series ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN/NBC/1968-73 for the dumbest/craziest news item of the week. Gold/Silver in color, the award was a "hand" mounted on a trophy base. Its index finger adorned with two small wings rotated in a 'Whoopee!' circular motion. Recipients of this 'uncoveted' award included then Los Angeles Chief of Police, Ed Davis who suggested that 'gallows' be put in all airports for the hijackers so they could be hung on the spot; the City of Cleveland for their Cuyahoga River (It caught fire due to its high pollution levels); and a Wonderful Wiggler went to William F. Buckley for his philosophy 'Never clarify tomorrow, what you can obscure today.' Top awards went to the Pentagon. They won five times."

As readers of the Bad Lawyer blawg, one of the themes of this journal is the fickle nature of justice, and as I read accounts of "justice," more often injustice I am struck by the sheer randomness of crime and punishment.  You would think a 55 year old, 28 year veteran lawyer would be cynical enough to let it all roll off his back, but you must bear in mind that I am a Bad Lawyer.  I still struggle to find some sort of narrative to make sense of it all. 

This morning my pal, rightwing Chuck the retired tax-denier, sent me a link to the Cleveland Plain Dealer article about the county prosecutor, Bill Mason.  This crime fighter, according to accounts from local attorneys told his high school classmates he planned to be President of the United States by age 50, apparently it's not working out.  Mason enjoyed a run of luck, though, succeeding the legendary late-Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who vaulted from the county prosecutor's position to Congress succeeding longtime civil rights pioneer Lousi Stokes, brother of Carl Stokes, the first Black Mayor of a major American city which Cleveland was in the 1960s.  All of this is by way of digression,--but it does indicate that there was a path available to Mason if he was good prosecutor.  But our man Mason fell in with a bad crowd, a county bribery and corruption scandal involving his closest political allies is dragging the blue-eyed wanna-be-president-of-the-united-states down.

I don't know Mason, personally, but a Judge I know related to me how he, the Judge,  had won the endorsement of his political party for higher office and was ORDERED by Mason, and his corrupt political cronies to stand down from the office the Judge aspired to, in favor of someone clearly less qualified but someone more politically important to Mason, et al.   Mason threatened the Judge with the promise that his political life would be turned into a living hell if he did not comply.  The Judge refused to stand down, and the position was snatched from him anyway. 

Mason also has been known to do the bidding of the corrupt former Sheriff.  There are well-documented instances where Mason prosecuted fabricated felonious accusations against lawyers involved in security scuffles identical to the ones discussed here, where ill-trained security officers of the corrupt Sheriff claim non-existent injuries after pounding the snot and pepper spraying  a lawyer. The lawyer who objected to the rude treatment of citizens entering and exiting the Justice Center where Mason and the disgraced sheriff have/had their offices.  

Mason was also behind the indictment of a Cleveland-area mother and father of the "special education" student-football captain who was raped by a local female teacher--the parents obtained and turned over evidence including digital photos taken by the kids who were having sex with the teacher.  The parents' crime? They were indicted for posession of child porn while the charges were ultimately dismissed the parent-victims ended up paying attorney fees and were required to enter a diversionary program!  What outcome did the school teacher, "star" of the child porn images get?  Count 'em, three days in jail.  Good job, Prosecutor Mason! 

Mason is one of those lawmen like Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Mason runs an operation more notable for its public relations claims than for actual achievement unless you count his striking blindness or indifference to the pay-for-play operation run by his foolish friends who are all headed to federal lock-up.  One of the mysteries of the scandals in Cleveland was how Mason seemed to have a teflon like quality as all around him, others were being indicted, charged, targeted in lengthy federal charges as the subject of the bribery schemes.  Part of what was going on was a changeover in journalism in Cleveland.  The Plain Dealer transformed itself into a serious muckracking enterprise with a laser-like focus on the things that matter, or should matter to the citizens of northeastern Ohio. 

Mason and a drinking buddy were recently pulled over for drunk driving.  The cops cut these guys a major break, a break they would not cut you or me.  Mason's buddy, a Cleveland-area politician was intoxicated and driving.  Mason, the passenger, was given a free pass.

