4TH DCA ACCUSED OF SYSTEMATIC “FIXING” OF PRO SE CASES, BACK-CODING OF DOCKETS IN “TIP OF ICEBERG” CORRUPTION SCANDAL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
West Palm Beach, Florida, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) February 13, 2011 --

February 17th, 2011, West Palm Beach, Florida: Judicial Reform Now, the judicial advocacy arm of END, announced today that it had “irrefutable proof” that the 4th District Court of Appeals, the appellate court for Palm Beach County, has been “systematically relegating” Pro Se Appeals to “Motions Panels” operated by junior “judges” and staff attorneys after collecting a full $400 fee for the appeal. JRN stated that the Chief Judge, Hon. Judge Robert M. Gross, was “repeatedly” put on notice of the fraudulent practice and the threats of retaliation by the appellate “panel”. The “Motions Panel” refused to allowing filing of a formal “Brief’ or “Record” as required under Florida Appellate Rules. Instead, the Appellee is allowed to file a series of frivolous “motions” without any Record in place. JRN President Kathryn Jordan who discovered this scam inadvertently after being forced to file an “appeal” of a “simple property fraud” case that was “fixed” by three manipulative judges in the 15th Judicial Circuit, the latter of whom doled out favors to defendants accused of Conspiracy to Defraud and Extortion. The defendants, James A. Pappas, a local contractor, Lake Towers Condo Association, and two law firms, Rutherford Mulhall and St John Lemme, are accused of colluding with Boose Casey Ciklin, Plaintiff Kathryn Jordan’s attorneys to force Jordan to close on a defective and uncompleted home without an inspection and then forcing her to foreclose on the same property three years later after she refused to pay a second extortion demand from Condo Association lawyer David Core (SJL). Jordan was forced to go to Court twice a week for five years. Judicial corruption and “case fixing” have become accepted practices in Palm Beach County . Apparently, now the problem has escalated to the 4th DCA which is encouraging cover ups of these judicial frauds. It is not surprising at all that the three Judges (Hon. Rosenberg, Kelley, Marx) felt entitled to act extra-judicially to “fix” these cases for their corrupt attorney friends.” Jordan said.

