First thought is not always the best thought.

I belong to the generation of people that cannot point to World War II or the Great Depression as a thing that made my childhood rough. Instead, the thing I can point out to children as being rough about my childhood is that people only got 3 or 4 channels on their TV.* These were ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS. If I recall correctly, the only baseball we could watch was the Game of the Week on Saturday afternoon. Since it was often nice out when the game was airing, I did not watch it very much.

For some people, Christmas means dressing up like a Nazi.

OK, I have not blogged in a long time. There are a number of reasons for this but they are mostly not worthy of discussion. Suffice to say that if Judge Kopf can post while undergoing cancer treatment, I can be better about posting while eating Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and thinking about March Madness.

Do judges in Michigan hate Michiganders?

When they aren't taking shirtless selfies, lying under oath, and impregnating parties in a case they are hearing, judges in Michigan do the work the people of Michigan elected them to do. What is that work? Finding citizens of Michigan in contempt of court, of course.

Is king of latex a desirable nickname?

Continuing our coverage the misadventures of Michigan circuit court judge Wayne McCree (see here, here, here, and here) we report, thanks to Mlive.com, that Judge McCree's judicial misconduct trial has started.  According to the testimony, Judge McCree when presented with a claim that he impregnated his mistress responded by saying he was the "king of latex."  I assume this means that Judge McCree used condoms and not that he dressed like the gimp in Pulp Fiction.

Losing custody of one child but keeping three. For whom is this a good success rate?

Parenting is hard work.  It is also rewarding.  People probably do not give a lot of thought to parenting being hard work because everyone has parents and most people end up having kids.  Also, the rewarding parts of parenting often make the hard parts seem worth it.

Evidence suggests that slapping children does not quiet them down.

On occasion we are led to believe that there was a time when flying was a glamorous way to travel.  While I am not sure that time ever existed, if it did that time is gone.  Exhibit A in support of the fact that flying has gone from glamorous to brutal might be the case of Joe Rickey Hundley.

No pay in his game either.

Continuing our coverage of Michigan circuit judge Wayne McCree (see here, here, and here) we report, thanks to this United Press International story, that Judge McCree has been suspended without pay over the allegation that he allegedly impregnated a woman who appeared before him as part of a custody dispute.  We covered that story back in December.

10 years for stealing cell phone pictures.

Yesterday we established that it was a bad idea to take, store, and show people nude pictures on one's cell phone.  At least I think we established that.  What about stealing nude pictures off someone else's cell phone?  That is also a bad idea.

Some people just can't stay out of trouble.

Michigan judge Wade "no shame in my game" McCree is back in the news.  We have previously covered the exploits of Judge McCree here and here.  

Life Imitates Art

Rob McCuen, one of the finest musicians and songwriters I know, has a great song called Life Imitates Art.  You can watch it below.  The song was called to mind because of a recent criminal law case imitating art. 

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The Daily News of Bangor, Maine has the story of two local TV newscasters who quit their jobs on-air last night.  Cindy Michaels and Tony Consiglio announced their resignations from sister stations WVII and WFVX last night at the end of the 6 p.m. newscast.  Neither told anyone of their resignations before the newscast.

Shamed, or at least censured, by his game.

Reader(s)™ may recall this post from April in which we discussed how Wayne County, Michigan Circuit Judge Wade H. McCree told the media "Hot Dog, yep that's me. I've got no shame in my game" upon being shown a picture by the Detroit Free Press of the judge sans shirt that he had given to his bailiff.  The bailiff's husband was not amused.

Do not post pictures of your client's underwear on your Facebook page.

You might think that the (non-legal) advice found in the title of this post was obvious to everyone.  You would be wrong. 

Why do heavy metal guitar players dislike President Obama?

Back in April, we did a post about how Ted Nugent does not want President Obama to be re-elected.  The Motor City Madman is not alone in his anti-Obama views.  The Onion AV Club posted video of Megadeath leader (and former Metallica guitarist) Dave Mustaine explaining to an audience in Singapore that President Obama "staged" the recent shootings in Aurora, Colorado and Oak Creek, Wisconsin so that President Obama's administration could "pass a gun ban."  Mr. Mustaine did not elaborate on how such a measure would get through Congress.  Nor did Mr. Mustaine explain how such a ban, if passed, would survive an inevitable Supreme Court challenge.  For that matter, Mr. Mustaine does not explain how the shootings were "staged."

