http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202421556225&pos=ataglance
Sanctions Hearing Set for Lawyer Found to Have Humiliated Litigants, Other Attorneys
A referee has recommended outspoken Coral Gables, Fla., lawyer Jack Thompson should be found guilty of numerous Florida Bar rule violations. A sanctions hearing is scheduled for June 4.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dava Tunis concluded Thompson made false statements to tribunals, disparaged and humiliated litigants and other lawyers, and improperly practiced law outside the state of Florida. In two instances where the judge found no guilt, she concluded he did not intend to disrupt tribunals.
The five-page report was dated Thursday and issued Monday. Tunis listed guilty verdicts on 27 rule violations and four not-guilty recommendations without articulating how she reached her findings or any details about the violations. Tunis said she reviewed 2,400 pages of transcripts and 1,700 pages of exhibits to reach her conclusions and promised a more comprehensive report later.
Thompson filed a motion Tuesday with the Florida Supreme Court to strike Tunis' recommendations as vague for lack of detail.
"I'm going into this blind," said Thompson, a crusader against pornography and violent video games. "She should have issued her report at least to her findings and then have a sanction hearing."
Tunis reviewed complaints based on Thompson's appearance in an Alabama case and allegations filed with the Bar by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ronald Friedman, Circuit Judge James Moore of Fayette County, Ala., and attorneys from the law firms of Tew Cardenas and Blank Rome. The Bar filed formal complaints against Thompson after finding probable cause that he violated Bar rules.
The Bar alleged Thompson made false statements about Moore; represented clients in Alabama without a license or visiting status; and defied the Alabama judge's order not to send documents or make public statements about a case he was litigating. Thompson was representing a family in a civil case against the makers of "Grand Theft Auto" alleging their video games played a role in the slayings of two police officers and a police dispatcher.
Blank Rome lawyers defending the game makers claimed Thompson disparaged, embarrassed and humiliated them through e-mails, letters and court pleadings in the Alabama case.
Tew Cardenas lawyers Alberto Cardenas and Lawrence Kellogg complained that Thompson targeted clients, public officials and the news media with thousands of critical e-mails, faxes and letters accusing them of promoting child pornography, racketeering and perjury in the firm's representation of radio station owner Beasley Broadcast Group.
Tew Cardenas name partner Cardenas referred to Thompson's actions as "emotional stalking."
Friedman claimed Thompson made disparaging comments about him in another lawsuit against video game makers.
Thompson claims the Bar is conspiring with others to have him disbarred in violation of his First Amendment rights. With the disciplinary case pending, the Florida Supreme Court issued an order in March preventing him from filing papers in the state's high court without the signature of another Florida Bar member. Thompson countered that the action violates his Sixth Amendment right to choose his own legal representation, because he can't represent himself without another lawyer's help. Thompson has tried unsuccessfully to get Tunis thrown off his case and filed a complaint against her with the state Judicial Qualifications Commission, which is responsible for investigating judges.
Thompson sued the Bar in 2006 over its disciplinary proceedings against him and voluntarily dismissed the case five weeks later. He sued the Bar again in March, and the case was stayed Monday at Thompson's request.
He sued the Federal Communications Commission last year and also voluntarily dismissed that case.
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BUT WAIT, there's more:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080520-judges-report-in-jack-thompson-case-guilty-on-27-charges.html
Judge's report in Jack Thompson case: guilty on 27 charges
By Ben Kuchera | Published: May 20, 2008 - 06:21PM CT
In early 2007 the Florida Bar filed a five count, 38-page complaint against Florida Lawyer Jack Thompson, seeking sanctions against the outspoken critic of video games. "This is frankly once again just the Bar going off the deep end trying to use Bar rules to limit my First Amendment activism," Thompson said about the matter, according to Law.com. The trial ended in December 2007, and the verdict was expected in late April of this year. Judge Dava Tunis had asked for an extension in order to, among other things, deal with 400 "pleadings, e-mails, letters and missives (including pictorials)" sent by Thompson since the end of the trial. Judge Tunis has now released her report, with recommendations that Thompson be found guilty of 27 of the 31 charges.
These are not small offenses, as Judge Tunis recommended a guilty verdict for, among other things, "knowingly making a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal," "using means that have no purpose other than to embarrass, delay, or burden a third person," "engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation," and "making statements that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity concerning to the qualifications or integrity of a judge."
It's hard to take Thompson's communications with the courts, the press, or government officials seriously at this point. Thompson has included gay pornography in his court filings, causing the Judge presiding over the case to note that "Mr. Thompson made available for unlimited public viewing, on the court’s docketing system, these graphic images." In this most recent case, Thompson created a picture book in reaction to "the court's inability to comprehend" what he was saying. The book contained pictures of swastikas, a copied dollar bill, monkeys, and, in a surreal touch, a handprint with the word "slap" written under it. That's leaving out the cartoon squirrels. Earlier this year, Thompson asked why another gaming writer doesn't "just molest children directly rather than through Rockstar. It would be more personal that way."
Before the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, Jack Thompson wrote Ars Technica a letter that compared the game to polio. These frenzied, nearly constant communications are at the heart of most of Thompson's troubles. Wisely, the Florida Supreme Court has declared that it will no longer accept any filings from the man unless they have been signed by another lawyer.
Thompson still has time before the Supreme Court makes a final ruling on these charges. A hearing covering possible sanctions will be held on June 4; Judge Tunis' final report is not due until early September.
The majority of the primary reporting on this case was done by GamePolitics.com, with the backing of the ECA. "I want to mention that without ECA president Hal Halpin, this series would not have been possible," writer Dennis McAuley wrote. "When I pitched the idea to Hal and asked that the gamer advocacy organization (which owns GamePolitics) cover the not-insignificant cost of acquiring the initial round of transcripts, he didn't hesitate. When we needed additional transcripts later, Hal insisted that the ECA cover the expense."
McCauley invited Thompson to share his closing statement, and any other insights he had about the trial. After ranting at the writer, Thompson finally stated that he "spent nine days in trial. I don't have to relive it for a twit who couldn't care less what really happened there, asshole."
Despite the ambivalence of the mainstream media in reporting on this case, and no matter what the final outcome turns out to be, the coverage of the trial has done something more damaging than any attack Thompson could have dreamed up on his own: it has let the public judge the man through his own actions and words.
GamePolitics was able to get Thompson's closing statement, and the man spoke like a captain straightening his coat as the ship goes down. "I'm simply making the argument, Judge, that my motivations—which I have tried to make clear, maybe to the point of nausea—are religious and that my efforts against the distribution of adult material, pornographic material, violent material, adult rated material to children is violative of the law as well as violative of Scripture. I quoted the biblical passage where Jesus says, reportedly: 'If any one of you should cause one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better that a millstone be tied around your neck and that you be cast in the uttermost depths of the sea.'"
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Sorry if this has already been posted. I found it on another forum and decided to post it here.
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