The Right Bug Repellant
Years ago when I first started studying the conduct of professionals who assist families during times of conflict, I noticed something interesting. When someone who is intensely worried and frustrated believes they have the right counsel, they will dress as they are told, cut their hair and change various behaviors for the sake of achieving the objective of the day. These changes in behavior and style and speech seem to happen quickly, without study, due diligence or challenge.
Imagine if a man relying on counsel is heading into the woods instead of into a courtroom.
He’s mainly worried about mosquitoes.
He asks his highly recommended counsel to hand him bug repellant to save him from the buzzing mosquitoes. He’s assured that if he applies this spray liberally and forges ahead, he will come out fine on the other side of the woods.
As he heads into the woods, believing he is covered and really has only about 100 yards to go, the buzzing sound goes away but he notices something else. He pulls up his pant legs to find a handful of ticks – you get the picture. Ticks dig in and they are hard to get out. Treating disease caused by ticks? Expensive, time-consuming, stressful, and not always possible.
The man is confused. He has no reason to believe that his counsel would not give him the right advice or that he wouldn’t receive the protection he’s paying for and expecting, so he starts looking around trying to figure out where all the ticks came from and why he wasn’t warned about them. The ticks are much more threatening and painful than the mosquito bites he was trying to avoid…so what to do?
He calls out to his counsel who offers to sell him another bottle of spray and some ointment. So the man pays for what he is handed, takes the bottles out of the bag and begins spraying and applying the ointment. While he’s busy with these bottles another problem hits him. He can’t see his feet…or his ankles any longer. While applying the ointment to the back of his legs and prying out ticks, he doesn’t see he’s been standing in quicksand. He panics – he’s never seen quicksand before and realizes it seems to be pulling his legs in an inch at a time!
Now angry and scared, he calls out loudly to his counsel. Then he pauses.
He sees his counsel and a couple of other suits approaching with shovels and barbed wire. Quickly he tries to rationalize how they are going to save him with barbed wire? Is the shovel enough to move the quicksand away as he is now in up to his hips?
Feeling stuck?
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Protected: Corruption Investigation in Dekalb County by Mike Bowers and Richard Hyde
Rome, Georgia and the Indictment of a Judge
Obviously we need more support for the Judicial Qualifications Commission to review cases and allegations of misconduct.
One story from Rome, Georgia reveals that law enforcement and the JQC are committed:
“ROME, Ga. (AP) — A grand jury in northwest Georgia has indicted a former judge on criminal charges including witness tampering and conspiracy to distribute drugs.
The seven-page indictment accusing former Murray County Chief Magistrate Judge Bryant Cochran of the crimes was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in north Georgia.
A grand jury handed down the indictment, charging Cochran with a total of six counts. Along with the witness tampering and drug distribution allegations, the other counts accuse him of depriving someone’s rights or conspiracy against rights.
Cochran’s attorney did not immediately return a phone message Wednesday.
The indictment states that Georgia’s Judicial Qualifications Commission began investigating allegations of judicial misconduct involving Cochran around July 19, 2012. He resigned as Murray County’s chief magistrate on Aug. 15, 2012, which resolved the commission’s investigation.”
If you have reason to believe that your case involves similar issues of judicial misconduct, please contact the Judicial Qualifications Commission and follow the process completely to submit a complaint and the relevant exhibits to support your allegations. From Augusta to Atlanta, and now in Rome, we can see that more oversight is needed.
Civil Rights DO Matter.
Judicial Misconduct CAN be addressed, but you need to submit complaint forms and evidence to the JQC.
The legal community is starting to focus on ways to restore the public trust that is being worn away by questionable practices that deny rights & destroy lives.