"Hot Dog, yep that's me. I've got no shame in my game."

Thus spoke Wayne County, Michigan Circuit Judge Wade H. McCree.  What prompted Judge McCree to discuss the lack of shame in his game?  He was asked by Detroit's Fox News affiliate to discuss this picture

Should attorneys marry their clients and misappropriate trust funds?

The State Bar Court of California says such conduct will get an attorney disbarred.  Ms. Lowney is, or perhaps more accurately was, an attorney practicing estate planning law in Pacifica, California.  The court has recommended that Ms. Lowney be disbarred for moral turpitude, failing to comply with the law by filing a false document, and maintaining an unjust action.

What did Ms. Lowney do?  Well, in 2000, Thor Tollefsen, an 81-year-old man, hired Ms. Lowney to help him plan his estate.  In 2002, Ms. Lowney prepared for Mr. Tollefsen a pour-over will and a revocable trust.  The value of the trust was $340,000.  The trust names some of Mr. Tollefsen's relatives in Norway as beneficiaries and successor co-trustees. 

By August 2005, Ms. Lowney—who was in her fifties—and Mr. Tollefsen became romantically involved.  Ms. Lowney promised Mr. Tollefsen that she would take care of him as he suffered from emphysema and terminal cancer.  Mr. Tollefsen then transferred to Ms. Lowney, as his attorney, the $340,000 for use in caring for him.  To accomplish this transfer, Mr. Tollefsen asked for and received permission from his relatives in Norway to transfer the money.  The relatives in Norway understood that any money left over at Mr. Tollefsen's death would be returned to the trust. 

Mr. Tollefsen's condition worsened and he agreed to marry Ms. Lowney at her request.  Because Ms. Lowney did not want Mr. Tollefsen's relatives or her own daughter (who was under 18) to find out about the marriage, she and Mr. Tollefsen arranged to have a confidential marriage.  (As an aside, I don't believe I have ever heard of a confidential marriage.  Some critics, for example this article, suggest that confidential marriages are favored by bigamists because the marriage records are under seal.)  One requirement of getting a confidential marriage license is that the applicants have to state they have been living together.  Mr. Tollefsen and Ms. Lowney falsely stated that they were living together.  They were married in early 2006.  Notably, Mr. Tollefsen refused to name Ms. Lowney as a beneficiary after their marriage.

By the fall of 2006, Mr. Tollefsen felt that Ms. Lowney was not doing a good job of taking care of him and complained to his relatives in Norway about her.  In January 2007, Mr. Tollefsen moved into a senior care facility.  He died before the month was over while on a weekend visit to his home.

After he died, Ms. Lowney transferred the trusts funds into three separate accounts and had Mr. Tollefsen cremated against his express wish to be donated to medical science.  Ms. Lowney also tried to remove Mr. Tollefsen's relatives as trustees of his trust despite the fact that she had no standing to do so.  After that removal was denied, she claimed she was Mr. Tollefsen's spouse and therefore entitled to a share of his estate.  When a trial court denied her claim that she was Mr. Tollefsen's spouse, Mr. Lowney appealed.  The California Court of Appeals was so troubled by her actions that it asked the California State Bar to decide whether a disciplinary action was needed.  The end result was the recommendation that Ms. Lowney be disbarred.

The order notes that Ms. Lowney practiced law for 32 years without being disciplined.  I am not sure what to make of this.  Are we to believe that Ms. Lowney's misappropriating client funds, making false statements, and pursuing bad faith litigation, were all her first brush with violating the rules of professional conduct?  If so, I guess Ms. Lowney believes in the maxim, "go big or go home." 

The order also states that Ms. Lowney must comply with Rule 9.20 of the California Rules of Court.  Rule 9.20 sets forth what steps a disbarred attorney must take in regards to notifying courts, clients, co-counsel,  and opposing counsel of the disbarment.  The rule also requires that the disbarred attorney file proof of compliance with the Clerk of the State Bar Court.  What penalty will Ms. Lowney face if she does not comply with the rule?  Disbarment, of course.  One might think that threatening a disbarred attorney with disbarment is an ineffective punishment.  But, I am sure the court knows what it is doing.