Mason appears to be in the media cross-hairs, and in large part it's largely because of thieving lawyers.  The Plain Dealer piece by Mark Puente relates how Mason apparently has a pattern of willful ignorance where it comes to corruption.  Not only does Mason not see, hear, smell or speak it when it involves County Commissioners, political bosses, County Recorders, of his own political-persuasion--it doesn't occur to Mr. Mason to prosecute a former associate, the lawyer-pal who steals $300,000, from a client--while a laundry list of relative petty thefts by other lawyers land those lawyers in prison.  Some pay, some pay all, some pay nothing. 
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My friend Gayle after reading this blawg suggested that I read, Heinrich Von Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas.  The 1811 novella was an apt recommendation.  Kohlhaas is an upright citizen, a successful horse dealer by trade, and someone who readily embraces the law.  One day Kohlhaas is in transit with two beautiful black horses he intends to sell in Dresden.  He is waylaid at a minor aristocrat's property by a demand for a toll and a permit that had not been required of him previously.  What ensues is a legal nightmare. The denial of any justice including "a justice center scuffle" fataling injuring Frau Kohlhaas ultimately drives Kohlhaas to armed insurrection. 

My mocking tone about fickle finger of fate, is to highlight the argument that the reason for law is the need for certainty, or, at least predictablity in human affairs.  We all need to know what the rules are, we all need to know and agree what our rights are, and we all need to agree what the consequences, leavened with mercy--should be.  When public officials like Bill Mason use their very powerful offices to favor friends, and enable injustice--they degrade respect for the law, for justice.  ENOUGH!

Oh,  it does seem that the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate has finally found a worthy honoree.

Cuyahoga County Corruption Rears Its Ugly Head In Cross-Examination of Coroner

Cleveland Plain Dealer crime reporter Leila Atassi has this account of the murder trial of Matthew Warmus (pic, with legendary Cleveland attorney Edward LaRue) who by various accounts gunned down a parking lot attendant either in self-defense or in some sort of rage over a parking spot depending on who you believe.

"Lawyers for a man on trial for aggravated murder departed from questions about gunshot wounds at today to ask Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller whether his relationship with Prosecutor Bill Mason's office compromises the scientific integrity of his work.   Miller did not have to answer the question. Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul sustained a prosecutor's objection to the question posed by attorney John Pyle, which drew on recent headlines that Mason influenced Miller's decision to hire the prosecutor's friend and political ally Patrick Coyne as his top aide.

Pyle and attorney Edward LaRue are representing defendant Matthew Warmus, who is accused of killing parking attendant David Williams -- shooting him twice in the abdomen and once in the head -- during an argument over a parking space before a Cavs game in April.

Warmus claims he acted in self-defense when he retrieved .40-caliber gun from his car and fired on Williams.

An emergency medical responder testified this morning that Williams was wearing an empty gun holster beneath his orange parking vest and insulated jumpsuit, but he did not recall seeing a gun that could have belonged to Williams lying on the ground as some crime scene photos depict.

Prosecutors called Miller among their first witnesses to describe his autopsy of Williams, photos he took of the victim's gunshot wounds and the coroner's homicide ruling.   Miller testified that two bullets entered Williams' abdomen near his belly button and exited from his lower back and right hip. Another entered behind his left ear, severing his brain stem and lodging in his face beneath his right cheek bone. Williams also had a wound on his left wrist that could have been caused by a bullet grazing the skin, Miller said.

[Defense attorney] Pyle began his cross-examination by asking about the gunshot wounds and whether Williams could have continued clutching his gun until he was shot in the head. Miller said it was a possibility. Pyle then asked whether the fact that the coroner's office is funded by the state could compromise the integrity of his work. When Miller said no, Pyle asked Miller if he works closely with [disgraced prosecutor Bill] Mason and whether the prosecutor recommends personnel for Miller to hire.

After Gaul sustained Assistant County Prosecutor Aaron Brockler's objection, Pyle asked Miller if he had ever been called to testify for the defense at trial.   Miller said, "Maybe once."

Miller told Plain Dealer reporters Sept. 8 that Mason and his chief trial lawyer, Steve Dever [put the major squeeze on the Coroner to hire Mason's pals and], told him to hire [a local politician and friend of Mason, Pat] Coyne in exchange for help with his political campaign.   Mason and Dever deny the accusation.  Miller also accused Coyne of pocketing thousands of dollars in campaign cash solicited from other coroner's office employees. The coroner fired Coyne less than two weeks ago, rescinded the termination letter, then fired him again this week, effective Friday.

Miller's spokesman, Powell Caesar, said Coyne ultimately was dismissed for budgetary reasons.  Cuyahoga County Public Defender Robert Tobik said last week that he did not expect the suggestion of impropriety in hiring decisions to prompt more defense attorneys to challenge work performed by the coroner's office.

