Martin Frost: Ex-Congressman, Lawyer, Proud Thief



Martin Frost

Tristan Hallman a reporter for the Washington, D.C. bureau of the Dallas Morning News is marveling over ex-congressman, and lawyer, Martin Frost's admission in a Politico essay to his theft of photos from the photo morgue at the Dallas Morning News.  This is what Frost had to say:

"The story about female public figures and photos is not new, unfortunately. About 40 years ago, I clerked for a terrific federal judge, Sarah Hughes (pic), who was 74 at the time. She often complained when The Dallas Morning News ran unflattering photos of her.


Judge Sarah Hughes



This went on for a while. One day I went down to the paper’s photo morgue — where a publication’s pictures were kept on file — and I took some of the offending photos. This was before digital photographs — so once a picture was gone, it was really gone."

Judge Hughes is a significant historical figure having administered the oath of office to LBJ aboard Air Force One following the assassinatio of John F. Kennedy.
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Pretty obnoxious bit of bragging by Mr. Frost.  Could cost him a disciplinary hit--not the underlying act, but the bragging about it.

Eyewitness to Sexual Abuse

The most disturbing story of the day is Sam Stanton's story at the Sacramento Bee of the school receptionist who testified that she witnessed sexual abuse by a local principal, that she reported what she saw and that the shool authorities took no action.  If this story surprises you, you have not been paying attention to the news reports about the Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse scandals or sex scandals in the schools around the country over the last decade.  What's unusual in Stanton's SacBee account is the eyewitness testimony.  Here's an excerpt:

A worker at Creative Frontiers School claimed today she was aware of at least two instances of possible abuse in the last year at the private Citrus Heights school, including one that she says she witnessed herself involving Principal Robert B. Adams.

Irma Mertens, a 62-year-old receptionist at the school until she quit in May, said in an interview with The Bee at her home that she surprised Adams when she walked into the school's administrative office last summer and found him tending to a 7- or 8-year-old girl in a swim suit.

The Albuquerque Chief Criminal Judge Is a Rapist?

Albuquerque's 2d Judicial District Chief Judge, "Pat" Murdoch (pic) was arrested after being caught on video raping a prostitute.  Here's the story from kasa.com via Debra Cassens Weiss at the ABAJournal.com this morning:

District Judge Albert "Pat" Murdoch was arrested Tuesday afternoon on charges including rape. According to the arrest warrant, the charges stem from a secret video tape the prostitute made of the judge in his own bedroom.

"Bra-Lift" Searches of Female Students, Unconstitutionally Intrusive

I don't think I've ever come across the concept of the "Bra-Lift" until I saw Martha Waggoner's article at the Charlotte Observer, this morning. Here's an excerpt:

A search for pills at an alternative school that required female students to untuck their shirts and pull out their bras with their thumbs was "degrading, demeaning and highly intrusive," a divided state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

The court ruled 2-1 that Brunswick County Academy overstepped when it required the "bra-lift" search on Nov. 5, 2008. The judges mentioned several reasons for their decision, including that the tip about pills wasn't specific and that there's no indication that the underwear of male students also was searched. They also mention that a male law enforcement officer observed all the searches, regardless of the sex of the student.

"Here, despite the complete lack of any reasonable belief that any single student possessed any pills, the Academy searched all 134 of its students," said the ruling, written by Judge Cheri Beasley. "Further, the school required all of the girls to perform the 'bra lift' even if nothing revealed during the less intrusive part of the search suggested that the student was hiding contraband in her underwear."

Brunswick County schools Superintendent Edward Pruden Jr. said Tuesday the schools plan to conform their procedures with the law.
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I generally don't get too agitated by the idea that my kid is subjected to intrusive securtiy or searches--after all he goes to a large OurTown public high school.  But this sort of intrustion is pretty outrageous, but we are voluntarily giving up our freedoms and liberty in exchange for the illusion of security.

At this link, the court's opinion.

