The Liberals, who fret ceaselessly about the idea that if individuals who qualify can be secretly sequestered in Guantanimo then it won't be long until American citizens will start disappearing, are in for a big adrenaline jolt if and when they learn the particulars of about attorney Richard Fine in Los Angeles. If that case is ever reported in the New York Times, Time magazine, or the NBC Nightly News, the Liberals are not going to need a laxative for a month or more.
One of the basic precepts of Republican proselytizing and propagandizing is that the enemy (be they al Qadea or Democrats) are never right. Therefore if the MSM ever report the case, it would be a tacit way of saying that the "Ducky Lucky" branch of the Democrats was right to be alarmed about the detentions in Gitmo. If they can't be right then the story is classified as a conspiracy theory generated by a bunch of hysterical enemy sympathizers and thus doesn't qualify for use on Fox's hilariously one-sided "fair and balanced" pseudojournalism satire programs.
The idea that an American lawyer can be put in "coercive confinement" and left without recourse to the writ of <em>habeas corpus</em> might be a concept to discourage tourism in certain remote lands, but Americans are smugly reassure by Republican propagandists: "It can't happen here." Dick Cheney and Co. would never have done anything to endanger real Americans.
Attorney Richard Fine brought a lawsuit to the courts in Los Angeles for residents of an apartment house in Marina del Rey. The unincorporated area of Los Angeles County is controlled by the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors.
http://www.argonautnewspaper.com/articles/2004/10/28/news_-_features/marina_del_rey/02case.txt
Fine objected to the fact that the judge received monies from the county of Los Angeles and thus was open to conflict of interest factors which might affect the judge's ability to remain unbiased about the case. The money is a supplement added by the county of Los Angeles to the basic wage they receive from the US government for their services in the courts. The extra money is justified by the assertion that they need the extra cash to live and work in the Los Angeles area.
Perish the thought that the extra money could sway any judicial decisions in any case involving the county of Los Angeles. If (hypothetically) such a case were to be put on the docket, the lawyer could ask the judge to recuse (step aside from the case) himself because of the conflict of interests.
When a lawyer (Richard Fine) was faced with the necessity to ask a judge to do so for a case involving an apartment house in Marina del Rey, which is under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the judge refused the request to recuse.
One thing led to another and the lawyer was disbarred and held in contempt and placed in "coercive custody." In essence that meant that if he cried "Uncle!" and dropped the case, he would be free to leave jail and go home.
[Note: Many of the links for any online material which would explain the lawyer's plight will mostly lead to the one site http://www.fulldisclosure.net/. Leslie Dutton has been covering the story since the beginning.]
This columnist has (because of doing some volunteer work for the Marina (del Rey, CA) Tenants Association), accepted collect calls from Mr. Fine, which were offered on the collect basis as originating from a prisoner in the Los Angeles County jail.
Since the columnist has spoken to the prisoner at length, it became obvious that if a publication of the stature of (for instance) the New York Times were to do a story on Richard Fine, they most likely would assign a reporter who was also a lawyer, to cover the complex legal maneuvers necessitated by the case.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff has not responded to the attorney's attempt to be granted his write of habius corpus rights.
A Los Angeles Time writer (somehow) gained access to the prisoner for an interview for a story.
Leslie Dutton's request to Sheriff Bocca for an interview has been denied.
(Wouldn't the New York Time be anxious (if only on a sophomoric prank level) to do a story spotlighting the preferential treatment their West Coast colleagues were granted and that the TV show was denied?)
Fine was disbarred and in March of 2009, was ordered to be put in a cell until he dropped his objections to the possibility that the pay bonus added by the County of Los Angeles, might have had an derogatory influence on the presiding judge. In the meantime, in Sacramento, the state legislature passed (on an emergency priority basis) a law which (allegedly) granted retroactive immunity to the judges should any appearance of impropriety be raised. Some information is available online by doing a Google search for "SBX 211." Or go to http://www.myinnertransformation.com/files/j30-Fineletter2.pdf
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