"If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody
hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:13:27 -0700
Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Judge accepts jerk chicken meal over original
sentence
That reminds me of Oakland a few years back. They were
confiscating cars from people above and beyond what was necessary. If you were
pulled over with a woman in your car in "particular neighborhoods" they could
say that the woman you were with was a prostitute and impound your car. How
they arrived at that conclusion was a little muddy and a few people sued the
city of Oakland over it and won. Basically it was an abuse of power.
On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 12:44 PM, Martin Baxter <[email protected]>
wrote:
Would be nice, but I've never heard of a single challenge to it.
"If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody
hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:10:14 -0700
Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Judge accepts jerk chicken meal over original
sentence
That is crazy. Taking it and selling it is an abuse of power.
Someone should challenge that.
On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 9:31 AM, Martin Baxter <[email protected]>
wrote:
Entirely possible. I was on jury duty back in August, and the judge I drew had
a rule that you turn off your computer when she calls you in. She almost
confiscated mine because I was in the process of shutting it down. If not for a
bailiff with common sense, she would've taken it and sold it. (The bailiff
later told me that she did so to two potential jurors who hadn't been fast
enough to shut off their cellphones.)
"If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody
hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:27:43 -0700
Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Judge accepts jerk chicken meal over original
sentence
Maybe the power corrupts them? I automatically think of Judge
Judy and others when I hear about a judge doing something crazy.
On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 1:12 PM, Martin Baxter <[email protected]>
wrote:
Yep, I do. Maybe brains aren't quite the requisite we thought they were for
judicial service. I've been spoiled by the fact that the two judges I know are
both brilliant folks, matters of law aside.
"If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody
hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:53:30 -0700
Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Judge accepts jerk chicken meal over original
sentence
Judges have been doing some weird stuff lately. Anyone
remember that case where the judge sued a local cleaners for $1 Million for a
suit? I think that was in DC.
On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:43 PM, Martin Baxter <[email protected]>
wrote:
Well, day-um, son! If'n y'all gon' be acceptin' a bribe, least git somethin'
mo' than a plate o' chicken fer it.
"If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody
hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:02:27 +0000
Subject: [scifinoir2] Judge accepts jerk chicken meal over original sentence
Judge in hot water after unusual deal
http://waodief.notlong.com
www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-chicken-judge-29-oct29,0,7705624.story
chicagotribune.com
Court accepts barbecue chicken instead of community service
Judge in hot water after unusual deal
By Steve Schmadeke
Tribune reporter
October 29, 2009
A Will County judge says he's eating his words after accepting a tray of jerk
chicken as a substitute for a man's sentence of 100 community service hours.
The local legal community has been abuzz since Associate Judge Robert Livas
accepted the Jamaican-style chicken from Darrius Logan this month over an
objection from a prosecutor. Logan, 24, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor
battery and criminal trespass charges after an incident in Joliet.
Logan told the judge in August he performed his community service by working
100 unpaid hours at Uncle Joe's Jerk Chicken, a popular Jamaican restaurant
chain on Chicago's South Side. According to court transcripts, the judge told
Logan to return in two months with either proof that he had completed the
service hours elsewhere or with enough spiced chicken to feed the courtroom.
Livas said he was surprised Oct. 6 when Logan carried in a tray of Uncle Joe's
jerk chicken, bread and two sides of hot sauce.
Livas, a former prosecutor and Chicago police officer, said it was simply a
joke gone awry.
"A defendant took something I said as a joke literally," Livas said. "It forced
me to keep my word and accept his original (community service) letter. I give
him credit -- he made me eat my words.
"Last year I'm getting the judge of the year award from the Illinois State
Crime Commission," he said, laughing. "And here now I'm answering questions
about barbecue chicken."
Gerald Kinney, chief judge of the 12th Judicial Circuit, didn't find the
incident as humorous, saying in a statement that it "has been referred for
review to the appropriate agency." The state's judicial inquiry board, which
investigates allegations of judicial misconduct, did not comment. Legal experts
called the judge's actions "flagrant," with one saying it was at least a minor
violation of the judicial code of conduct.
There are differing accounts on whether the judge ate any of the seasoned bird.
Livas said he took a piece, carried it from the courtroom, but did not eat it.
The prosecutor -- who took a piece after Livas encouraged her to try it -- said
the judge ate some, too, said state's attorney's office spokesman Charles
Pelkie.
According to a transcript of the electronically recorded Aug. 4 hearing, Livas
had said, "If you walk in with enough chicken to feed everybody, I'll accept
these community service hours. If you don't, I'm not taking any of them."
"Does that come with slaw?" the judge later asked, according to the transcript.
"No," Logan replied. "It's just -- it's barbecue chicken, actually."
"That's great stuff," Livas said, later adding, "If you walk around there and
feed everybody, it's going to be OK."
Reached by phone, Logan said he spent $50 to do what the judge asked. "He told
me to bring him some chicken, so that's what I had to do," said Logan, who was
representing himself.
Court records say Livas accepted the chicken over the objections of Assistant
State's Attorney Sondra Denmark. She told her bosses, who called the chief
judge that day, Pelkie said.
"She did not understand how he could accept food in lieu of community service
work," Pelkie said.
On Oct. 6, Logan carried the chicken past security up to the third-floor
courtroom of Associate Judge Marzell Richardson, who, after asking a series of
seemingly puzzled questions ("You brought a tray of chicken?" "And that was
going to satisfy your community service work?"), sent him to Livas' courtroom,
according to a transcript.
"I was so nervous about bringing it in here, though, because I knew everybody
was going to laugh at me," Logan told Livas, according to the transcript.
The one-page transcript ends abruptly before Livas accepts the food or Denmark
objects. Pelkie said the judge pushed a button that stops the recording. "Thank
you so much for bringing it," Livas says before it ends.
"This was a stupid mistake for the judge to make," said DePaul University law
professor Jeffrey Shaman. "It's perhaps a minor violation. But ... it makes a
mockery of what judges are supposed to do."
[email protected]
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
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