Typically, the work done in the coroner's lab is based on hard science and is separate from the administrative function that Coyne served, Tobik said. If defense attorneys feel they have reason to challenge lab findings, they are always free to request independent testing, he said."
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Here you have excellent criminal defense attorneys seizing on startling revelations that local corrupt politics have also tainted the objectivity of the important function of the elected-Cuyahoga County coroner.  The sheer scale of the bleeding in this county is breath-taking. 

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?

A Meditation on Corruption in Our Counties

I've talked a lot about Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, at this point, probably ad nauseum. In Maricopa County we have a modern American county-wide government so dysfunctional that the State of Arizona was moved to enact and enable oversight by a retired Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice.  This, after Arpaio and County Attorney Thomas criminally indicted and civilly sued all other county officials who dared question their notorious terrorist governing practices and more importantly, their self-seeking budget expenditures.  These elected County clowns have spent millions of dollars for BigLaw representation in lawsuits that defy logic. You can read my prior posts on Maricopa County meltdown at the link.  Better yet the ABAJournal and the Arizona New Times have brilliant summary discussions.  The games go on, with contempt proceedings this last week and the County shutting down the Sheriff's credit card accounts.

While Maricopa County represents one extreme, Cuyahoga County, Ohio encompassing Cleveland probably better represents what goes on more traditionallyy here, there and elsewhere.  Cuyahoga County on Lake Erie is a huge metropolitan area surrounding a rust bucket town that has not been able to get traction.  Like Detroit, Cleveland has many attractive natural attributes, i.e. an enormous fresh body of relatively clean and attractive (in a recreational sense) water and shorelines.  At one time, Cleveland--which is believe it or not very beautiful and temperate-- home to international headquarters to many of the largest corporations in the world, including British Petroleum. 

But like Detroit, Cleveland suffers from some of the worst local governments in the United States.   As I reported in my 6 AM post the longtime, Irish-named Cuyahoga CountySheriff has been criminally charged with a few representative counts of theft in office after nearly a half century of collecting a paycheck and benefits from the citizens of Cleveland and the local County.  So it was surprising that over the weekend, my pal Chuck sent me a link to another reporter, Mark Puente article on that wanna-be-president of the United States, Cuyahoga County prosecutor, Bill Mason (pic) who you may remember from an earlier post on Bad Lawyer that talked about Mason's ambitions and the free pass he and a drunk driving buddy got from the local constabulary.

The link from Chuck was to the weekend Cleveland.com article which as I said was reported by Mark Puente about how Prosecutor Mason put the taxpayers on the hook for a part time law job to politically-connected Michael Climaco (pic: happy, he should be!), brother of the famous Ohio lawyer John Climaco (one of the tobacco-litigation big hitters), to enable the younger Climaco to collect not only a paycheck, but a lifetime sinecure in the form of a tax payer-funded pension and gold-plated health insurance.  It is one thing to hire a first-rate lawyer to do first rate law stuff for you and the community, it is quite another to hire a non-specialist, political hack to provide legal services in an area of law requiring expertise--while letting the taxpayers foot the bill for a lifetime of financial obligation which is what Mason did.  You see, Michael Climaco, who needed public employment like Gerry Spence needs more cowboy hats--was hired part time to represent the County in the defense of workeres' compensation matters.  This area of law involves a great deal of specialization and knowledge, which Climaco most assuredly did not have, so when he failed to provide the anticipated expertise the taxpayers got the added exposure to liabilities related to added premium costs.  Mr. Climaco's qualifications to be the prosecutor's workers' compensation attorney stemmed from Mr. Climaco's tenure as a former City of Cleveland councilman and of course his relationship to John Climaco, a local political powerhouse.  John Climaco is so powerful that Vice President Biden went to Climaco's downtown Cleveland office for a little elite fundraiser for the sitting Governor of Ohio.

As I observed the other day, all roads are toll roads, this being both a personal injunction and a larger observation.  One part of our government is busily investigating and indicting another part of our government.  The Feds are investigating the local governments with whole armies of big and little fish marched into federal custody.  Corruption is not new, or particularly shocking although there sure seems to be a level of prosecutions that I don't recall from prior periods in history.  Still, those of you as old as the Bad Lawyer can look back to Spiro Agnew, the former Vice President and nolo contendre, ex-Governor of Maryland. Then there are all of our mayors, city council men and women, county commissioners and public servants of all stripes being prosecuted in stings and bribery.  There are towns like East Chicago, Indiana, Birmingham, Alabama, Detroit, Michigan, well, then there is almost all of Illinois.

