Tag Archives: federal judges

U.S. District Judge Sues Court of Appeals Over Psych Order – Update for September 20, 2017

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

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CALL ME CRAZY, BUT I’M SUING YOU

The cadre of 519 sitting U.S. District Judges includes a list of some first-class jurists. We have a number of favorites for criminal matters, not because they’re soft soaps, but rather because they’re thoughtful and dedicated to the difficult task of making decisions that protect crime victims and the rights of the accused.

adams170920We also have a rogues list, which we are glad to say is mercifully short. But one judge who has amply earned his seat on that panel is Judge John R. Adams of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. It would be difficult for us to identify a judge who is consistently more mercurial or petty. He’s a guy who once held a public defender in contempt for subpoenaing witnesses, added 24 months to a sentence on a remand after United States v. Booker invalidated the mandatory guidelines, and had an employment discrimination case taken from him by the 6th Circuit because of his bias against one of the parties’ lawyer and discord which “appears to be, at least in part, the result of the protracted nature of this litigation to which the district judge has contributed greatly.”

As a parenthetical, we were personally involved in a post-conviction proceeding from a conviction in Judge Adams’ court that languished for five years before a ruling, and then the ruling came only because the prisoner filed a petition for writ of mandamus with the 6th Court of Appeals seeking an order telling Judge Adams to rule on the 2255 motion.

Apparently the good judge holds others to timeliness standards to which he does not hold himself. After demanding that magistrate judges to which he assigns social security appeals complete their decisions within 30 days of all of the pleadings being filed, Judge Adams threatened him with a contempt finding when he missed the deadline. When the other judges in the Northern District of Ohio unanimously asked Judge Adams to withdraw his “show cause” order against the magistrate as “unwarranted and improper,” the Judge refused, and shot back that the Chief Judge had failed to “discipline” two magistrate judges who had protested Judge Adams’ 30-day demand, both of whom Judge Adams believed had “disrespectful[ly] and “defiant[ly]” suggested that their need to manage other cases was a valid reason not to comply with Judge Adams’s Scheduling Order.

This capped a 9-year battle Judge Adams had waged against the other judges of the court, arising from Judge Adams’ candidate for magistrate judge being passed over in 2008 in favor of someone else selected by majority vote of the judges.

adams1776170920In 2013, four other district judges filed a judicial complaint against Judge Adams’ weird and disruptive conduct, which they called “prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts.” After a 2-year investigation, the 6th Circuit Judicial Council held that Judge Adams’s issuance of the Show Cause Order constituted misconduct, his refusal to cooperate with the Special Committee’s request that he undergo a mental health examination with a psychiatrist selected by the Special Committee constituted misconduct, and Judge Adams might suffer from a mental disability, but because he had refused to undergo the requested mental health examination, no one knew for sure. The Judicial Council ordered that Judge Adams be publicly reprimanded for his actions, undergo a mental health examination by a psychiatrist selected by the Committee and submit to any treatment or counseling deemed necessary by the psychiatrist. Finally, it ordered that no new cases be assigned to Judge Adams for two years, and his current cases be transferred to other judges (subject to suspension if he underwent and passed a psychological exam).

The Judicial Conference of the United States upheld the order last August.

Last week, Judge Adams sued the 6th Circuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the order violates his 5th Amendment right to due process. Judge Adams claims the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980 is unconstitutionally vague, “because it lacks minimal enforcement guidelines identifying when an Article III judge may be subject to a disability investigation, and, accordingly, when an Article III judge may be disciplined for objecting in good faith to undergoing a compelled psychiatric examination as part of an investigation into whether he suffers from a disability rendering him unable to discharge his duties.”

judge160222Judge Adams contends he “has an obvious liberty interest in the outcome of any misconduct or disability proceeding against him. He also has an obvious liberty interest in not being subjected to an involuntary psychiatric examination and a further liberty interest in not being stigmatized as having committed misconduct and having his mental health questioned.”

