Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Note to readers: Do not threaten Judges in the comments. We don't want to get sanctioned.

As KAAL-TV reports, Carver County Judge Richard Perkins has ordered portions of the Carver County Corruption blog shut down. The blog seems to focus on the child custody proceedings of Lea Banken, the blog's host. Judge Perkins is overseeing those proceedings.

Apparently, Judge Perkins was unhappy with some of the comments posted on the blog. Among other things, one comment stated that the judge "should be castrated, tortured and bleed to death." Other comments stated that the judge should be hung. However there was some dispute over whether the hanging should be in downtown Chaska, Minnesota or from the nearest tree. According to the article Judge Perkins has also fined Ms. Banken $10,000 for contempt of the order.

We have previously pointed out that suggesting that judges should be killed is a bad idea. However, in that case the person threatening the judge was punished, not the person providing the forum for threatening the judge.

Of course, Ms. Banken posted about the Judge's order directing that the comments be removed. People commenting on the post responded with exactly the sort of reasoned discourse one might expect. A comment from Linn informs us that the judge is the "biggest DOUCH BAG EVER." (capitalization in original.) Linn asks "how the hell does this man function with no soul!!!??" (exclamation point and question mark usage in original.) Linn also informs us that "HELL HAS A SPECIAL PLACE FOR people" like the judge. (capitalization in original.) Linn also makes it clear that she wants "SEE A MENTAL EVALUATION DONE ON THIS SICK JUDGE!!" (capitalization and exclamation point usage in original.)

While it is possible that Linn is a writer for "IRISH ARGUMENTS WEEKLY," if I were to make a list of ways to ensure that a "mental evaluation" is not done on someone, making that request in all caps would be high on the list—perhaps even in the top 5.

In any event, the Carver County Corruption blog and the Court's orders are a sad reminder that family law cases are often very bitter disputes. Reviewing the CCCB's comments also made me thankful that the people (person?) who comment on this blog keep the discourse at a higher level. We are nearing our two-year anniversary and we have yet to be fined of held in contempt because of a comment made on this blog.

6 comments:

  1. It would be very interesting to see the judge's orders. Maybe you could send the Gillette-Torvik intern out to the courthouse to make some copies?

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  2. Regarding the comment from Linn, all I can say is "That's LINNsane!!!"

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  3. Linnsane, you should trademark that.

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  4. The case mentioned above gets weirder by the second... the judge is clearly emotionally invested in the case and is ruling on it... it's pretty obvious the venue should be transferred, but doesn't look like that is going to happen anytime soon.

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  5. A handful of the court orders are posted on the CCC blog.

    *In the event this sentence above comes up in court and is misconstrued to be threatening, I will deny its existence and claim the copy of this comment was falsified. ; )

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  6. that judge is not emotionally invested... he's on the payroll & money seems to talk in his courtroom!

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