Jill StewartL.A.'s bizarre legal story of 2010 was the solitary confinement jailing of elderly attorney Richard Fine on “contempt of court” — and boy does Fine have contempt for Los Angeles Superior Court judges who greedily grab $57,000 “bonuses” totalling $300 million.
Richard Fine challenged the judges' nasty enrichment scheme as illegal. It probably is, but it's abetted by the legislature and L.A. County Board of Supervisors. As journalist RonKayeLA.com explains, Fine's 18-month jailing was a rare U.S. political imprisonment. He got freed after Leslie Dutton, Full Disclosure Network queen, relentlessly videotaped sources outing the judges' money scam:
Click here to see the Emmy-winning Dutton's 4-part series about bow-tie-wearing jailbird Richard Fine, a lawyer for 43 years, as Fine eloquently discusses how he was frequently handcuffed, moved around and handled like a gangbanger.
Fine got locked in a “cage with a telephone” and a few books — county jailers insisted it was their “law library” for inmates fighting their cases pro per, as Fine was.
Judge Charles McCoy oversees LA's out-of-control Superior Court.
This is another black mark on Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Charles McCoy, whose system is reeling out of control.
The judges should have been relieved of their unsupportable $57,000 extra bonuses years ago, and McCoy should have taken the lead. These judges are merely doing judge jobs, not saving the world from the anti-Christ or global warming.
But McCoy acts like some kind of dark God. He recently met with City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and demanded that LAPD cops stop dismissing traffic tickets when they cannot remember the details enough to testify in court.
The Weekly reported on McCoy's money-raising ploy, here, to squeeze more ticket payments out of drivers in the middle of a horrific recession — even if cops do not remember what the driver did wrong.
The Weekly then wrote an update showing that McCoy was lying when he told Trutanich that dismissals by LAPD cops with foggy memories were increasing — and McCoy wanted to nip that in the bud.
There was no increase in dismissals underway, as McCoy claimed.
Judge McCoy had zero data. He was just flapping his lips.
But thousands of unemployed, laid-off, fiscally wrecked Angelenos are going to be affected by the new traffic ticket rule for LAPD cops: “testify even if you don't recall.”
What on earth is going on at Los Angeles Superior Court? How did so many judges, all former lawyers with good reputations, get drawn into the creepy $57,000 bonus scam?
Leslie Dutton has been explaining the judicial corruption in Los Angeles, at her website, here.
She got shoved off Los Angeles City public TV four years ago by Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks after being too “contentious” in her award-winning watchdog reporting.
What kind of society do we live in, here in Los Angeles?
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