In Defense of John Edwards

I met John Edwards once at a Best Buy, I think it was. We were both buying a computer. Being rich, he was getting the one I had wanted. We chatted about the recent lost to President Bush and I told him that he should have gone after those lies harder about John Kerry and he told me he had wanted to, but that the advisers had ruled against it. He went on to say that he would definitely be more aggressive in the future.

Flash forward 2012. He is facing a trial for what many people believe is a political and judicial over-reach at best, for something, post Citizens United, isn't even a crime anymore. The thing that gets me is even those people that believe he really didn't do anything essentially criminal, still preface their remarks by saying "Sure, John Edwards is a despicable human being, but..." Really? Despicable?

I'm going to say what everyone is thinking, but are too politically correct to say. Basically, the facts. John Edwards is a fairly good looking man...a millionaire...a politician and he was married to a woman that was not as good looking as one would think someone like him would have on his arm. There. I said it. Now I know, she gave him several kids, she was not 20 anymore and she was sick with cancer. This isn't an indictment against her...it's just the facts.

So you are good looking. You are rich. You are a politician. You have women throwing themselves at you 24/7. You are on the road in a thousand hotel rooms on the campaign trail and, Oh yes, you have that inconsiderate penis with you at all times, telling you to do crazy crap. I know mine never shuts up! Enter the not so cute videographer gal, constantly giving you that come heather look. How many of us wouldn't say "Oh what the Hell. Maybe just this once...OK just twice...Oh what Hell, I'll just go for it."?

Now if you say "Not me! I'd never have tapped that! I love my wife!", I'd say "Ah yea...me neither!", (Seinfeld eye roll)but there is an inconvenient and constant truth. Wait for it, wait for it....MEN CHEAT! That's what we do. Women have known this for years. The naive ones still believe that we only cheat with the younger gal or the thinner gal or the prettier gal. The fact is, as Chris Rock says, "A man is only as faithful as his opportunities." They asked Woody Allen once, "What makes a woman good in bed?" His answer? "Being there!" Say it isn't so, but it's so.

Edwards made alot of mistakes to be sure, but the one mistake he made that nobody talks about, is he made his late wife, a talk show darling. We all felt sorry for her, but even more so, after we got to know her on the TV machine as being articulate, sweet and funny. After falling in love with her, we felt her humiliation and pain even more so. And now we wants some blood. We want(s) it as a final tribute to Elizabeth. Having lost her battle, left her kids...we find it so unfair that the cheater with the money and the good hair is still here and she is gone, so we want to take him down.

Some news organization said in a poll, that John Edwards was the most hated man in North Carolina. Are you freaking kidding me? There are some truly despicable people in this state. We got murders, rapists, child abusers and dead beat dads...we even got people that want to change our constitution to include hateful and discriminatory language; and John Freakin Edwards is the most hated man in the state?

If he gets convicted, does a bunch of years in the slammer (when Nifong got one day), comes out and his hair isn't as pretty, his wallet isn't as fat and , Oh yea, his kids have grown up without either parent, we can all say we got the cheater with the fancy hair and the Romney walk (what's with that?) and we can all turn to our wives and say "See Honey? We'd never have done that; and you're right that woman over there should be ashamed of herself, wearing that short skirt. What decent man would even look at that?" (out the corner of our eye...).

Unlike Nifong: Can The N.C. State Bar Ever Touch Jack Nichols?

If you ask a crooked attorney from Crook, Colorado or a lying lawyer from Happyland, Connecticut; about the State Bar in their state, they'd probably tell you that the state bar don't play. An independent review of the disciplinary process of every state's State Bar, by the watchdog group HALT, found that Colorado and Connecticut were among the best state bars in the nation, at keeping unscrupulous attorneys from using their considerable power, as officers of the court, from violating the law and the Rules of Professional Conduct; and basically harming the rest of us.

HALT's report card gave Colorado a "B-" and rated them 2nd in the nation; and also gave Connecticut a "B-" and found them to be the best disciplinary agency in the nation overall.

Now if you ask these same attorneys to speculate on how good the North Carolina State Bar is, they'd probably surmise that it must be pretty tough. After all, didn't they go after that rouge prosecutor Nifong, when he went after those innocent lacrosse players at Duke? And they even suspended the law license of a former governor, Mike Easley, after he pled guilty to one count of certifying a false campaign finance report. And Easley had once been the North Carolina Attorney General. So they must be pretty tough....right? Not so fast...