So why is this happening? 

Part of what is going on it seems to me is a product of nepotism, part of the corruption is the attitude of entitlement that overwhelms rational and ethical thought.  But really, do you think these people, our public servants come into power thinking to themselves:  I'm going to rip off the public?  Aside from Blago, I doubt it. 

We pride ourselves on the notion of wheeling and dealing, entrepreneurial smarts--make it happen.  We honor the risk takers, the innovators, the people who can "network." We structure our tax laws to incentivize and enable perverse movements of money. 

Here's a for instance: who gets the best stadium and concert and event tickets?  Who eats in the expensive restaurants? Of course, the operators and owners of our large local corporation, BigLaw firms, wealthy contractors, and filthy rich bankers and insurance companies.  Who do they treat to these seats?  Take a wild guess?  Did you guess, those of us who can help them in their businesses: the Commissioner Italian Name, Councilwoman Irish Name? Guess what--these big corporate fish want nothing from local government, and local government offers them nothing in exchange for the munificence.  Just kidding.

From petty favors, larger and dicier corruption flow. 

Should we do away with these little toll roads?  Yes.  But the dining and entertainment venues and service employers and employees will argue that the tax codes and rules create employment.  These restaurateurs and entertainment folks and their lobbyists will argue that we should not reform away jobs and health insurance for servers, cooks, farmers, ushers, carpenters, electricians and so forth.  Every road is a toll road. 

My employer is a wonderful guy, a real decent and generous guy.  The blond super lawyer and I were fortunate to be included in an invitation to attend a lecture by a local Orthodox Rabbi on the subject of adversity (a particularly apt subject), at my employer's beautiful east side home.   After the formal portion of the talk, I spoke to an old friend of mine who objectively dealt with adversity--her charismatic husband of many years having killed himself over unmanageable tax liabilities stemming from the operation of one of OurTown's most popular diners.  She and I talked about the notion of "peace." My friend, Ruthie is an Israeli-born American.  Ruthie said she feared that there would never be peace between Israelis and Palestinians, implying that the vision laid out by the Rabbi who spoke was Utopian.  My take away from the Rabbi's talk was that absolutely nothing in this life is free, or right, or the way it should be, and ultimately the only place we can effect change is on the inside.  Inside me, inside you, inside our families and friends. 

I am sad for corruption and violence and suffering in the world.  If I think too much about it I become overwhelmed and crazy with stress.  But there is much that is right and hopeful, and miraculous.  I'd like to be around to see my daughter get married and have children, my son to graduate from high school and maybe college.  I'd like to see what they become.  I'd like to contribute more.  But my days of freedom may not last, and my options may turn out to be pretty limited.  Still, I see only a little, I have a limited view of the world, and of time, and certainly of space.  Corruption is something I obsess about, corruption in the police, the courts, government, corporations, employers, and especially the church.  While I can point to certain solutions, the only place I can change is in my own heart.  I can root it out.  I can confess it and try day by day to be a better person.  That is my only purpose.

Bill Mason, the Climacos, Arpaio, Thomas, Blago, Pope Benedict, the Israeli-Palestinian violence and the rest are compelling distractions from what really matters.  Which is, what do I do to exemplify for my children a willingness to reform my own angry and corrupt heart?

Note:  Most of my posts are typed and scheduled for posting at a latter date or time, unfortunately my Cat loves me so much she was not able to stay away as I worked on this post, Isabelle stepped on a key that posted this item a day earlier and out of sequence.  There is a reference to a Sheriff that will not make sense until that item runs at its regularly-scheduled moment.  Oh, well.

BL

Meanwhile, Back in Cuyahoga County, Reform?

As I reported on Bad Lawyer, Cuyahoga County, Ohio residents have been so outraged by the corruption of their public officials, they discarded their form of government to get rid of all the crooks in one-fell-swoop. 

It is a truism that often what passes at "reform" turns out to be "less democratic" and often more of a "deform."  Witness, "tort reform," and while I agree that the election of Judges doesn't work out all that well in terms of the lawyers who obtain judgeships as can be seen from the arrest of and implication of numerous Cuyahoga County Judges in their ongoing corruption scandal--election of Judges mean that theoretically, the electors choose their jurists.  By the way, check this Las Vegas Sun article quoting former Associate Justice Sandra O'Connor who has taken up merit selection as her personal cause. But merit selection often means that the elites choose  the Judges--this may or may not be a good thing.  Look how merit selection plays out at "the top," the U.S. Supreme Court--currently, only Ivy League graduates serve on the high court, and only Ivy League law graduates get the coveted clerkships which lead to prominent academic and judicial careers. 