Advice for bigamists

Bigamists should not use Facebook.  Or at the very least, bigamists should not friend their wives on Facebook.  That is the lesson that Alan O'Neill, a Pierce County, Washington corrections officer is allegedly learning the hard way.  Because of Facebook, Officer O'Neil is accused of committing bigamy.

According to a report in the Tacoma, Washington News Tribune, in 2001 Officer O'Neill (whose last name at the time was Fulk) married a woman the paper refers to as "Wife No. 1."  In 2009, Officer O'Neill stopped living with Wife 1 but neither he nor she filed for divorce.  Although the paper doesn't mention it I assume that it was during the 2001-2009 period that Officer O'Neill and Wife No. 1 became Facbook friends.

According to charging documents cited by the paper, in December 2009, Officer O'Neill changed his last name from Fulk to O'Neill.  Later that month he allegedly married a woman the paper identifies as "Wife No. 2."  Although the paper doesn't mention it Officer O'Neill apparently was Facebook friends with Wife No. 2.

It would be an interesting case of life imitating art if Wife No. 1 discovered Wife No. 2 because she was reenacting the final scene of "The Social Network."  Unfortunately, that is not how Wife No. 1 discovered Wife No. 2.  Instead, Facebook's "people you may know" feature suggested that the two women should be friends because they were both friends with Officer O'Neill. 

Apparently, Wife No. 2's Facebook profile photo was of her and Officer O'Neill standing next to a wedding cake.  Wife No. 1 saw this and called her mother-in-law.  The paper quotes court records as saying that an hour later Officer O'Neil arrived at Wife No. 1's apartment where he allegedly admitted that he and Wife No. 1 were still married in response to being asked if they were divorced.  Officer O'Neill allegedly told Wife No. 1 not to tell anybody about the dual marriages and said he would fix the problem.

It will not surprise anyone familiar with William Congreve to learn that Wife No. 1 did not do as Officer O'Neill suggested.  Instead, Wife No. 1 alerted the authorities and now Officer O'Neill is on unpaid administrative leave as he awaits a March 22, hearing date to answer the charge of felony bigamy.

The paper quotes the attorney prosecuting Officer O'Neill as saying “It’s not the crime of the century, but it is a crime.”  This, of course, could presumably be said of every crime but one.  In any event, Officer O'Neill's troubles are a reminder that when one stops a romantic relationship with someone, one should probably not keep them as Facebook friends.

Wow. Just. Wow.

UPDATE: The Associated Press Reports that Judge Cebull has asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Nineth Circuit to investigate whether he engaged in judicial misconduct by sending the email.

ORIGINAL POST:

As I mentioned yesterday, one of the beautiful things about being alive is the chance to learn something new every day. Today, for example, I learned that United States District Court Judge for the District of Montana Richard Cebull doesn't like President Obama or the president's dead mother and likes to use his work email to discuss these topics with his friends.

Why would anyone do that?

We don't blog much about Minnesota. In fact, before this post we had as many posts tagged Milwaukee as we do Minnesota. I won't speak for Mr. Torvik, but one reason that I don't blog about Minnesota much is that I generally feel like the folks at Minnesota Litigator have the ground covered.

That said, I did have a thought about this recent Minnesota Litigator post. The post concerns a recent discovery order in a sexual harassment case. The plaintiff's computer forensics expert was allowed to examine the alleged harasser's work computer and discovered that the alleged harasser spent a lot of time during working hours looking at pornographic websites on his work computer. I assume that this information is relevant to the sex harassment claim because the employer is not involved in the pornography business.

I do not consider myself naive and this isn't the first time that I have heard of this sort of activity. I once attended a deposition where the printouts of the thumbnails for the number of pornographic websites an individual looked at work ran to over 400 pages. However, every time I hear about something like this I ask myself what kind of an idiot looks at this stuff at work. Setting aside any moral issues one might have with pornography, why would anyone think that these are the sort of websites one should look at at work? Why would anyone think such behaviour was a good idea?

Mr. Torvik, do you have any desire to perform a feat of zealous advocacy and give our readers a good reason to look at Internet porn at work?

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.