HALT's report card on attorney discipline for the State of North Carolina, gave the State Bar a grade of...wait for it, wait for it...."D" and ranked it 50th in the nation overall. That's right. In a country where we have "Chicago-style" corruption, "Big Easy Louisiana brand justice" and "Texas-It's like a whole other country" style justice; North Carolina ranks 50th? What the Hell?

Kinda unbelievable until you look at the systemic reasons why. In 2006, the year of the study, the Chair of the North Carolina Grievance Committee was a woman named Barbara "Bonnie" Weyher. Under her (I hate saying this word here) "leadership", North Carolina ranked 50th in lawyer discipline.

The year before that, the NC State Bar was essentially forced to hold a hearing to address a public outcry over what many believe was bias and cronyism by State Bar staff prosecutors.

Carolin Bakewell, a senior Bar staff attorney, was personally acquainted with David Hoke and Debra Graves, as were other senior staff lawyers. Hoke and Graves were prosecutors that lied a man, Alan Gell onto DEATH ROW.  After the misconduct was discovered and Hoke and Graves went before the Bar, they were given (sit down for this one) reprimands.  The public went freaking crazy!  The State Bar was kinda forced to hold a hearing...surprise, surprise...they found no misconduct, but made a couple of "suggestions" as to how this sort of thing could be prevented in the future...None of which seems to have been adopted in the pending case of North Carolina State Bar vs. Jack Nichols. (ie: its been 6 months, no witness interviews, etc.)

In fact, one of the people that sat on the hearing panel and signed the report that gave suggestions as to how to prevent the public perception of cronyism and bias in the future, was Barbara Weyher.  Soon after she signed the report, she was a Defendant in a lawsuit that alleged, among other things, that when she received a state bar complaint against her law partner, Sean Partrick, she used her position as Chair of the Grievance Committee to dismiss the charges.  The complaint challenged her upcoming rise to President of the State Bar.

This time, however, the state bar arrived in mass at a pre-trial hearing and Top Gun Katherin Jean argued that the signature on the dismissal form wasn't Bonnie Weyher's at all.  It was an electronic signature and some unknown staffer must have signed it! (Sound familiar, Jack Nichols watchers?).  Judge Donald Stephens threw out that part of the lawsuit, and Bonnie Weyher became president of the State Bar shortly after...

A review of the North Carolina State Bar website's disciplinary page then and now, highlights a strange pattern. Most North Carolina attorneys that run afoul of the State Bar seem to fit into a few consistent catorgories. Most that get disbarred are brought down because they "misappropriated entrusted funds." If you outright steal a client's money and aren't clever enough to hide your trail, the North Carolina State Bar will come after your tail.

Along with the stealing of client cash, the next thing you'll find is...and it's almost ALWAYS, the case, the attorney has been convicted by a court somewhere for doing some-thing. Easley got caught up in this. He was convicted of a felony...certifying a campaign finance report. Egregious to be sure, but had it not been an issue in the public media, the NC Bar wouldn't have sent their top gun, Katherine Jean to take him down. When Kat Jean shows up on your doorstep, its time to put a hold on that remodel to the sunroom. Easley was ultimately KatJean-ed for a helicopter ride. Tough...but consistent? Hardly. It's alleged that Judge Allen Baddour, in violation of campaign finance laws, comingled campaign funds in his personal account. Think he'll get KatJean-ed?  No. He won't.

This is all relevant because the state bar is now considering a 133 count COMPLAINT against former county commissioner Jack Nichols.  The complaint is accompanied with over 512 pages of supporting documents and audio exhibits.  Seems like even Jack won't be able to slick his way out this time.

Don't be so sure.  The complaint also mentions Sean Partrick, the law partner of Barbara Weyher and allegations that he also engaged in misconduct as a representative of Yates, McLamb & Weyher; Barbara's law firm.  Within days of receipt of the complaint, Weyher stepped down from her position as state bar president and the complaint was handed over to a state bar staff prosecutor, Fern Simeon (never heard of her).

An inquiry as to why the complaint has taken so long (Oct 2011) to be resolved, was answered a couple of weeks ago and Fern says the over 500 pages of supporting documents are under review and it takes time.   Hope they aren't trying to find a way let Nichols off the hook. Insofar as Nichols and Weyher are very much intertwined in this debacle, the state bar may not be able to touch Nichols without him point the finger back on them. Stay tuned...

Judge Allen Baddour- The Naughty Librarian

I thought about it and thought about it and I have come to the conclusion that Judge Baddour may (emphasis added "may") be qualified to be a Naughty Librarian, but not a judge. He hates it when you haven't paid a fine on time, although the state of North Carolina found him delinquent because he failed to timely pay over $7,000 in taxes. Some say he only became a judge because his daddy "Big Dick Baddour" used his influence as the athletic director at UNC Chapel Hill, prior to his scandal-fueled ouster, to get former governor Mike Easley (prior to his federal charges) to appoint his kid to the bench. It is not working. Judge Baddour has no ethical core, so let us all commit to "Show Baddour the Door" (now on facebook)

Baddour Country: Due Process Stops Here!