So, Cuyahoga County has "reformed" it's governmental model and the new guys have even taken their seats yet and this morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that the democratic and republican candidates for the County "Executive" position have both been implicated in scandals relating to public ethics.  Matt Dolan (pic, right) apparently was dating a lobbyist (who he eventually married) while serving in the Ohio general assembly; and Ed Fitzgerald (a local suburban mayor, lawyer and former FBI agent), aka, "Public Official 14" in a federal indictment (pic, left) was doing business deals with the indicted former Cuyahoga County Commissioner and corruption kingpin, Jimmy Dimora (pic, right below).

As a commentator pointed out the other day, the word "Cuyahoga" in a native American word which means "Crooked" as in the Crooked River.  Apparently a micro-brewery in Cleveland makes a brew called "Croked River" as well as one called "Elliot Ness." 

So the world keeps on turning and as always the more things change, the more it remains the same.

Update:  Dimora, Russo, and Sheriff McFaul crony, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Bill Mason (pic, left), is reportedly on the verge of resignation and possible federal indictment (reports say within the next 60 days.)  An article at alternative newsweekly, the Scene.com, is the source for the current reports concerning prosecutor Mason.  Mason, has been the subject of several posts, here, on Bad Lawyer over the last year.

Federal charges against Mason would be the final climatic scene in this tragedy for Cuyahoga County. This was the boy who wanted to be president.  Turns out he was just another political hack.  Shame.

"We Did a Great Job!"

As documented on Bad Lawyer, many times over the last year, OurCounty, OurTown, and OurRegion are going through nearly identical corruption scandals as those in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and Maricopa County, Arizona and so many other places in and around Our Country.  So recently, I used the Cuyahoga County corruption scandal climax as an online avatar for what is happening in OurCounty, pointing out, among other things, the great job of reportage by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  This morning, Ted Diadium, the "Public Representative opined that the Plain Dealer did a great bit of journalism.  Um, yeah--but what about the decades of enabling and complicity, Ted?

As I pointed out in my original post, the Plain Dealer reporters whose work can be read at Cleveland.com did an awesome job of sorting out who was who, and what was what.  The journalists, undoubtedly, were a spur to federal authorities. 

Years ago I had the occasion to work with some of the reporters from the Plain Dealer, the Toledo Blade, the Boston Globe, and the Times-Picayune, and producers from Court TV, 20/20, and Sixty Minutes, and NPR--supplying news stories and background histories in the then -breaking child Sex Abuse scandal especially as it pertained to one of the real villains: A. James Quinn, an auxiliary Bishop who was at at that time the National Conference of Catholic Bishop "hit man" in the early days of the modern clergy sex abuse scandals.  As a result I gained some insight into the sausage-making that becomes a news story.  At least two of the Plain Dealer reporters who did this pioneering reportage are actively reporting on the Cuyahoga Corruption scandals.

In those years, the Plain Dealer was still shedding its patrician role as community cheerleader which meant that slowly but surely its reporters and editors were no longer acting like the monkeys that hear, see, and speak no-evil, which was exactly the opposite of the role that they played under publishers: Thomas Vail (pic, left) and Alex Machaskee (pic, right) as I pointed out last week.  And until very recently the op-ed folks were still at it, endorsing many of the very crooks at the heart of the scandals that cost the citizens of the Cuyahoga County an estimated +$100.000,000.  These publishers and their editors wanted to hobnob with the political and corporate elties that ran Cleveland and rocking the boat, any boat was the furthest thing from their mind.  The exception to this rule was when Dennis Kucinich was mayor presenting a very real threat to the status quo.   He had to be brought down, and instead of real reform the Plain Dealer and the business and Big Law elites engineered Kucinich's recall election.  While Kucinich won the skirmish, he was sent into political exile for a decade or more.

Circa the 1980s and early 1990s, the Plain Dealer reporters had a great deal of what they wrote or tried to report on the Catholic Clergy scandals either not published, or published after being hacked to pieces by editors, or hacked and buried in the inside pages.  When you consider the scale of the crimes (hundreds of victims, dozens of named perpetrators and central clergy figures up to their clerical collars in the cover up, especially) the central role that Cleveland's very own Auxiliary Bishop Quinn played in the national and international vortex of the scandal, which still resonates--it was a missed opportunity for the Plain Dealer.  In this story the Plain Dealer stood to re-establish its journalistic credibility.  Which is not that its reporters in the the trenches weren't trying to tell the story. But its basic journalistic habit of not rocking the boat means it missed the boat altogether.