The 4th DCA’s decision to assign the Appeal to a “Motions Panel” was part of a systematic effort to deny Pro Se litigants the same right to an Appeal before a panel of judges that attorney-filed Appeals would receive. As the Clerk just cashed Jordan’s check for the filing fee, they have effectively consummated the fraud. Further, there was a clear attempt to suppress this particular appeal given the fact that a judge had “fixed” the case. “The refusal to allow filing of an official Record or the rejection of hearing transcripts on the case were specifically effected to protect a judge (Hon. Joseph Marx) accused of case fixing and were blatant violations of FRAP Rules”, Jordan asserted. In addition to circumventing FRAP, the Panel repeatedly and falsely re-categorized the nature and purpose of Jordan’s pleadings in response to the “motions” filed by Appellee Pappas in order to “paper the Record.” In addition to denying the filing of an official Record or Brief, the 4th DCA refused to admit the Hearing Transcripts as part of the Record. The transcripts proved that Judge Marx not only exceeded his judicial discretion but threatened and abused Jordan in the first hearing on March 12th, 2010 and denied her due process while colluding with Appellees to steer the case into dismissal mode on May 5th,2010. Judge Marx closed the docket to Jordan after she filed pleadings complaining about his “docket dressing” manipulations including ruling on MTD pleadings the same day he received them. No alleged deficit in a complaint could result in dismissal of her case even under the “Igby” fact pleading standard. Hence Marx schemed with opposing counsel Ken Johnson to stage an ambush hearing alleging (falsely) “abusive litigation practices”. The latter claim, adopted verbatim from Johnson,was based upon Jordan’s criticism of Counsels’ harassment of her and her female process servers (he “sued” them) in confidential emails and his attempts to blackmail her into paying his legal fees, as well as pleadings confronting the Court (Hon. Kelley) with it’s “sanctions for case sitting” scheme. Marx then categorized Jordan’s complaints as “abusive litigation practices”, obviously taking a page from the “Acosta School” of censorship case management. Marx had followed two other 15th Circuit judges (Hon. Kelley and Hon. Rosenberg) who had also tried to “fix” the case to help Defendants evade justice. In an apparent attempt to both intimidate Jordan and justify disposing of the Appeal prior to briefing or a record, the “Motions Panel” and the Clerk (obviously at Judge Gross’ directive) “back-coded” the docket as “***warning***Pro Se litigant”. “I was incredulous when I saw that. It’s blatant discrimination”, Jordan said. Upon inquiry regarding the “coding”, Jordan was told that this was “a directive related to a December 2010 Order” wherein the Panel threatened to “sanction” her if she filed pleadings “criticizing Florida judges”. Further, the notations were “back dated” to June 2009 when the appeal was filed, the same “docket trick” that Judge Marx deployed. “This is censorship, judicial bullying and obstruction of justice”, Jordan said. Judge Marx has since been transferred to the Criminal Division. After attacking Jordan mercilessly and personally in the first hearing, Marx derogatorily referred to the 4th DCA as “the little red house” and encouraged Jordan to “appeal me…I love appeals”. Jordan said she was “stunned” by the remarks given the fact that she had never met Marx. “I was actually concerned for his mental health.”, Jordan said. “But his conduct was willful and knowing”. Marx apparently colluded with defense counsel Ken Johnson (et al) to “fix” the case for dismissal on on May 5th, 2010. Prior Judge Kelley had affixed “sanctions” against Jordan, in exchange for “case sitting” services by opposing counsel Ken Johnson (Hon. Kelley) and “warehousing” of a related case against Boose Casey (Hon.Rosenberg) who stonewalled discovery for five years. Rosenberg cancelled the only Special Set hearing on her MTD knowing Jordan was already on the plane to Florida in order to accommodate Jarolem’s “vacation plans”. Boose Casey is best known for a criminal indictment by a Grand Jury for Conspiracy to Defraud in a government property “deal” “These judges have zero credibility”, Jordan said. James A. Pappas and the Lake Towers Condo Board are alleged to have conspired with the Bank to force Jordan into foreclosure after she refused to pay a second extortion demand, and after she asked to review the Condo’s finances after the Pappas Board voted to award his subcontractor Euro Construction Services over $600,000 of a $1M “Emergency” property improvement project. Ironically, Pappas and his lawyer John Bannister (also Rutherford Mulhall) had lured Jordan into the phony real estate deal by advising her then attorney Jack McDonald that he allegedly effected a “fatal error” by notifying Pappas “one day too early” of the anticipatory repudiation by Pappas of the Contract after he failed to meet the third deadline concession. “I thought it was nonsense. But McDonald should have stayed on the case”. During the litigation (2008-2010), Jordan complied with all discovery demands including producing a 1600 page record, interrogatories and admissions demands, an Expert Report, and two Complaints despite no discovery from her adversary. The Defendants, which included Lake Towers Condo lawyer David Core and Pappas lawyer John Bannister, blocked all discovery (in violation of Rule 1.38) for three years, instead filing a series of frivolous MTD pleadings, a serious violation under Florida Law. None of the three judges compelled compliance. When Judge Marx came onboard, instead of performing the requisite “de novo” review (post Kelley’s recusal), he “adopted” verbatim the “facts” and legal arguments propounded by Johnson, without any fact checking. Marx admitted his real agenda was retaliation for Jordan’s complaint of his “filing Orders the same day he received pleadings from my adversary (Johnson)….while I (Marx) was on vacation” during the hearing. This was tantamount to a legal admission of retaliation by a judge. Immediately after what would turn out to be the “final hearing” on May 5th, 2010, Judge Marx “closed the docket” to Jordan while allowing her adversaries to continue filing. “That was beyond humiliating. It was obstruction of justice”, Jordan asserted. Marx used the “Pro Se Litigant” smokescreen to insist Jordan retain “a certified Florida attorney”. Judges prefer to work with attorneys because they (allegedly) know more about the Law than lay litigants and they can use attorneys as “arms length agents” to fix cases, case sit, and reduce dockets. Attorneys are less likely to report misconduct. Jordan says that legal representation is not the answer and a bad investment given the pervasive legal fraud. “This war on Pro Se litigants is not just about docket management or finances,” Jordan stated “It’s about runaway judicial elitism and abuse of discretion. Why aren’t these judges leaning on the lawyers to perform expedited, fully compliant discovery instead of categorically denying a class of litigants their rights? They know that a Plaintiff cannot”amend” a Complaint without even evidence of the name of the legal entity because that evidence has been suppressed”. Jordan feels the biggest problem are the judges themselves. “They’ve deferred their power to the attorneys. Most are afraid to sanction a lawyer but will all jump on a Pro Se litigant. It’s “blame the victim”. If a judge cannot control his or her courtroom, the attorneys smell blood in the water”. Chief Justices need to prune judicial “baskets” and weed out the incompetent or troublesome judges. If a judge fails to follow Judicial Conduct Rules or cite to the correct law, he/she must be removed".JRN urged.

More information can be found online at http://www,enddiscriminationnow.com

15th Judicial Circuit     4th DCA     Boose Casey Ciklin     End Discrimination Now     Judge Joseph Marx     Judge Robin Rosenberg     Judicial Disqualification     Obstruction of Justice