He asks the court to declare unconstitutional the Judicial Council’s order and memorandum requiring him to undergo a psychiatric exam.

Adams v. Judicial Council of the Sixth Circuit, Case No. 1:17-cv-1894 (D.D.C., filed Sept. 14, 2017)

– Thomas L. Root

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Rogue Agents, Impaired Judges: A Friday Collection – Update for April 14, 2017

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE BEHAVING BADLY

Two reports the past several days caught our attention, and neither speaks well for the federal criminal justice system.

atf170414ATF Agents Running Amok: First, the New York Times reported Wednesday that ATF agents in Bristol, Virginia, set up a secret bank account, which they funded with millions gained in illegally peddling cigarettes. The agents directed their informants to buy untaxed cigarettes, mark them up and sell them for a profit.

The Times said “the operation, not authorized under Justice Department rules, gave agents an off-the-books way to finance undercover investigations and pay informants without the usual cumbersome paperwork and close oversight, according to court records and people close to the operation.”

The account came to light in a civil suit claiming the agents broke federal racketeering law, brought in the Eastern District of North Carolina by a collective of tobacco farmers, who claim they were defrauded of $24 million. Two ATF informants received at least $1 million each from that sum, according to records produced in the suit. Most of the filings in the case are sealed.

The Times reported that “the scheme relied on phony shipments of snack food disguised as tobacco. The agents were experts: Their job was to catch cigarette smugglers, so they knew exactly how it was done.”

Money from the operations was used for a number of activities, including the renting of a $21,000 hotel suite at a NASCAR race, a trip to Las Vegas and a monetary donation to one agent’s daughter’s high school volleyball team.

ATFA170414What is not being said, of course, is that the agents’ misconduct – and the involvement of informants who took off-the-record payments – could have substantial repercussions in any criminal prosecutions where testimony of those agents or CIs played a role. The Department of Justice Inspector General began investigating the allegations after the Times contacted DOJ about the story.

Guardianship Sought for Federal Judge: A federal judge whose bizarre behavior on the bench preceded her mysterious removal from a number of cases was previously ordered to get treatment for alcoholism so severe a colleague believes she cannot take care of herself, according to court records released Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Minaldi’s alcoholism don’t answer whether it was a factor in the secretive interruptions in her Louisiana courtroom. But the documents show she moved into an assisted living facility specializing in “memory care.”

Minaldi170414In February 2016, during voir dire in a criminal trial, Judge Minaldi failed to determine if jurors were U.S. citizens and delivered no preliminary instructions. After the public defender made a motion for curative measures, the Judge ordered the prosecutor to deliver preliminary instructions to the jury, stopping to complain to the prosecutor, “I have no idea what’s going on here. Get your act together.” After the prosecutor and public defender jointly moved for a mistrial, the chief district judge removed Judge Minaldi from the case and assigned it to Judge Donald Ellsworth Walter, who then declared a mistrial.

The chief judge of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Judge Minaldi to complete at least 90 days of substance abuse treatment, due to the severity of her alcoholism and “legal consequences she had attained.”

Judge Minaldi, 58, has been on medical leave since the end of 2016. Newly released records showing that she is in a long-term care facility are part of a lawsuit filed by Judge Minaldi’s Magistrate Judge, Kathleen Kay. The lawsuit challenges Judge Minaldi’s physical and mental capacity to manage her personal and financial affairs.

That lawsuit was filed under seal, but portions made public report at as of March 2017, Judge Minaldi’s condition was so severe that she was “unable to take care of her daily activities” and “unable to safely take care of her personal needs, financial matters, or her property matters,” the filing says.

Unlike the ATF situation, Judge Minaldi’s condition is medical, not a breach of trust. But like the ATF situation, the effects of recent revelations could reverberate across any number of criminal cases that appeared in front of the Judge over the past several years.

– Thomas L. Root

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