Witness the fact that two reporters at the Toledo Blade--a much smaller town due west, with a clergy abuse scandal on a much smaller scale with no national or international role to report as it related, won a Pulitzer Prizes for reporter Mike Sallah's work.  Frankly, as great a job as Mike Sallah did at the Toledo Blade, the journalists, Jim McCartey and David Briggs at the Plain Dealer were much better writers in my opinion. But the Blade pulled no punches. It gave their reporters carte blanche, and prominently demanded that their local county  prosecutor demand and release records of clergy abuse in the diocese of Toledo.  This happened.

Meanwhile, the Cleveland Diocese was gaming local law enforcement and law makers on a state and national scale under the noses of the Plain Dealer without a peep of protest.  You can compare and contrast the end result. 

Here's an example, the Supreme Court of Ohio justices: Terrence O'Donnell (famed of Adam Liptak's New York Times Sidebar blawg for doling out justice on the dollar) and Maureen O'Connor (Justice O'Connor may become the next Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court) gave out the St Thomas More Award to Jones Day managing partner, Patrick McCartan at the Red Mass luncheon in 2003.  What did McCartan do to deserve this honor?  He and his Big Law firm helped cover and defend the Diocese during the onset of the clergy sex abuse lawsuits in the Cleveland diocese and around the country. 

At the ceremony the Ohio Supreme Court Justices stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the already disgraced Bishop Anthony Pilla. Think this photo ran in the Plain Dealer?  Think again. 

The Guild of Catholic lawyers honored the notorious Bishop Quinn, in 2001.  Quinn, as I said is a demonstrable liar and perjurer.  He is a Canon and Ohio Civil lawyer as well.  He was the 2001 recipient of the St. Thomas More award received by the Jones Day managing partner.

The point is, the Plain Dearler, nor boy Cuyahoga County prosecutor Bill Mason could find anything wrong or connect the dots when the diocese of Cleveland was still molesting children and covering up the crimes and giving one another awards for their efforts in keeping it all nice and quiet.  Big surprise that it took years for the PD to figure out that something was amiss in Cuyahoga County government.  Although, the boy prosecutor is still unsure--meanwhile his political allies are all either pleading guilty to federal charges or awaiting trial. 

My cavil about the Plain Dealer relates to my feeling that this newspaper and many other local newspapers repeatedly failed their readership when it counts.  While the current PD is praiseworthy for ongoing reporting, the paper is seriously remiss in failing to admit their fundamental failure resulting in the perpetuation of the Cuyahoga County scandal.  They caved to the  elite religious and political leadership--and so crimes agaisnt their readership and Cuyahoga County citizens went on for decades, unreported.  If you think I'm alone in my howling protest of "public advocate" Ted Diadium's self-congratulatory column read the comments by other readers of the Plain Dealer, under Ted's column. The readers have not forgotten.  At a minimum it would be great if the Plain Dealer acknowledged that they endorsed some of these office holders, like Mason, Russo, Dimora, and the Judges that have been implicated.  Hell, Cuyahoga County voters were so disgusted with their system of government that they overwhelmingly discarded the form of government in an effort throw the bums out. 

C'mon Ted, how 'bout owning up to some responsibility?

Really, the PD needs a dose of reality.

Orly Taitz Update

The ABAJournal.com brings us up to date on out favorite Birther-attorney and California dentist, Orly Taittz.  When Bad Lawyer last looked at the antics of Dr. Taitz, she was battling sanctions for frivolous conduct arising our of preposterous lawsuits filed, among other places, in Georgia where sanctions of $20,000 were imposed upon her.  At that time, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected her appeal and now she has filed the second of two "stay" requests with the US Supreme Court.  The first request was filed with Justice Clarence Thomas who summarily rejected the "stay," and the second is with Justice Samuel Alito where it remains pending.  What's amazing, according to two legal observers quoted in the ABAJournal post is that the "stay" procedure is a seriously incorrect process:

"Her effort is problematic on at least two fronts, legal observers say:

First, she should have filed a writ of certiorari with the high court, seeking to appeal the fine. 'Stays are for people condemned to death [who] are on the gurney,' says attorney Bill Mason of Columbus.

Second, another Columbus attorney, Frank Martin, questions Taitz's claim that it is appropriate to go to justice after justice with the same stay request, if it is denied. Taitz is, he says, trying the patience of the Supreme Court with this tactic."
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