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We received a tip on this story from source personally familiar with the common abusive and criminal behaviors of San Diego judges. Before reading the documents and only knowing they concerned San Diego Judge DeAnn Salcido, I anticipated it was going to have something to do with Salcido’s deceitful political antics a few months back regarding her accusations and law suit against other San Diego judges as a ploy to boost her popularly in the June 2010 election. While that is in part the case, the documents contain some surprises. The 21 page long formal complaint against Salcido reveals an arrogant and superficial judge who shows contempt for the law, her judicial office, litigants, attorneys, court employees, and common decency. Salcido’s 75 page long response further shows her apparent contempt for judicial canons and the law. Yet Salcido has the audacity to berate, insult, and threaten a litigant who she thinks shows disdain for her. Judging from her reported actions in numerous incidents, Salcido is entirely worthy of immense disdain by virtually anybody appearing in her courtroom.

Election Rigging?

Particularly alarming is that the complaint was kept secret by the Commission on Judicial Performance until after the June 2010 balloting which re-elected her. If the public had known the quantity and severity of complaints regarding Salcido, it is likely that some voters would have voted differently.
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A recent complaint filed with the US Attorney by Joseph Zernik, Ph.D., on behalf of imprisoned former attorney Richard Fine highlights how the irregularities in court records and public access to those records may be at the root of much judicial misconduct. When the public cannot be sure of who was involved in a decision, what the decision was, and what evidence and testimony were considered, the entire legal system loses all appearance of justice. Zernik alleges that this is exactly what has happened to Richard Fine and outlines such problems with records he has inspected or attempted to obtain himself. Without easy public access to accurate records, the courts cannot be trusted.

On July 8, 2010, Joseph Zernik, Ph.D. filed a complaint with Andre Birotte Jr. of the US Attorney Office on behalf of American political prisoner Richard Fine. Fine has been imprisoned for nearly a year and a half as apparent retaliation for his challenging of the corrupt Los Angeles Superior Court and its illegal practice of receiving payments from the County of Los Angeles that appears to have influenced the outcomes in many cases heard by the judges receiving these payments.
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The US Supreme Court has denied issuing a stay to halt the imprisonment of jailed attorney Richard Fine. Fine has been kept in Los Angeles County jail in solitary confinement by Sheriff LeRoy Baca for more than 14 months due to orders of Judge David Yaffe, a judge who is intent on silencing Fine by abusing contempt of court powers as he uncovered and widely publicized the corruption of the Los Angeles courts and the illegal payments made by the county to the judges there. The corruption has resulted in the county winning almost without exception every lawsuit in which it has been involved since 2005.

In orders issued on April 26, 2010, the US Supreme Court declared:

(from US Supreme Court Orders of April 26, 2010)

09A827 (09-1250) FINE, RICHARD I. V. BACA, SHERIFF, ET AL.

The application for stay addressed to Justice Ginsburg and referred to the Court is denied.

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Political Prisoner Richard I. Fine

The United States of America and many of its state and local governments are civil rights and human rights violators of large proportions. One recent case of such violations is getting a lot of attention. Richard Fine is a Los Angeles political prisoner who has been locked in solitary confinement in county jail for approaching 15 months without any charges, opportunity for bail, or due process. He’s there because he exposed a bribery scandal and challenged the corrupt judges and governments of Los Angeles and California to stop the bribery. The response was to shut him down at every attempt to get the problems corrected. When he wouldn’t give up, Judge David Yaffe threw him in jail to silence him with the full cooperation and participation of corrupt Sheriff LeRoy Baca who is enforcing the illegal imprisonment. Yet as much as many citizens are burying their heads in the sand and pretending judicial and government abuse can’t happen to them, it is not only happening widely but is poised to get much worse.
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Political Prisoner Richard I. Fine

The Richard Fine case is a clear-cut modern example of how American government imprisons people over political issues in which the target of imprisonment has not committed a crime or been charged, tried, or sentenced for any crime. In this case, it is the California courts and the government of Los Angeles County that are engaged in violating the law and seeking to silence a political opponent who has raised legitimate questions in a court case about the legality of payments made to judges of the Los Angeles Superior Court and their apparent bias towards those illegally providing those payments. To silence him, Richard Fine has been subjected to more than a year of jail time in solitary confinement without any due process.

US Supreme Court To Discuss Fine Case

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsberg has scheduled a meeting on April 23 to discuss the court hearing Richard Fine’s case.

(from Supreme Court to Consider Richard Fine’s Petition for Release )

On April 23rd, therefore, the nine ultimate guardians of American’s right to due process, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, will consider whether corrupt California judges and county supervisors will finally be brought to heel. Will the justices be able to rein in any inclination to protect their embarrassing and felonious brethren? Will they be able to look past the arrogance of the unindicted judges who cavalierly assume the justices will compromise their own principles and legacies just to keep some crooks in robes out of jail? They knowingly stole taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars and granted themselves retroactive immunity from criminal prosecution and civil liability when they were finally caught. Yet who goes to jail? The one person, obviously, who refuses … on principle … to violate his sworn oath or kowtow to the faux muckety-mucks who’ve somehow fooled themselves into believing they are superior to their employers, We the People. Luckily, November is just around the corner.

Protests in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

With the news that the US Supreme Court is considering taking on the case and is meeting on April 23 to discuss it, citizens outraged by the government abuse have planned to show their support of Richard Fine in demonstrations against court and government corruption in Los Angeles at the county courthouse and Washington D.C. on the steps of the US Supreme Court on April 20.
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Los Angeles Judge David Yaffe

Judicial failure to file financial disclosures can be an indicator of a serious problem. The judges involved may be attempting to hide payments they received that could bias them. This at the heart of the controversy over judicial corruption involving allegedly illegal payments by the County of Los Angeles, California, to judges in the county. In that case, judges are being paid money directly by the county as “bonuses” in a manner viewed as subverting their objectivity. Despite the payments of around $46,000 per year per judge, the judges in Los Angeles County have allegedly systematically failed to file financial disclosure form 700 required by state law. One of these judges, David Yaffe, has also jailed Richard Fine, a leading critic of corruption in California courts. He’s been in jail for nearly a year, without any charges or trial, in apparent retaliation for his campaign to clean up the Los Angeles courts.
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