Baddour did it again. Inferior Court judge Allen Baddour denied the request of a Chapel Hill man to remove his name from the North Carolina sex offender registry after a prosecutor said the man has never accepted responsibility for what he did 10 years ago.

Rush Douglas Greenslade, 63, appeared with his attorney during the brief hearing held in Orange County Criminal Superior Court last week. He was convicted Feb. 27, 2002, of two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor, and he first registered as a sex offender on March 5, 2002.

According to records from the North Carolina Department of Corrections, Greenslade was given a probationary sentence and never served time for his convictions.

The minimum time he had to stay registered as a sex offender under state law was 10 years, and during those 10 years, according to his attorney, he always maintained his registration and never was charged or convicted of any other crimes.

Assistant District Attorney Lamar Proctor told Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour that Greenslade had originally been charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree rape but in a plea agreement, Greenslade pleaded no contest to two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor.

Over the objections of Greenslade’s attorney, Proctor told Baddour the facts of the case, which in summary were that a 12-year-old girl woke up in Greenslade’s bed, and he had vaginal intercourse with her. He told her to keep what happened between them, but the girl told her mother, Proctor said.

Proctor argued against Greenslade’s name being removed from the registry.

“It doesn’t appear that he accepted responsibility at the time,” Proctor said about Greenslade’s plea of no contest.

Proctor said he worried that if Greenslade’s name was removed from registry, he could be put into a position of trust and confidence around another young girl.

In denying the motion, Baddour said he could not find that Greenslade wasn’t a current or future threat to the public, and that he was concerned about the lack of evidence of any acknowledgement of wrongdoing or treatment.

Greenslade’s attorney said she had witnesses in court she could put on the stand, but Baddour denied her request saying she had lost her chance at that.

“I asked you if you had anything further, and you said, ‘No,’” Baddour said. “What am I supposed to do, say, ‘Are you sure?’”

Baddour told Greenslade he could try again in a year.

The victim, who is now a young woman, attended the hearing with a former employee of the Orange County Rape Crisis Center. She did not speak, and they left quietly after the hearing ended.

On the other side of the aisle, five or six people attended the hearing to support Greenslade.

At first blush this sounds like a good result. Another Sex offender gets his. But the question we have isn’t necessarily about the end game, but if Judge Baddour is taking seriously, his sworn oath to uphold the Constitution and the due process rights of those that appear before him.

We’ve seen Baddour do this tactic before. He sits upon his throne and purports to be this tough guy (LOL) flanked by the ever-present elderly bailiff. He tries to appear intimidating and most of us in the courtroom try not to laugh.

Then the tactic… Baddour will ask a couple of questions on some side topic…for instance, “Was it Mrs. Kennedy that chose to ride in the convertible or was it the only car available?” Attorney responds. “No, that decision was made by the Secret Service.” Baddour then asks, “Could she have insisted on a closed roof vehicle?” Attorney states, “Those decisions were not hers to make judge.” Baddour says, “Anything else?”

Now the attorney or other party believes that Baddour is asking if there is anything else concerning this line of inquiry and so he replies, “No your honor.” After some procedural issues, the attorney says, “Your Honor, if I may, I have six citizens here that have taken off from their jobs and traveled to your court, risking public scrutiny, but they believe in this issue strongly enough to want to testify about the shooter’s actions.” Baddour then says, “Oops! I asked you before if you had anything else! So sad, so sorry! Ha, Ha, Ha!”

Baddour does this kind of thing repeatedly. In a recent case, he found a defendant guilty of failure to pay a fine. The attorney stated at the end of the hearing, “But Your Honor, he did begin to make payments…” Baddour replied, “You didn’t give me any evidence (10 minutes ago when we were discussing it) so I find him in contempt and sentence him to 45 days in jail.”

This guy is a clown. He’s playing clown games with people’s lives. He needs to take himself off of the public stage before he runs into someone who, unlike the ones that have already been harmed by him, decides to take him off the stage themselves. You sentence someone to prison on a “gotcha” technicality, they will be sitting there for years contemplating payback. Although, I wouldn’t do it, there are some very bad dudes out there that are more cerebral than to attack a judge in a courtroom with tons of bailiffs present…they’d simply Google him. Show Baddour the Door!