Back to the Future?

Louisiana Lawyer, Christian Goudeau represented a client in a claim against the Lousiana Patient's Compensation Fund.  While the claim was pending Goudeau's client died which in many instances and most states operates to abate the claim.  Did Goudeau give up the ghost?  Nah, we wouldn't be writing about him if he did...would we? 

In fact, Goudeau continued trying to negotiate a claim for his deceased client going so far to argue that the expired-client should receive compensation for future medical expenses!  Love it.

At the link, the recommendation of the Louisiana disciplinary authorities with all credit to the Legal Profession blawg.

Penis Pump Judge Is Back in the News

Oklahoma's ex-Judge Donald Thompson is back in the news.  Thompson (mugshot) is being held on $75,000 bond after being arrested for DUI and possession of a controlled substance.  And yes, this is the same Donald Thompson of the Penis Pump fame. 

Thompson was a long time serving Creek County judge (pic) but was charged with masturbating and using a penis pump while on the bench hearing cases.  Including in one case a murder trial.  Thompson was convicted in 2006 on four felony counts of indecent exposure and he served 20 months of a 4 year sentence.  He was released in 2008 but his problems with alcohol and substance abuse appear not to have abated. 

Circumstantial Evidence of DUI Conviction Upheld by Wisconsin Supremes

Bruce Vielmetti at the Journal Sentinel writes about the conviction for DUI based solely on circumstantial evidence:

Gregg B. Kandutsch was bombed when police arrested him at his wife's home in Wausau in 2006. He wasn't driving, or even in a motor vehicle, and no one saw him driving to get there. So how did prosecutors convict him of his fifth-offense drunken driving?

They relied on circumstantial evidence, the kind commonly used to prove many other crimes but extremely rare in drunken driving cases. Kandutsch appealed, but on Tuesday the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld his conviction. Kandutsch was done in by the electronic monitoring device he was wearing while on probation for other offenses. It showed he left his mother's house in Rib Mountain about 15 minutes before he was arrested in Wausau. Jurors concluded he must have driven himself there.

Two Words No Man Likes to Hear: Botched Circumcision

A year or more, ago, the Bad Lawyer blawg featured a couple of posts on botched circumcision verdicts and lawsuits.  This morning the ABAJournal blawg reports on confirmation of a $4.6 million dollar verdict in California for a botched circumcision.  This "approval" by the court was necessary because of a defense challenge based on legislated malpractice caps.

I was planning to revisit this subject because of the proposed San Francisco ban on circumcision which is much in the news due to an ACLU lawsuit disputing the constitutionality of the proposed ban based on religious freedoms. 

You Aren't Covered!

The Oregon State Bar Liability Insurance program is refusing to cover a law firm that suffered a $150,000 loss to a thieving secretary.  According to the Courthouse New Service, the law firm knew they were hiring a secretary with a propensity to embezzle (image, Janet Leigh, the greatest fictional embezzling secretary); and, as a consequence the Bar Association insurance carrier denied liability.  This is an excerpt form the CNS stroy:

Oregon State Bar says its Professional Liability Fund should not have to cover a law firm that hired a secretary with a history of theft who forged checks and embezzled $150,000 from an estate.

Creative DUI Sentencing

Arelis R. Hernández, a reporter at the Orlando Sentinel, has this profile of Judge Carmine Bravo (pic) who has undertaken to systematically address drunk driving sentencing:

You've seen them before: the lollipop-shaped markers along state roads adorned with fake flowers, fading photographs or discolored stuffed animals.  As you drive by, the words "Drive Safely" come into view in bold, blunt letters. Perhaps you slow down a bit. Maybe you stop texting. You might place a second hand on the steering wheel.

It's more likely you won't pay any attention at all. But hundreds of Florida families wish you would. And if you drive drunk, recklessly or commit repeat traffic offenses in Seminole County, Judge Carmine Bravo will make sure you start noticing.